Japan and CSKA Moscow midfielder Keisuke Honda s goal-scoring run in European football has given a big boost to the Blue Samurai s World Cup build-up after a recent crisis.
Japanese sports dailies were full of praise Thursday for Moscow s new signing after he set up a goal and scored the winner in a 2-1 away victory over Sevilla that sent the Russian side to the Champions League quarter-finals.
Japan Football Association president Motoaki Inukai watched the game on television with executives of football governing body FIFA in Zurich.
When I told them I was surprised, some of the executives said the Europeans already knew Honda could play that well, Inukai told reporters.
Honda s left foot has proven that he is Japan s new ace and it is packed with endless possibilities, the Sports Nippon commented.
The Nikkan Sports said Japan had acquired a missile that is comparable to Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo while coach Takeshi Okada ambitiously insisted on aiming for a World Cup semi-final spot in South Africa.
Honda had been seen as a substitute for playmaker Shunsuke Nakamura who returned to his old J-League side Yokohama Marinos last month after struggling at Espanyol.
The 23-year-old Honda moved to Moscow in January after helping VVV Venlo return to the top of the Dutch league in the last season and scored in a 1-0 win over Amkar Perm on the opening day of the Russian season on Sunday.
Then on Tuesday, he set up Tomas Necid to score in the first-half and beat Sevilla goalkeeper Andres Palop with a 30-metre free kick on 55 minutes.
It is like a fairytale, Dutch football great Ruud Gullit was quoted by Japanese media as saying of Honda s meteoric rise.
He has made a great impact.
Honda, who moved to Venlo in January 2008 after four seasons with J-League side Nagoya Grampus, has become the first Japanese to reach the Champions League quarter-finals under the league s current format was set in 1992.
I am not interested in a first for the Japanese. I am aiming higher still, Honda told Japanese media.
A win over Sevilla is not an end. There are still others up there. I will aim for the top of the world and that makes football interesting to me.
Honda s European success is a boon to Japan after they finished third in the East Asian championships last month, which highlighted their perennial lack of firepower and put Okada s job at riske.
Fighting without their Europe-based players, Japan drew 0-0 with underdogs China and crashed 3-1 to arch-rivals South Korea.
But Honda set up a goal and scored a header in a 2-0 win over Bahrain this month in Japan s last qualifier for the 2011 Asian Cup to help save Okada s neck.
