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The story
After Japan’s national team beat Uruguay in a friendly match, overseas social media buzzed with sarcastic comments dubbing Japan the “World Champions of Friendlies” — a dig at Japanese football’s habit of underperforming when it actually counts, at the World Cup or Asian Cup. On 5ch, plenty of posters winced right along with it, writing things like “stop, that hits too close to home” and “guilty as charged.” The thread split between people citing Japan’s real wins over Germany and Spain at the World Cup, and others countering with the cold fact that Japan has never won a single World Cup knockout match. Some went further still, floating the cynical theory that invited opponents simply take it easy as a courtesy to keep getting invited back — leaving the thread divided on how much stock to put in friendly-match form.
Is Japan the “World Champion of Friendlies”?! Despite beating Uruguay, overseas social media fires back with biting sarcasm — “But come the World Cup or Asian Cup…” Japanese fans wince too: “Stop, that hits too close to home,” “Guilty as charged”
The World, Friday, September 25, 2026, 12:00 PM
The spirit of East Germany lives on in Japan’s national team…
Source: theworldmagazine.jp / Original article here
What people said
Huge progress.
The World Cup is the one that actually counts, though?
How is it "huge progress" if the results there haven't improved at all?
and they just don't know how to play in knockout football.
and with looser physical contact allowed, that favors a Japan side that lacks physicality anyway.
1 Spain
2 Argentina
3 England
4 France
5 Colombia
6 Portugal
7 Brazil
8 Netherlands
8 Norway
10 Belgium
11 Switzerland
12 Germany
13 Mexico
14 Morocco
15 Japan
16 Croatia
17 Italy
18 Denmark
19 Turkey
20 Ecuador
21 Uruguay
22 Austria
23 Senegal
24 Paraguay
25 Australia
That's already solid, ranking-wise.
And on top of that they've beaten Spain and Germany, and drawn with the Netherlands and Croatia — don't underestimate them.
strong in friendlies too.
Korea's weak even in friendlies.
has crashed out in the group stage of two straight World Cups.
Japan just beat a team ranked below them, and South Americans are getting way too worked up about it, no?
That means they've still only played one World Cup under this setup.
Flip it around and you could say this surge has only just begun — and it's also exactly why they've never drawn this much attention overseas before.
And that run ended in their worst-ever result, so that's the joke.
Every once in a while someone breaks through that wall, but it's rare.
A dark age is coming.
Ito's still got it —
he's ranked 2nd in the world for assists over his last 20 matches lol
Mitoma and Minamino could still perform past 30 too, as long as they're not playing full 90 minutes every game.
And Tomiyasu will only be about 31 by the next one, which is totally fine for a defender.
Having "Monchhichi" (a mocking nickname for the coach, after the toy monkey doll) in the dugout is way too big a handicap.
They got thoroughly beaten by the weakest Brazil side in history.
Related:
Asian Games U-21 broadcast schedule
Sat 9/26, 19:30 — 🇯🇵 Japan vs 🇰🇵 North Korea, Quarterfinal
Wed 9/30, 19:30 — 🇯🇵 Japan vs TBD, Semifinal
Sat 10/3, 19:30 — 🇯🇵 Japan, Final (if they win the semifinal)
https://img-footballchannel.com/wordpress/assets/2026/09/532982c2141fd30fe8e8f54bc2a96a10.jpg
Might be able to aim for it by the next World Cup though ^^
Clubs are on break right now though.
The match itself was basically even — honestly both sides were mediocre.
Uruguay's legs just gave out at the end and they conceded twice.
Japan wasn't strong, wasn't weak, just middling.
The match was even, but you should factor in that Japan was missing several regulars.
If Zion had been in goal, those conceded chances probably wouldn't have happened, and if Ueda had started, they might've been up 2-0 heading into the second-half stretch.
Even in the YouTube comments, Uruguayan fans seem most shocked that they lost to a Japan side playing without its main lineup.
The opponents go easy and lose, hoping to get invited back again.
Japan gets cocky about having "gotten stronger," but they're nothing special at the actual World Cup.
Then comes the bizarre self-defense of "well, we used to lose even friendlies back in the day."
Back to square one.
Same pattern, every single time.
This one's actually pretty on point.
Setting the "going easy" theory aside, Japan really should be getting more away-game experience.
They've got plenty of players based overseas, so the federation should be putting in more effort to arrange matches like that recent England game.
Yeah, exactly this.
It's basically the same as Breaking Down (the Japanese amateur fight show) at this point —
like watching a scripted performance.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Japan’s national team beat Germany and Spain at the 2022 World Cup, but as posters in the thread point out, they still haven’t won a single knockout-stage match, and their most recent major tournament didn’t see them advance far either. The Elo ratings cited in the thread put Japan at 15th, numerically above the 21st-ranked Uruguay they just faced — but Uruguay is a country known for its toughness in actual tournament play, so a simple ranking comparison doesn’t capture everything. Friendlies are arranged as part of national team development and do come with appearance fees as a commercial element, which is part of why the theory that “the invited side isn’t really trying” persists among some fans — though this remains speculation rather than established fact. Both the overseas sarcasm and the self-deprecating jokes on 5ch point to the same underlying phenomenon from different angles: a gap between how Japan performs in friendlies and how it performs when it really matters.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Geisokuho+) thread “Is Japan the World Champion of Friendlies?! Despite Beating Uruguay, Overseas Mockery Says “But Come World Cup or Asian Cup Time…” — Japanese Fans: “Stop, That Hits Too Close to Home”“.
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