Okada sticks to Japan’s World Cup semi-final goal

Japan’s World Cup squad left for a training camp in the Swiss Alps Wednesday with coach Takeshi Okada insisting he is still eyeing a semi-final berth in South Africa despite recent poor form.

Okada came under fire for asking Japan Football Association president Motoaki Inukai if he should quit in the wake of Monday’s 2-0 home defeat to Asian rivals South Korea.

But Japanese media reported that the coach told his squad Tuesday that his offer was only “half serious” and he pledged to “fight together to the end.”

“I didn’t expect it to be taken so seriously. I should be more careful about what I say,” Okada said later, adding that the FA chief had backed him.

Before boarding a chartered flight with his squad at Narita airport early Wednesday, Okada said he would not flinch from his aim of reaching the last four, which has been widely ridiculed.

The defeat at the hands of South Korea was the latest poor result for the Blue Samurai, who also crashed to a 3-0 defeat against a second-string Serbia at home in April.

“We want to demonstrate what we have as Japanese. There’s no use in changing our goal. We will aim for a last-four spot,” Okada told reporters. “We want to raise our condition first of all and regain our offensive rhythm.”

Okada guided Japan to a winless World Cup finals debut at France 1998 in his first stint as national coach.

French coach Philippe Troussier took the Samurai to the last 16 in the 2002 edition co-hosted by Japan and South Korea and four years later they failed to make it out of the group stage.

Grouped with the Netherlands, Cameroon and Denmark in South Africa, Okada’s squad will train in the ski resort of Saas-Fee and have warm-up matches against England on Sunday and Ivory Coast on June 4.