The Japanese football team, also known as the Samurai Blue, is raving about the World Cup stadium in Qatar in ways few expected. The discipline and coordination they carry as a nation consistently garner respect from their neighbours. Japan has all of the ingredients to be a football powerhouse: the world's third-largest economy, a population of 125 million people, a national passion for football, a prominent domestic league, and the infrastructure that comes with co-hosting its own World Cup.

It's hard to conclude how the final products will look like.