Luckily the sport has fans who actually understand and appreciate all that running around without scoring. There are flags and vuvuzelas and singing and dancing. It reminds me of Japanese baseball fans (sans vuvuzelas, although I fear I may hear those droning horns at a Japanese ballpark soon enough).
Here's one fan cheering on the Blue Samurai, as the Japanese national team is known, to a 1-0 victory over Cameroon. I've written about the oendan, or Japanese baseball fan clubs, and they get pretty outlandish. This guy takes it to a new level. I mean, what is he wearing?
I follow the Sakura Hotel Ikebukuro on Twitter (@ikebukuro_hotel), and after Japan lost to the Netherlands 1-0 on Saturday, the hotel tweeted (is that the right word?) a link to its blog. It's a cute post with pictures of soccer fans filling the hotel's cafe to watch the game and of sad guests after the Blue Samurai's loss.
Sakura Hotel's cafe holds only so many people, so a bunch of them headed north of Tokyo to the Saitama Super Arena, where they watched the match in 3D.
Soccer fever is rampant in Japan during the World Cup. To recap, the Blue Samurai defeated Cameroon 1-0, then lost to the Netherlands by the same score. Next, they play Denmark on June 24. After that, I have no idea. I need a soccer fan to explain it to me. That does it for my soccer reports. Now, back to baseball.