Japan duo Kaoru Mitoma and Ao Tanaka were always destined to be heroes for the Samurai Blue.
The pair were boyhood friends at Saginuma Elementary School in Kawasaki, the city famous for producing high-powered motorbikes. And when they combined in spectacular fashion for the goal that shocked Spain, sent Germany skidding out of the World Cup and took Japan roaring into the last 16, they fulfilled a promise they once made to their old school.
Mitoma, the Brighton winger who was in the year above Tanaka, was just 13 when he signed a message in his graduation book in which he pledged to make his country proud as a footballer.
