TOKYO: Japan defender Yuto Nagatomo cannot be accused of lacking ambition and says he will be going to Brazil next month with only one goal — winning the World Cup.

Nagatomo is expected to be a key player for the Blue Samurai at their fifth successive World Cup finals, where they have been grouped with Greece, Ivory Coast and Colombia in the opening round.

“As a player who will compete with the burden of wearing the (national flag), I cannot conceive of going into the tournament thinking about losing,” Nagatomo said at Tokyo Airport. “I aspire to win the championship.”

No Asian team have won soccer’s greatest international prize and Japan’s best results were a place in the last 16 when they co-hosted the tournament in 2002 and again in South Africa in 2010.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2014