The 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa kicked off June 11, and diplomats posted in Taiwan whose countries have qualified for the football bonanza praised the event not just for being great sport but a unifying force in their countries. Honduras reached this year's World Cup for the first time in 28 years and only the second time in history, and captured the imagination of the entire population not long after a coup in June 2009 shook the Central American country and created political upheaval. Marlene Villela-Talbott, Honduras' ambassador to Taiwan who has lived here for eight years, told the Central News Agency that, 'football in Honduras is more than a national sport. It is a part of life.' When Honduras punched its ticket to the World Cup in mid-October 2009, the shops around the country shut down and the country's extremely excited citizens celebrated for four days, Villela-Talbott said. Every time the national team plays, the 7 million people in Honduras pay attention. 'It is incredible how a sport, how our national team, a group of 11 players, can pull together a whole country,' she said. The people's main form of support for the team is prayer, Villela-Talbott said, and despite Honduras being a relatively small country, it is one department in which it can compete with other nations around the world. 'I think we make more noise than any of the bigger countries, ' she said. Some may have felt that Honduras actually reached this year's World Cup through divine intervention. On the final day of qualifying last October, Honduras defeated El Salvador 1-0, but Costa Rica was leading the U.S. and was close to the victory it needed to clinch a World Cup berth. But trailing 2-1 deep in injury time, the U.S. tied the game on a dramatic header, sending Honduras to the World Cup and setting off celebrations in Villela-Talbott's country. No less enthusiastic about football is Alfazazi A. Namairage, the director of the Nigeria Trade Office in Taiwan. Namairage, who has been playing football as a hobby for 18 years, said football is one factor that unites the whole country. When asked about why people in Nigeria are so fond of football, he said it dates back to the country's colonial history, because football was introduced there after Nigeria became a part of the British empire in 1901. 'All the primary schools in Nigeria have at least one football playground now' he said, and the government takes the sport very seriously. As a football fan and football player, he said there were no secrets to winning. 'Train hard and concentrate on the game' is the best approach, he said. Baba Masaki, director of the Cultural Section of the Interchange Association, Japan, also holds a deep affection for football, having played the sport since he was young, and he has seen the game evolve in his country and on a personal level. Since Japan first made it to the World Cup in 1998, people have grown more serious about training in the sport and becoming a football player has become a dream for schoolchildren, Masaki said. For him personally, his greatest memory is not a goal by Japan's national team or his country co-hosting the 2002 World Cup, but rather the evolution in his thinking from treating football as a rigorous discipline to seeing it as a source of enjoyment. When Masaki coached in Japan, he said, he adopted a strict approach and was tough on young players when they did not play well. But after being posted in Australia, he saw the power of positive reinforcement. At the first practice for young players, Australian coaches would place the ball close to the goal and have children take shots and score goals. 'Their smiles after scoring made Masaki realize that 'football's happiest moment is putting the ball in the net, ' and from that point on, he saw the sport in a different light. If a child's first experience in a sport is fun, Masaki said, they will enjoy it for the rest of their lives. By Emmanuelle Tzeng and Maia Huang selfnews Staff Reporter & Writer 