Former Japan international defender Naoki Matsuda died yesterday, two days after collapsing with a heart attack during training, leaving the country’s shocked soccer community in mourning.
His sudden death aged just 34 was announced by his club Matsumoto Yamaga of the Japan Football League, the third-tier division, where he moved this year after 16 years at J-League first-division side Yokohama Marinos.
Matsuda fell into a coma after a warm-up run on Tuesday morning. He was rushed to hospital, where he was put on life support.
Photo: Reuters
Fans, along with past and present teammates, flocked to the hospital in the mountain city of Matsumoto, 180km northwest of Tokyo, as Matsuda fought for his life. He never regained consciousness.
His death came just over two weeks after Japan’s women’s team won the World Cup for the first time.
Matsuda, who was capped 40 times for his country, had a reputation for being gutsy and was unusually tall for a Japanese at 183cm.
The right-back played all four of Japan’s matches at the 2002 World Cup, when the Blue Samurai reached the last 16 at home.
However, his international career ended in 2005 when he fell out with then-national coach and Brazilian legend Zico.
Kylian Mbappe struck from the penalty spot as Real Madrid beat a dogged CA Osasuna 1-0 on Tuesday to make a winning start in Spanish La Liga under new coach Xabi Alonso. The France striker, last season’s European Golden Shoe winner, scored early in the second half, after he was fouled in the area by Osasuna defender Juan Cruz. It was enough to seal the points in Alonso’s first game in charge at the Santiago Bernabeu, with Madrid now unbeaten in their opening fixture of a league campaign since 2008. “You can see that Kylian wants to do even more
‘CATASTROPHE’: Despite losing several key forwards in the summer transfer window, Bayern were up 3-0 in the first half before Harry Kane scored a hat-trick in the second Harry Kane hit a hat-trick, Michael Olise a double and newcomer Luis Diaz also scored as Bayern Munich made a “statement” against RB Leipzig 6-0 at home in the Bundesliga season opener on Friday. Bayern’s big-money arrivals, all brought in from the Premier League across the past three seasons, were dominant as the Bavarians begun their title defense in style. Olise scored twice in the first half, either side of a Diaz strike. Not to be outdone, Kane scored three goals in the second half — with two assists coming from Diaz, to bring Bayern’s total to 6-0. Kane told the Bundesliga
Kevin de Bruyne is to lead SSC Napoli’s Serie A title defense today when he makes his full debut at promoted US Sassuolo, but the champions head into the new season rocked by a long-term injury to star striker Romelu Lukaku. De Bruyne was, alongside aging icon Luka Modric, the big new name to arrive in Italy this summer and fans were hoping his linkup with Belgium teammate Lukaku would push Napoli to success both at home and in their return to the UEFA Champions League. The 34-year-old has suffered from hamstring injuries which caused him to miss significant chunks of the
FIGHTBACK: Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Jiang Xinyu of China rallied from a set down to advance to the final of the women’s doubles at the Tennis in the Land Russian second seed Ekaterina Alexandrova on Thursday beat defending champion Linda Noskova 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 6-2 at the Monterrey Open to secure her place in the semi-finals of the US Open tune-up event. Alexandrova, 14th in the world rankings, started the decider brightly after two tightly contested sets and while Czech Noskova fought back to level at 2-2, the Russian regained control to seal the victory in just over two hours at the WTA 500 event. “I’m really glad that I could make it through, even in three sets, because it was difficult today — she served so well, she hit so
RSS