{"id":6180,"date":"2011-12-16T12:25:42","date_gmt":"2011-12-16T10:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/12\/soccer-okadas-aim-to-beat-barca-leaves-hangzhou-players-laughing\/"},"modified":"2011-12-16T12:25:42","modified_gmt":"2011-12-16T10:25:42","slug":"soccer-okadas-aim-to-beat-barca-leaves-hangzhou-players-laughing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/soccer-okadas-aim-to-beat-barca-leaves-hangzhou-players-laughing\/","title":{"rendered":"Soccer-Okada’s aim to beat Barca leaves Hangzhou players laughing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

TOKYO<\/span> Dec 16 (Reuters) – New Hangzhou Greentown
\nmanager Takeshi Okada, famed for his confident predictions, left
\nhis players at the Chinese side laughing at him when he boldly
\ntold them he was targeting victory over Barcelona at the Club
\nWorld Cup next year.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The Spanish giants face Brazil’s Santos in this year’s final
\nin Yokohama on Sunday but former Japan coach Okada, who was
\nappointed on Thursday, has bold plans for the future of his new
\nclub.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I want to win the Asian Champions League, go to the Club
\nWorld Cup and beat Barcelona,” Okada told Japanese media at the
\nJapan Football Association on Friday.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I told the players and they laughed. But it’s not
\nimpossible.” Having only signed a one-year contract it is highly
\nunlikely, however.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Okada made the Japanese nation cringe in the build-up to the
\n2010 World Cup by sticking to his audacious target of reaching
\nthe semi-finals while his team were suffering regular defeats.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

To the astonishment of many, the Blue Samurai stunned
\nCameroon and Denmark to reach the last 16 in South Africa before
\nbowing out on penalties to Paraguay.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Okada’s deal with the Chinese Super League club came as a
\nbolt from the blue with J-League side Urawa Reds also chasing
\nhis signature.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“It was a gut instinct,” said Okada, whose move could mark a
\nwatershed not unlike the ping pong diplomacy which brought about
\na thaw in American-Chinese relations in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Many Chinese still harbour bitter resentment over Japan’s
\nmilitary invasion and brutal occupation of parts of the country
\nfrom 1931 to 1945 when tens of millions died.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TOKYO Dec 16 (Reuters) – New Hangzhou Greentown manager Takeshi Okada, famed for his confident predictions, left his players at the Chinese side laughing at him when he boldly told them he was targeting victory over Barcelona at the Club World Cup next year. The Spanish giants face Brazil’s Santos in this year’s final in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-6180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}