National team In Rumania
　After a two weeks' stay in Germany to see the World Cup matches, the Japanese national team visited Rumania and played three friendly matches there in July. It draw and lost once each against local first division clubs and also defeated by the Rumanian national side by a score of 4-1. The tour was part of the preparation for the Asian Games to be held in Teheran in September.

　World Cup Final on TV
　For the first time ever in Japanese television broadcasting history, the Final was transmitted live by satellite to Japan. The T.V. audience in Japan watching the Final of the World Cup between Germany F.R. and Holland was estimated to be over two million despite the fact that program was broadcasted at midnight due to the time difference between Tokyo and Munich.

　What we have learnt from the World Cup Finals ?
　To the Japanese journalists, Holland was the most impressive of the sixteen teams who competed in Germany. During the tournament, we sent back many articles for newspapers and magazines describing the tactics of the Dutch team, such tactics being employed for the first time in world football.
　It may be, however, that to European spectators the system on which Rinus Michels built his national team was not so orginal. It is possible that those who have followed Ajax Amsterdam in the European Cup over the last three years might recognize that the same tactics have been used by Michels for creating the national team. We in Japan, however, had only known of the reputation and record of that famous Dutch club from the reports from overseas. 　Most of us had never actually seen any of the Dutch teams before going to Germany. It was therefore a great surprise to us to see the extremely inventive football that the Dutch national team introduced into the World Cup.
　There is no doubt that Michels created a very unique team. Perhaps its pattern of play may be termed "rotative football". Any of the players except the goalkeeper could move forward into the attack at any time, while at the same time other players automatically move back to take their places. This fluid exchaging of positions was like a whirlpool engulfing the opponent's defence.
　Another surprise to Japanese observers was Poland. Fast break-aways requiring great stamina and accurate ball control have long been regarded the ideal style of football by most of the Japanese coaches, Some of us found the realization of that idea in the skillful counter attacks that were often made by the Polish team.
　On the other hand, the performance of Germany F.R., the winner of the World Cup, was not so surprising to spectators from Japan, because we have been accustomed to observing German football for some time. For instance, 1 F.C. Koln (Colgne) visited Japan last year and Hamburger S.V. came here the previous year. The Germans clearly deserved victory for their great spirit and technique but we may say that on this paticular occasion they had been trained according to the traditional style of German football.
　It may well be that Japanese football in future will be influenced more by the style of Holland or Poland than by that of Germany, with which it has been familiar for the past fifteen years.

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