Ask who the team of the month for July should be and many people will point to the USA performances at the IFAF Junior World Championship (JWC) to nominate the unbeatable Americans as the ideal candidate.
 
But look a bit closer at that tournament and consider which team truly turned some heads and played beyond expectations.
 
The European entries - Germany, Sweden and France - finished in the same order as they had at the European Junior Championship in Spain in 2008 and New Zealand put up a brave fight and made progress in inspiring further development in the sport down under.
 
But arguably the real winner at the 2009 IFAF Junior World Championship was Japan.
 
Head coach Takao Yamazaki was named best coach of the JWC and his 45 players received the fewest penalties, helping them also scoop the tournament's fair play award. Japan defeated a higher seed, Mexico, to claim the bronze medal and had they not left almost two minutes on the clock against Canada in the fourth quarter of the semi finals, Japan might have been going for gold against the United States.
 
Japan almost made the mistake of overlooking first round opponent Germany, edging out the European champions 10-7, relying on a double reverse trick play to lead to the decisive score.  Canada had been in coach Yamazaki's sights since the seeding for the JWC was announced and Japan's offensive fireworks had clearly been saved for that semi final match up.
 
While USA quarterbacks Bryce Petty and Phillip Butterfield will likely go on to more prominent college careers at Baylor and Arkansas State respectively than their Japanese counterparts, it was Japan whose quarterback garnered all-tournament honors as the competition's top passer.  The United States won its games largely through the dominance of Virginia Tech-bound running back David Wilson, while Yuichiro Araki orchestrated the Japanese offense from under center and was the key to their success.
 
Araki showcased his arm throughout the tournament but put up his biggest number against Canada and Mexico as he threw for 639 yards and nine touchdowns in just two games.  With his precision passing along with great hands from his receivers, he completed an impressive 48 of 69 passes, a completion rate of 70%.

One big completion in particular came in the semi final match-up against Canada, arguably one of the best games of the tournament; to wide receiver Jumpei Yoshimoto in the corner of the end zone to take a 35-31 lead in the fourth quarter against the top seed.  The late fourth quarter touchdown gave Japan their first lead of game as they had fought back from a 14-point deficit.  Unfortunately, in the end Japan was unable to stop the determination of Canadian wide receiver Alex Anthony, who scored the game winning touchdown.   In the emotion-filled near upset, Yoshimoto proved to be one of Araki's favorite targets as he caught eight passes for 137 yards and two touchdowns.

"When I was high school and playing for a high school team I wasn't really throwing a lot," Araki said in the post-game press conference. "So today I threw a lot of passes. It was fun."

Japan's strategy may have been 'fun', but it also proved to be effective as they defeated Mexico in the Bronze Medal game to finish as one of two teams in the tournament to improve their ranking.  The tournament was a huge success for Japan who placed themselves firmly in among the elite football squads from North American by beating Mexico and nearly defeating Canada.

"I see this going a long ways in the future," said Team Japan head coach Takao Yamazaki afterwards. "Canada and the United States and Mexico are always in our target and someday we would like to climb up. Today is bronze (but we) would like to go higher than that."

The IFAF Junior World Championship was the perfect stage for Team Japan to expose the world to Japanese 'American Football' as they claimed a well earned bronze medal and with it, the July IFAF Team of the Month honor.