Well, was watching one of the sports channels here, and the evening bulletin had the Japanese squad being waved off as they headed to Europe for the next round of the Olympic qualifiers. It is unlikely that they will be able to progress much more since they are up against Germany and Austria, but that wont stop them trying!
So, how did Japan get there? Well, they got on a plane! Ha ha! OK, sorry...
They managed to progress out of the earlier qualifying group by turning over Poland, and Britain. How on earth did they manage that!? This is a nation with about 6 full time rinks, and the rest are open for only 4 months before being turned back into swimming pools, and only 4 professional teams!
Well, mainly because in Japan they have actually sat down and decided to focus a lot of their energies on sustainable development. That means bringing in Japanese players who are willing to hang around for a while, rather than shelling out on a lot of guys to come in for a year, take their money and leave, without giving a lot back.
After watching some of the Asia League, its clear that the standard is down on the Elite league. However, the 4 teams that Japan has entered have 3 solid lines and 3 imports. The 3 imports are on pretty good money, and the rest of the money is spent on getting the rest of the three lines up to scratch.
This allows the Japanese squad to pick from a small, but uniformly high standard of players. Bcause they work on developing their players, the players do get together much more than our players do. Even down to summer camp getaways all design to boost team play.
The end result?
They turned us over.
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