Tokyo Metropolitan Kokusai High School 1

Boys Can't Beat Us in Our Love of Soccer!

	The team at practice.

"Boys can't beat us in our love of soccer!" - that's the powerful message coming from the girls' soccer club at Tokyo Metropolitan Kokusai High School. And while thousands of girls all over the world must agree, these lucky 16-year-olds have won a chance to prove it. They have been chosen to take part in the 2002 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament as Ball Kids. (Ball Kids will collect the ball when it goes out of play and return it to the players or referee.) The Kokusai team is the only team of girls among the 30 groups selected out of 836 applicants nationwide. They will be responsible for the match between Ireland and Saudi Arabia on June 11, at International Stadium Yokohama, the same stadium where the final match will take place on June 30.

"My heart's pounding hard already," says Megumi Shiino, a midfielder on the Kokusai team. "Since we were chosen, many people around me who didn't know about soccer have taken an interest. I'm so happy. I've been to the Yokohama stadium so many times to watch soccer games, and I can't believe I'll be standing on that very same ground!"

Kyoko Wada.

"It still hasn't hit me. I guess I'll get the jitters as the day gets closer," says Kyoko Wada, a manager of the team who lived in Australia from kindergarten to the fourth grade of elementary school. According to Kyoko, if it weren't for her mother, the big day may not have come at all. "My mother is a major soccer fan, and she was the one who first suggested we enter the contest," she explains. In turn, Kyoko suggested it to a teammate, Nao Kobayashi.

	Nao Kobayashi in class.

Bilingual Video Message
Wearing the school uniform of gray skirt, white shirt and navy sweater, Nao looks just the same as the other girls in her class. But once on the pitch, Nao takes her place in the goal mouth as the team's trusted goalkeeper. Hearing about the Ball Kids contest from Kyoko, Nao led the team in creating a video message, which was a requirement for applying to be Ball Kids. For that video, the girls lined up in front of the goal post and shouted their message in Japanese and - appropriately - in Korean as well. When the good news finally came over her mobile phone, Nao was inside a department store. "I had tears in my eyes as I ran through the store. Onlookers must have thought I was real weird," she laughs. "The happiest thing is that we'll be making our own contribution to the World Cup."

Meanwhile, tragedy struck Airi Kimura, the captain of the team. "I turned 17 in April!" she bemoans. According to FIFA rules, Ball Kids must be aged between 12 and 16, which automatically disqualified Airi. But she's not giving up. "Right now, I'm all fired up to be there; I'm doing everything I can to get a ticket for that day!"

	The players relax after practice.

International Friendship
And while June 11 promises to be a memorable day for all the girls, it has an extra special meaning for Yuri Sung, who was born and raised in Japan but whose family is from Korea. Yuri's grandfather came to Japan during World War II, when the Korean Peninsula was under Japanese colonial rule. "I hope the World Cup will be the starting point for strengthening relations between Japan and Korea, and with the rest of the world," she says. At Kokusai High School, each student picks a theme for the year, and Yuri's theme for 2002 is soccer. Right now she's conducting a survey on how different nationals view the World Cup. "It got me thinking about my own identity as a resident Korean," Yuri says. "When people ask me which country I'll be cheering, Korea or Japan, sometimes I can't make up my mind. So I'm going to enjoy, rather than cheer."

And that's the true spirit of the World Cup - the whole world coming together to enjoy the super skills and fantastic feats performed by top soccer players, regardless of their nationality. We'll be returning to the Kokusai girls after their big match, to find out just how much they enjoyed taking part in this great event. In the meantime, watch out, World Cup - here come the Ball Girls!