Kazuyoshi Miura scored twice from the penalty spot as the 59-year-old striker became the oldest goalscorer in the history of Japan\u2019s longest-running cup competition.<\/p>\n
Miura, known as \u201cKing Kazu\u201d and now in his 42nd season as a professional, played a key role as third division Fukushima United thrashed non-league Oyama Soccer Club 7-0 in the Emperor\u2019s Cup, which is now in its 106th year.<\/p>\n
He scored in the qualifying rounds of the competition in late July.<\/p>\n
It is the first time Miura has scored more than one goal in a match since he was on target for Australian side Sydney FC in November 2005.<\/p>\n
Miura, Japan\u2019s first soccer superstar when the professional J. League launched in the early 1990s, said he practiscs penalties almost every day after training.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never know when it might be your turn,\u201d he told reporters after his latest feat on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why I practice them all the time. I\u2019m glad it paid off.\u201d<\/p>\n
The goals smashed the record for the Emperor\u2019s Cup\u2019s oldest goalscorer, held by former Japan international Shinji Ono, who was 41 at the time.<\/p>\n
Miura started the game as captain and played until he was substituted in the 58th minute.<\/p>\n
He stepped up to bury his first spot kick in the 12th minute, then repeated the trick in the 55th after he was brought down in the box.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a unique, quiet atmosphere with none of the opposition fans booing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could feel everyone\u2019s eyes on me. I\u2019m glad I could put them away in those circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miura made his professional debut in 1986 for Brazilian team Santos and has also played in Italy, Croatia, Australia and Portugal.<\/p>\n
He made his Japan debut in 1990 but was famously left out of the squad for its first World Cup appearance in 1998, despite scoring 55 goals in 89 games for the national side.<\/p>\n
He joined Fukushima in January and said he wanted to repay his new team\u2019s faith in him with goals and assists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kazuyoshi Miura scored twice from the penalty spot as the 59-year-old striker became the oldest goalscorer in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[15937,8,49612],"class_list":["post-77285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-emperor","tag-japan","tag-kazuyoshi-miura"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}