Keisuke Honda Was World Cup Royalty
2010
The Five D’s of Dodgeball seemed ready-made to describe the flight of the Adidas Jabulani. Never before had a football dipped, ducked and dodged like this, leaving goalkeepers sprawling, diving for their lives in hopes of being able to get a hand to a ball so heavily-criticised. It was the official ball for the 2010 World Cup, and no-one seemed able to predict where a shot would land.
Keisuke Honda knew all he had to do was get it on target. Lining the ball up 45 yards away, if he could strike this hard enough, accurately enough, Thomas Sorensen might just struggle. The angle demanded a cross; to get it in the mixer and hope. This game could lead Japan to the Last 16 for only the second time ever. In the end, what left Honda’s left foot was a monster.
Sorensen, caught slightly wrong-footed, could only extend himself so far — and in the end got nowhere near the ball. By the time he got up, Honda and the Japanese team had wheeled away in celebration, on the cusp of something great. They had only beaten one other European nation at a World Cup before, having shocked Russia back in 2002 on Japanese soil. But the Last 16 beckoned in South Africa. They just had to keep this going against Denmark.
The history books show what followed was a long night for the Danes. 13 minutes after picking out Honda’s rocket from the net, another free-kick, this time from Yasuhito Endo, would fly past Sorensen leaving it 2–0 to the Samurai Blue. Denmark themselves needed a win to progress from this match, but 30 minutes in, it already looked very difficult.
The Denmark team — featuring names such as Daniel Agger, Christian Poulsen, Nicklas Bendtner and a young Christian Eriksen — would try to their best to come back into the game. Japan’s goalkeeper, Eiji Kawashima, would be equal to a Jakob Poulsen longshot and and Soren Larson would hit the bar from a volley. Only when Jon Dahl Tommason slotted a penalty rebound — a penalty Kawashima had easily saved — did the Danish look to have anything other than a slight chance. But by this time it was the 81st minute, and Keisuke Honda had other ideas.
Receiving a pass outside of the Danish box, Honda chopped his way passed Dennis Rommedahl with a turn Cruyff would’ve been proud of. Then, with Sorensen advancing and Simon Poulsen trying to make up lost ground, he simply squared it to Shinji Okazaki to tap home into an empty net. A subtle, skilful dance to make it 3–1 and put Japan into the next round.
Whilst Paraguay would ultimately defeat Japan on penalties to defy their Quarter Final hopes, Keisuke Honda had an undeniably great tournament. Having scored the only goal in a victory over Cameroon earlier in the group stage, and then with his heroics over Denmark, it was clear this was a name world football would have to watch out for. The Japanese team had a new star for tournaments to come.
2014
In-between the 2010 World Cup and the Brazilian edition of 2014, the Osaka-born Honda would secure a move from CSKA Moscow to European giants AC Milan. Milan, having been struggling domestically in 2013–14, acquired Honda’s services on a free transfer — allowing him to join the club in the January of 2014. Unfortunately, this would prove to be a dismal first six months before the World Cup, Milan ultimately finishing 8th in the league and Honda only managing two goals in all competitions.
And the World Cup itself wouldn’t prove to be too much better. With Japan ranked the lowest in a group featuring Colombia, Greece and Ivory Coast, it was always going to be tough to recreate the magic of the 2010 tournament in South Africa. But it wasn’t for the lack of trying. In the Samurai Blue’s first game, in Brazil’s northeast city of Recife, Honda would strike first. Collecting the ball from the left-back, Honda took a touch in the Ivorian box before striking high at the near-post — somewhat bamboozling Boubacar Barry in goal.
Ivory Coast would ultimately come back and win the game 2–1 thanks to goals from Wilfried Bony and Gervinho. In the next game, a man-of-the-match Keisuke Honda still couldn’t break down Greece as the European nation recorded their first World Cup clean sheet in a 0–0 draw. This would mean Keisuke Honda and Japan had only recorded 1 point before even facing their toughest opponents, James Rodriguez’s Colombia.
Colombia had been spellbinding in their first two games. With a massive 3–0 win over Greece, and a 2–1 win over Ivory Coast, the South American side were proving to be great value, with Rodriguez in particular entertaining the world. To make the task even tougher, Yasuyuki Konno would foul Adrian Ramos in the box within the first 20 minutes, gifting Colombia a penalty and an early goal.
But Japan continued to battle. With the score still only 1–0 as half-time approached, Keisuke Honda crossed into the box only to see it connect with Shinji Okazaki’s head, the striker managing to squeeze it past the Colombian goalkeeper. 1–1 at half-time. An Asian team had so far never beaten a South American team at a World Cup before. Japan couldn’t, could they?
Not in this game. With Colombia seemingly only angered by Honda and Okazaki’s input, Los Cafetoros scored three in the second-half to underline their dominance of Group C. Japan, meanwhile, would finish the competition bottom of the group with only draw against Greece to their name. Honda recorded one goal, one assist and one man-of-the-match award — still providing Japan an impact on the world stage.
2018
Four years later, with the 2018 World Cup in Russia approaching and Keisuke Honda turning 32, the reality was there that this could potentially be his last World Cup. Having traded the historic city of Milan for the Liga MX, Honda had come off a stellar season with Pachuca, recording 13 goals and 8 assists in 36 games. Though, with his age and other players including Shinji Kagawa, Takashi Inui and Genki Haraguchi all playing in major European leagues, it remained to be seen how big a part he would play in Russia.
The Samurai Blue found themselves in a similar position as four years earlier. Ranked the lowest in Group H with Poland, Senegal and previous opponents Colombia, it looked to be another tough round of fixtures. Starting the tournament against Colombia, the team that previously threw them aside in their last World Cup match, looked especially daunting. But in the Russian city of Saransk, there emerged a shift.
With James Rodriguez benched due to a calf injury, Colombia had to rely on their other stars including Radamel Falcao and Juan Cuadrado to see past an unfancied Japanese side. With the previous Japan manager sacked in April 2018, Akira Nishino had very little preparation time in the build-up to the World Cup. Meanwhile, Keisuke Honda would also find himself on the substitutes bench for the first game.
But things started brightly. With five players who started against Colombia in 2014 also starting, Japan won themselves a penalty within five minutes. When Davinson Sanchez completely lost trace of the ball mid-flight, Japan striker Yuya Osako was able to get the better of him, ricocheting a shot against the Colombian ‘keeper. Kagawa was first to the rebound, and this time Colombian midfielder Carlos Sanchez saved the ball with his hand. He was rewarded with a red card and Kagawa slotted home the subsequent penalty. 1–0.
Before half-time, Colombia would find a way back thanks to a low Quintero free-kick that looked to have surprised Kawashima in goal. 1–1, and time was beckoning for Keisuke Honda to make yet another World Cup impact.
On the 70th minute, with Japan looking to capitalise on their extra man advantage, Nishino finally looked to his bench. Bringing on the blonde-haired brilliance that had continuously been a talisman for the Japanese side on the world stage, you would be forgiven for thinking this might just turn out to be a farewell runout in the hopes of some magic. 3 minutes later, Keisuke Honda assisted Yuya Osako’s winning goal — taking the corner that Osako would head home. Japan won the game 2–1, and became the first Asian side to beat a South American team in the World Cup.
With Colombia then beaten, why could Japan not go on to defeat Senegal in the next game? Belief was high, with Colombia put to the sword despite being one of the heavily-fancied teams to top the group. Senegal did have stars themselves — including Sadio Mane — and had beaten Poland 2–1 in the first game. But Japan’s stylistic 4–2–3–1 with attacking full-backs and heavy movement from the front four might just have done it.
Keisuke Honda started on the bench again, with the starting team unchanged from that which had beaten Colombia. But just as Japan had gotten the early goal against Colombia, so too did Senegal in this game, with Mane managing to capitalise on a poor punch from Eiji Kawashima in the 11th minute. Japan however, would fire back thanks to Takashi Inui curling home a lovely finish inside the area before half-time.
Then, with less than 20 minutes left in the match, 19-year-old full-back Moussa Wague would get on the end of a low-ball across the box and make it 2–1 to Senegal. Japan needed a spark, to get a draw would still give them four points and put them in the driving seat of progressing to the next round. Enter, once again: Keisuke Honda.
Having been on the field for a matter of minutes, Honda would equalise for The Samurai Blue just seven minutes after Wague’s goal. With the Senegal goalkeeper unable to deal with a cross, the ball was put back in from the left by Takashi Inui, leaving a simple tap-in for Keisuke Honda to hit home. This goal made him the first Japanese player to score at three World Cups and the top-scoring Asian player of all-time in the competition.
For those counting, that’s four goals and three assists for Keisuke Honda. But only one more appearance was to come. With Japan electing to hold on in the last group game against Poland, they lost 1–0 and eventually went through controversially via fair play, with their points, goal difference and goals for all matched by Senegal.
Honda’s last appearance would come in the form of another Last 16 match for Japan. This time against much-fancied Belgium. Japan took the lead thanks to Genki Haraguchi and Takashi Inui (whose performance in 2018 might merit its own article) and looked well on course to make their first ever World Cup Quarter Final. But we know how the rest of the game goes. Belgium become the first team to come back from two goals down in 90 down in the World Cup and Honda, who had only been on the field 9 minutes, ended his World Cup journey in heartbreak.
Keisuke Honda retired from international duty after the 3–2 loss to Belgium. With an international career that included scoring against countries from every continent, and sitting 4th in the country’s all-time scorer chart, his legacy to his country is undoubted. But it’s his legacy to the World Cup that needs particular attention.
In a world with Ronaldo and Messi, Keisuke Honda is the only player to both score and assist in the last three World Cups. It’s already been noted he is Asia’s top scorer at the tournament, but of Japan’s 12 goals since the 2010 World Cup, it means he has also been directly involved in 7 of them. 4 goals, 3 assists. All that playing for a nation whose best finish (which he achieved, twice) is in the Last 16.
Japan in 2018 did show they had made huge strides however, and despite Keisuke Honda’s valuable contributions, he barely amounted to around sixty minutes of football. With the nation continuing to produce players in Europe’s top leagues it is assumed someone one day will take over from Honda. For now, however, for a nation that played their first tournament in 1998, he remains the best on the World Cup stage — and his influence cannot be understated.
