Japan 2014 Home Shirt

JAPAN - HOME SHIRT 2014

Samurai Blue is the name every Japan supporter knows their team by, a side run by the Japan Football Association and built around blue shirts chosen back in 1930 in place of the white and red of the national flag. For the 2014 World Cup the team's mascot was, fittingly, Pikachu, with the Pokemon character appearing across Japan's promotional material that year alongside the usual rotation of home stadiums, Saitama Stadium 2002 chief among them.

Japan travelled to Brazil in 2014 having reached the World Cup as the first nation outside the hosts to qualify, under Italian manager Alberto Zaccheroni. It was a campaign carried out in this understated home shirt, built around adidas's Enjin concept, the idea of players huddling together before kick off, complete with a rising sun pattern behind the crest.

Drawn in Group C alongside Ivory Coast, Greece and Colombia, Japan led against the Ivorians through Keisuke Honda before conceding twice in two second half minutes to lose 2-1. A goalless draw with Greece followed, leaving Japan needing victory over Colombia to progress, but they were beaten 4-1 and eliminated at the group stage, a result that ended Zaccheroni's near four year reign and brought in Javier Aguirre that July.

Keisuke Honda was Japan's key man throughout, scoring the opener against Ivory Coast and later teeing up Shinji Okazaki for a tidy headed finish against Colombia. Goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima played every minute of the campaign, and went on to become one of only a small number of Japanese players to feature at three consecutive World Cups, from 2010 to 2018.

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