Rio de Janeiro: Japan will defy the odds and the sceptics and produce a miracle by maybe going further than even the quarter-finals at the World Cup finals, their talismanic AC Milan midfielder Keisuke Honda boldly predicted Monday.
While Honda sounded a note of defiance France coach Didier Deschamps and his players flew out to Brazil on Monday with the 1998 World Cup winning captain warning his players against falling into the trap of becoming over confident on the back of an 8-0 thrashing of Jamaica in their final friendly.
As Honda and the French squad looked forward to their respective campaigns the World Cup hopes of another two players, Ecuador’s Segundo Castillo and Colombia’s Aldo Ramirez, were dashed as they failed to win their respective battles to be fit.
Honda, of whom much will be expected by the Japanese public, was unequivocal about his expectations for the ‘Blue Samurai’ starting with them repeating their achievement from the 2010 finals in South Africa and progressing from their group. The Japanese, who have failed to impress in their warm-up games against Cyprus, fellow finals-bound Costa Rica and former African champions Zambia, have a relatively weak group having been drawn in Group C against Colombia, who will be missing their star striker Radamel Falcao, goal-shy Greece and talented but ageing Ivory Coast.
They open their campaign against the African country on June 14.
Sporting a spiky mohawk haircut, the bleached-blond Honda touched down in Brazil with the Japan squad at the weekend.
“Firstly, we can 100 percent get through our group,” Honda told Japan’s Nikkan Sports daily.
“After that anything can happen at a World Cup. We’re good enough now to reach the quarter-finals.
“Obviously we all need to stay fit but if we do the basics right 100 percent, no mistakes, we can get to the quarter-finals. From there we can make miracles happen,” he added.
