japan Page 7 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Can Defending World Cup Champions Japan Shock The World Again?
It’s been a heady time to be a fan of reigning world champions Japan these past few years. After starting the World Cup era as an international fixture, usually present but never too threatening at the major tournaments, Japan are now recognized as one of the sport’s dominant greats, thanks to a his...
Lionel Messi Shows Off Unreal First Touch On Japanese Game Show
Yeah, we’ve seen that left foot of Lionel Messi’s cushion soccer balls flying at him from all different angles in game, but how about making him boot the ball about 60 feet into the air over a bar, sprint over to where it falls, and try to control it? Yep, still no problem....
How Japan Built The World's Best Horse Racing
TOKYO — I came to watch Japan's top racehorses, arguably the strongest in the world, contest last Sunday's Japan Cup, worth more than $5 million. I left believing that the reason the Japanese racing industry is so much healthier and more popular than any of its counterparts is about much more tha...
A Day At The Track For The World's Biggest And Strangest Horse Race
TOKYO — One of the most-watched and best-attended sporting events in the world took place in Tokyo last Sunday. More than 100,000 people, thousands of whom slept outside overnight, streamed into Tokyo Racecourse for the $5 million-plus Japan Cup. But as the Cup's 18 runners entered the walking rin...
Dice-K To Return To Japan, Take His Mythical Gyroball With Him
After six seasons with the Red Sox and two with the Mets, Daisuke Matsuzaka is apparently returning to Japan, considering a contract with the defending champion Fukuoka Softbank Hawks. He'll always be remembered for the hype, and for his unhittable pitch that in reality is all but unthrowable....
11-Year-Old Japanese Hockey Wunderkind Is The Truth
The kid dangling and destroying the competition above is Aito Iguchi, an 11-year-old who plays for Japan's Saitama Junior Warriors. Truthers out there are dismissing his skills, arguing that Japan doesn't develop quality hockey players, there are a million 11-year-old Canadian kids that good, his sk...
MLB All-Stars No-Hit In Japan, Robinson Canó Fractures Toe
Major League Baseball is back to sending a team to Japan to play in a biennial exhibition series—after an eight year layoff because of the World Baseball Classic—and things aren't going too swell for the MLB All-Stars. They lost their first two games of the best-of-five series 2-0 and 8-4, and ear...
Neymar Scores Four Goals Today, Set To Become World's Best By Tomorrow
Now this is the Neymar we've all been waiting for....
High School Baseball Game In Japan Takes 50 Innings, Four Days
A baseball game in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan that started Thursday took 50 innings and four days to determine a winner, which is amazing in its own way, but wait until you see the two starters' pitch counts....
I Can't Stop Watching This Dude Try To Hit A 186-MPH Fastball
Ever wondered what it'd be like to stand in against a big-league hurler? Yeah, this is kinda like that, but if the hurler was, like, a Terminator or something. Here's former Japanese ballplayer Takeshi Yamasaki, trying to get his bat around on a nearly 200-mph fastball (the fun starts at around ...
Ronaldo's Facial Fitness Commercial Is Inexplicable, Perfect
Have you been looking for a way to achieve maximum facial tone that doesn't make you feel so bored and tired? Isn't it time you had a way to be happy with your facial fitness without all the hassle? There have probably been dozens of scientists with degrees in science-related fields who have long ar...
Crazy Japanese Sport Is Equal Parts Awesome And Dangerous
This is a Japanese sport called Bo-Taoshi. Remember that game you used to play in grade school, where one kid would stand on top of a mound of snow or dirt, and everyone else would try to push him off? This is basically that, except with a pole and a whole lot more flying jump kicks....
Japanese Actress Smashes Blocks With Her Head Before First Pitch
Look out, South Korea. Japan's challenging your history of odd first pitches at baseball games....
This Ronaldo GIF Is Stupefying, Perfect
There is surely an explanation, but just watch this for one moment, unadulterated by context, and enjoy it. It's wonderful. The inexplicable behavior from the host and Ronaldo's 1,000-yard stare momentarily interrupted by a blink that says what the actual fuck? Amazing....
Wily Mo Peña Hits Massive Home Run In Japanese All-Star Game
Wily Mo Peña has been playing in Japan since 2011 and represented the Orix Buffaloes for the Pacific League in this year's All-Star Game, played Saturday at Koshien Stadium. Peña smoked the first pitch he saw from Hanshin Tigers 20-year-old pitcher Shintaro Fujinami and damn near hit it out of the...
Colombia's Four Goals Mean Four Instances Of Amazing Announcing
Colombia put four balls in the net yesterday, which means we have four instances of Javier Fernández Franco going berserk and four instances of the awesome Caracol heavy metal celebration song. Here's everything from Colombia's Caracol TV, and the rest of the goals scored yesterday as heard in the h...
Your Japan-Greece Open Thread
A win tonight by either Japan or Greece would get them right back into the race. Let's talk about it in the discussion section below....
Japanese Fans Cleaned Up After Themselves
After a hard loss to Ivory Coast on Saturday, Japan's supporters didn't storm out of rainy Arena Pernambuco in Recife. At least some of them stuck around, bags in hand, to pick up their trash. ...
Ivory Coast Come Back To Beat Japan With Two Goals In Two Minutes
Japan held a 1-0 lead from the 16th minute, when Keisuke Honda hit a rocket past Copa Barry, to the 64th minute. In that 64th, minute two headers, off two Serge Aurier crosses, ripped the three points away from Japan and gave Ivory Coast a 2-1 comeback win....