PRETORIA — Japan's dressing room was awash with tears after Tuesday's 5-3 penalty shootout defeat to Paraguay, but Keisuke Honda insists the team's second-round exit merely serves as a stark reminder of the gap that separates the Blue Samurai from the world's leading sides.
"Life goes on and I think that the players that played and the ones that didn't just did not cut it," the CSKA Moscow star said. "We might as well have gone out in the first round. It is the same thing as far as I am concerned.
"I wanted to win at all costs today but we lost. If I weren't Japanese or Paraguayan I would not have even watched this match today. That just about sums it up. If I wasn't Japanese or Paraguayan I probably wouldn't have known any of the players on the pitch."