A Shocker in the Other Type of Football’s World Cup
Japan beat the USA in football this week. Yes. American football.
It is the summer of international football.
We have it good as sports fans right now. Wake up, turn on the TV, and there are the Euro’s, where Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham, Harry Kane, and others fight for their countries. Then, we have the Copa America—which this year includes some CONCACAF additions—featuring Brazil, Argentina, and other South American dynamos playing on American turf.
But perhaps the most shocking international result this summer came in a more obscure tournament.
It came, believe it or not, in the other type of football. American football. Although…I’m not sure we can necessarily call it that anymore.
At the International Federation of American Football’s U20 World Championships, Team Japan faced Team U.S.A. in the semifinals. Naturally, the U.S. is the event’s reigning champion. They were the heavy favorites. They had a roster full of players heading to play college ball—not five star All-Americans, sure, but still halfway decent.
Japan won anyways.
41-20.
The Japanese team came out strong, heading into the first half 27-7. “They won both sides of the line of scrimmage,” American head coach Mike Kelly said. “Their defensive line was better than our offensive line, and their offensive line was better than our defensive line. And that’s what it came down to.”
The Americans mounted an attempt at a comeback, but it wasn’t enough to recover. When the fourth quarter ended, it registered as a seismic upset.
You might be asking: …Japan? It’s not the first country you think of when you think of the gridiron. Only 12 players in NFL history have ever been born in the country, almost all of whom come from American army bases (including Heisman winner Robert Griffin, III!). But the sport’s history stretches back decades in the Land of the Rising Sun.
It started in 1934, when an American missionary named Paul Rusch introduced the game to the island nation. In Tokyo back in those pre-war years, a football game was such a curiosity that one drew 15,000 fans at a Tokyo baseball stadium. Rusch returned to the country after World War II to continue his missionary work—and by that, I mean growing the game of football.
Club teams started to form in the 50’s, and in 1989, the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers played in the Tokyo Dome in a first of its kind exhibition (Said Rams QB Jim Everett after that game, “Everyone was very alert and astute to the game. Well, maybe they were more alert to the baton twirler, but that's O.K., too. Everyone here treated us just great. We had a blast”). Throughout the 1990s, the NFL organized a total of 14 exhibitions in Japan, and by 1997 the Japanese X League formed, consisting of 55 teams. The annual championship, held at the Tokyo Dome, is known still as the Rice Bowl. The game MVP earns the Rusch Cup.
As the game has grown, Japanese officials have looked for challenges to improve their skill. That includes the annual Dream Bowl, where a Japanese All-Star team plays the Ivy League All-Stars. In the second edition this year, the Japanese beat the Ivy Leaguers by an incredible score of 10-5. “I’m part of history for Japan football,” running back Samajie Grant told the Japan Times after the game. “That was really the most important thing for me. I told everybody, ‘the most important game this year is the Dream Bowl.’ The Rice Bowl is for my team. The Dream Bowl is for Japan.”
And so, perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised about the result last week. Japan beat the USA in football. It wasn’t the first time. It might not be the last.
On Sunday, the Japanese team will head to the gold medal game to face Canada.
America will play Austria…for bronze.
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