Over-zealous North Korean customs officers may have contributed to Japan’s national soccer team’s first defeat under Italian coach Alberto Zaccheroni earlier this week, after confiscating his favorite tube of wasabi.
After a brush with customs in Pyongyang that lasted four hours and resulted in players having bananas, chewing gum and instant noodles swiped, Japan were beaten 1-0 in Pyongyang in their 2014 World Cup qualifying match.
“They took away his tube of wasabi at the airport and he didn’t get it back,” Japan Football Association president Junji Ogura told yesterday’s Nikkan Sports newspaper.
Photo: EPA
Zaccheroni carries the spicy Japanese condiment with him on trips, squirting it on everything, even plain rice — a recipe that worked; the Blue Samurai were unbeaten in his first 16 games in charge.
“He always asks for wasabi and prefers the cheap tube [¥100, US$1.30] to the expensive stuff,” Ogura said.
He added that Zaccheroni had eaten little but bread for three days in Pyongyang.
“I apologized to him for there being no wasabi after the game,” he said.
Japan’s defeat was otherwise academic, the Asian champions having already qualified for the final round of regional qualifiers.
“I was looking to experiment with a few things in Pyongyang,” said Zaccheroni, whose team were a shadow of the one that began the year in such style.
“It was a bizarre place, but we took some positives from the game,” he said.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB