Japanese Press better Watch Out

It has been intereseting to watch the relationship between the Japanese sports media and the Japan National Football team and Zico. From the get-go, Zico has been extremely candid with regard to the media -- he has never ever demanded closed-door trainings, has always made time to address the press after every training and match. Even last year, when the Chinese press was sarcastic and insulting about the Japanese team's performance during Asia Cup, Zico held his ground and answered all questions as sincerely and cleverly as possible.

Before the North Korea game back in February this year, when it was predicted that an all-Japan-based-player team would be used for the first game of the final qualifying round, one major sports newspaper published a front page photo of the team with one of the heads cut out replaced by one of the Europe-based players. Zico got terribly angry at this insult to one of his players, and many in the JFA said that they had never ever seen Zico that angry. JFA chairman Kawabuchi, who has created a very open and comfortable relationship with Zico in the past year, talked over his concerns. The two agreed that they would have to be smarter with regard to the press -- in a press conference they said that they have up to then been almost too honest and sincere with regard to what they told the media, and would be cutting back their comments. Kawabuchi also convinced Zico that it was probably for the best for Zico not to announce the starting lineup days before the game. Announcing the lineup a few days before the game used to be one of Zico's policies. He doesn't like to play tricks or attempt to psych-out opponent teams with false announcements.

So going into the Iran and Bahrain game in March, we got an official lineup announcement only a few hours before the games. But this was not particularly disstressful to the press, as Zico kept his trainings open and you could tell who was going to start by looking at the practice sessions. It was only in yesterday's game against Bahrain, when the press were still not 100% sure about what the final starting group would be -- the switch to a double-omf/single-forward formation was a new thing, and people thought that the injury to Ono may return the team to a double-forward/single-omf structure.

Right after the Kirin Cup games, during a press conference, someone in the Japanese press asked a question about Zico's views on forward Takayuki Suzuki's performace -- in the question, he added a sneering aside "though it's not surprising we can't expect much from him" (rough translation). The rest of the press gallery broke out in chuckles. Though Zico always goes through a translator for communications with the press, it seems Zico understands more Japanese than we think he does. In fact, before the translator could give Zico the Portuguese version of the question, Zico's face had already hardened and flushed with anger. His response to the question was that he was incredulous that they could make a comment like that, and asked them to think back on how many times Japan has been saved by Suzuki's performance. He also told them to consider that Suzuki has always given his 100% to the team and the game.

After the team left Japan for the UAE camp, Zico stopped talking to the press. This was the first time ever that Zico had done this. After practices, he would simply breeze by the press group -- and most people thought this was because he was on yellow-alert after Japan's two consecutive losses at the Kirin Cup last week. But after yesterday's game, Zico said that the two losses last week were never a great concern to him -- he said that he knew the team would build themselves up in preparation for the Real game that counted against Bahrain.

So why did he ignore the press? His response was that he was indignant about the comments and the laughter during the press conference question regarding Suzuki. He said that he was truly disappointed and pained by the media's attitude towards the team, and asked why players that had sacrificed and put in so much for the team had to be ridiculed like that. He decided after that that he was going to personally stop making any further comments to the press until right before the game (when I guess he was required to).

The Japanese media has really shot themselves in the foot this year. They have taken advantage of the openness of Zico Japan's policies, and will end up ruining it for all of us if they don't learn to return the favor with professionalism -- and this is not just about avoiding behavior such as those that I discussed above. The Japanese press has made quite a nuisance of themselves, asking stupid questions repeatedly, and not having enough people who have a deep enough understanding of football in order to educate and inform the public properly. They tend to latch onto fad-themes and brand-name players, overplay one angle, etc. And they have also made a nuisance of themselves against opponent nations. I read comments by Iranians that the Japanese press were pestering the Iran NT with the same silly questions over and over. Not to mention their swarming over the North Korean team. It is a good thing that the Japanese media wants to relay more information about football to the main stream and increase public interest. But if they keep at it with this low a quality, it will do no one any good.