Japan lean on European leagues and language as last eight prize looms large

Twenty years on from their own glorious summer in 2002, Japan and South Korea are again among the elite and the easy thing to do is to point to the fact that this is another tournament on Asian soil. Easy and lazy.

BRAVO: Japan coach Hajime Moriyasu (left) with Yuto Nagatomo ahead of Monday's World Cup round of 16 game against Croatia.

JAPAN got jokes. Hajime Moriyasu and Yuto Nagatomo had them rolling in the aisles as they sat down for Sunday matinee stand-up in Doha.

Alas, the device we held to our ears to translate the one-liners and wisecracks didn’t deliver the goods with nearly as much aplomb as the Japanese manager and veteran defender had in their native tongue.