Inside Japan’s dressing room as stars leave touching note and origami despite World Cup shootout heartbreak vs Croatia
JAPAN stars left a wholesome note in their dressing room after being knocked out of the World Cup.
The Samurai Blue lost to Croatia on penalties in the last-16.
Japan took the lead as the game ended 1-1 after extra time, though scored just one penalty from four attempts.
Despite their heartbreak and tears at the final whistle the squad still took time to clean their dressing room and left it in immaculate condition.
The team also made origami cranes which they left behind as a gift to their hosts.
And once again a message of gratitude was left, just as Japan did following their historic win over Germany.
The words ‘thank you’ were written in Arabic and Japanese as the team played their final match in Qatar.
The team did likewise after losing to Belgium in similarly heartbreaking circumstances at the 2018 World Cup.
Japan repeated the act following their Asian Cup defeat to Qatar in 2019, while their fans do likewise.
At the end of the World Cup’s opening game between Qatar and Ecuador Japanese fans decided to clear the stands of rubbish.
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Japan provided excellent entertainment throughout and produced memorable victories against Germany and Spain, beating the 2014 champions to qualification to the knock-out stage.
Japan were also a penalty shoot-out away from reaching the quarter-finals for the first time ever.