Today is a good day if you are a soccer fan. Japan won its match against Columbia last night in a very surprising 2 to 1 victory. It is very exciting to see Japan win World Cup matches. Maybe ten years ago Japan was not so strong in soccer, but these days, Japan is a very serious soccer country and there are many excellent professional soccer athletes.

Watching the World Cup is always interesting. It is a great time to see professional athletes from all over the world meet and to challenge each other in soccer matches. International sports is a very important time for the entire world to come together, to have chances to communicate, and to share a common love of sports.

All over the world there are problems between countries. There are economic problems. There are political problems. There are language barriers. There are many things that are different. But in international sports, all of those problems are not the most important thing. The most important thing is to gather together, to fight hard, and to enjoy challenging each other.

There are a lot of things that we can learn from sports. We learn how to be tough. We learn how to challenge ourselves to the next level. We learn how to never give up. We learn more about our own bodies, and we learn more about our own minds. When we are active in sports we can grow and become stronger. Even if you are not a great athlete, and even if you do not know a lot about sports, it is very important for us to have exercise. If your body can be stronger and more healthy, your mind and your heart will become more healthy too.

This is why P.E. class and being active in sports clubs is an important part of your Otemae experience.

Another very important thing that we can see in sports is the idea of team-work, and about communication in the group. When we watch the World Cup, sometimes we see countries that do not have great teamwork. Maybe they have a superstar soccer player on the team, but the country is not so successful because the teamwork is weak.

One thing you can see about the Japanese World Cup soccer team is that there is a very strong feeling of teamwork, and of team communication. If you watch the next game look carefully at the passing quality between the players. When Japan played against Columbia, the passing was very clean, very quick, and very accurate. We can see that the idea of teamwork, and working together was very strong on the Japanese team. Each player knew where the other players were on the field and the ball moved easily between the members. As the team can communicate more clearly with each other more chances come to shoot on the goal. When there are more shots on the goal, there will be more goals.

The idea of working together and pushing ahead seemed very strong on the Japanese team. Maybe that is why they could win last night.

Working together is important for life, not only for soccer. But when we watch soccer we can see something very important. There is no single winner for a team. There is a team. There is a group. There is the spirit and heart of being together. That really is a beautiful thing.

I hope Japan will win more matches this World Cup. Let’s cheer for the team! Good Luck Japan!