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The Japan national team defeated Brazil 3-2 in an international friendly in Singapore on November 14, 2026. Takefusa Kubo and Keito Nakamura scored in the first half, but Vinicius equalized twice for Brazil. In second-half injury time, midfielder Tatsuya Sakamoto (30, Coventry) — back in the national team for the first time in five years — scored his first-ever goal for Japan to win it. It marked Japan’s second career win over Brazil, a first for any Asian nation. Coverage describing Sakamoto — who never played for a Japanese youth national team, came up through J2 side Montedio Yamagata, and then moved to Europe — as a “hard-knock journeyman” split opinion on 5ch: some objected that “he’s been playing constantly and making the national team since his rookie season — that’s not exactly a hard-knock story,” while others stressed that without a chance connection along the way, he might never have turned pro at all.
[International Friendly: Japan 3-2 Brazil (November 14, 2026, Singapore)] On the 14th, the Japan national team (FIFA ranking 17th) defeated Brazil (ranked 6th) 3-2 in a four-nation international friendly tournament. It was Japan’s second-ever win over Brazil (with an overall record of 2 wins, 2 draws, 12 losses), following their first win last October — making them the first Asian nation ever to beat Brazil twice. Midfielder Tatsuya Sakamoto (30, Coventry) sent the Brazilian giants packing with a dramatic late strike.
Japan took a 2-0 lead through midfielder Takefusa Kubo in the 15th minute and midfielder Keito Nakamura in the 19th minute of the first half. Brazil clawed one back through forward Vinicius in the 33rd minute, and Vinicius struck again in the 30th minute of the second half to level the score. Neither side would give an inch.
Even so, in the 46th minute of second-half stoppage time, Sakamoto — back in the squad for the first time in five years — scored his first-ever national team goal to put Japan back in front for good.
Source: sponichi.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Well put — he could only pull that off because he was watching the whole play closely
I figured he came up through the youth national teams
Thought he was one of the elite kids
Having that nose for goal is proof he's a quality striker
If it just means '2nd division' in the normal sense, that'd be the Championship
Could also be read as referring to his time at Yamagata
I don't even know what tier your 'normal 2nd division' is actually supposed to mean
Sakamoto was properly reading all of that
Love that about him
come on now
by world standards that makes him an absolutely elite player
Meanwhile Maeda used to blow every single one
Maeda blew the chance Tanaka Ao set up for him, and every chance off his own runs too…
At the very least Sakamoto finishes better than Maeda
Wouldn't mind seeing him start in Maeda's place
Defenders bite on it every time the first time they see it, so it's well-suited for the World Cup stage
Atsumori! (signature hype catchphrase of TV Asahi's sports broadcasts)
Same deal — he's probably not sticking with the national team long-term
The ball just comes to him
He's been playing non-stop since his rookie pro season, all the way to making the national team
He only ended up at Yamagata because, by pure chance, there happened to be a coach at Toyo University who used to play for Yamagata
Without that connection he never would've gone pro
If the J.League only had like 10 clubs, he wouldn't even exist as a player
Shiogai, Yowa, all these guys…
it's all western-Tokyo dudes
I genuinely love that one trick that only ever works the first time you see it
You've got speed, so the ball keeps bouncing off you
If you relax, your muscles and joints work like a cushion
Stay loose from right before contact until you've actually got it under control
That's exactly what Nakamura did well on his goal
His first touch wasn't great, so the keeper and defender both committed their weight, expecting he could only shoot far side
But Nakamura used just the right touch, cushioning, and spring in his body to shoot near side instead
So the keeper was completely wrong-footed
His club is basically the best of any forward on the team
No way he doesn't get called up again after scoring like this
The JFA clearly had him in mind and called him up a good while back with that in view
He started out at Yamagata after graduating from college
And the Belgian club he moved to next was so small it basically folded not long after he left
would Japan have scored even more?
If it had been Sano instead of Tanaka, it would've been a landslide
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Though just a friendly, this match mattered because it was only Japan’s second-ever win over Brazil — a team Japan had rarely managed to beat. Sakamoto’s goal drew attention as the strike that finally broke through that wall. What split the thread was whether ‘hard-knock journeyman’ was a fair label: some pushed back, pointing to a career of getting playing time from his rookie year onward and being a key player everywhere he’s gone, while others stressed that his enrollment at Toyo University and his move to Yamagata were both built on chance connections. Another point that’s easy to misread is the phrase ‘England’s 2nd division’ — the Championship isn’t some weak, bottom-tier league; by global standards it’s a financially powerful competition, with average salaries reportedly higher than in Japan’s professional baseball league. Taken at face value as just a lesser league, ‘2nd division’ badly undersells how far Sakamoto has actually come.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports Express+) thread “[Soccer] Who Is Tatsuya Sakamoto, the Man Who Took Down Brazil? No Youth National Team Experience, a Journeyman Who Clawed His Way From the 2nd Division to the Premier League.”
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