Football (Japan) Lost in Translation

2005-06-26T20:18:00.000+09:00

Football (Japan) Lost In Translation

is now MOVED to

http://footballjapan.blog14.fc2.com/

All new entries, video clips, etc. will now be posted at this new location.

Lost In Translation is Moving...!

2005-06-25T16:05:00.000+09:00

Hi! Sorry no new entries for another couple days. I am moving this blog over to another company, and will be attempting to transfer all my entries over there. "Why?" do you ask? Well, I realized that in order to organize the entries for easier locating I needed a blog company that enabled me to categorize entries (so you can find all the national team entries, or all the J1 entries, etc). Plus this other company allows some other features that this current one doesn't. I had wanted to move before, but kept putting it off. But I really need to make the move now, before the blog gets so big that even thinking about moving would make me exhausted.

Sorry for any inconvenience!

The NEW blog address is

http://footballjapan.blog14.fc2.com/

It is currently empty, but I will begin populating it this weekend. And new entries will be posted in a couple days too. Have a Great Weekend!

Brazil vs. Japan, highlights Video download

2005-06-24T12:06:00.000+09:00

The link I provided before seems to not be working anymore, but I came by another better highlights clip of the game, so I'll make it available here. Please right click and download.

Japan vs. Brazil Highlights Video 13 MB file, so the download will take a little while

Here's a link to a Fantastic Highlights Video: warning the file is about 60MB so the download will take time.

Confed Cup: Japan vs. Brazil

2005-06-24T10:03:00.000+09:00

Another deliriously long entry from me. A wrap-up of the Brazil game and Japan's recent month. For VIDEO CLIPS, click here for the entry linking to clips.

Happy 27th Birthday to Shunsuke Nakamura!!

The Joy of Football

I don't know if those of you who watched this game noticed this: in the second half, while Japan was still trailing 1-2, there was a play where the ball went from Kaji on the right to Nakamura on the top right side of the box who then nudged it horizontally towards the center for Fukunishi who had run up for the direct shot. The shot went high and a little out, but when the cameras closed up on Nakamura and Fukunishi's faces as the exchanged a few words, we saw them smiling. It was at this point that I knew: hey, this team is having fun. They aren't disheartened by Brazil's more than obvious superiority in almost all individual aspects of the game -- they are going to keep going for the win til the end and enjoy every last second left on the clock.

The atmosphere of the stadium this day was wonderful. A full crowd, mostly wearing the Brazil colors; but most of all, the crowd was there to be entertained by some football. And the crowd was a very active one, responding to the plays and giving appreciation where it was due. There were a number of high-spirited full-stadium waves throughout the game, one Brazil spectator ran onto the pitch and caused a little diversion, and the crowd hissed and cheered and basically showed they were enjoying the game. I heard that the German football magazine Kicker gave the content of this game a score of 1.5 (1 being best, 6 being worst), the best rating they've given of any of the group round games.

As I sit here, I am a little stuck. I don't know where I should begin.

Perhaps I'll touch on Brazil first -- these guys, they are so purely world class. I know, biggest understatement of the year. The simplicity and elegance of their passing is based on perfect ball control, composure, ability to read the game and play accordingly, use of both slow and fast, and great positioning. They know how to use time to their advantage, manipulate the opponent, and make clean interceptions/challenges. Because Brazil needed only a draw against Japan to go through to the next round, I was curious to see how they would use these tricks to control Japan. In practically every category, they out-classed Japan. In the game overall, they kept things low-risk and careful. They made sure to take advantage of possession, and in the end of the first half they even resorted to using up the clock by passing back and forth on the back line -- inspiring some energetic hissing from the crowds. They took 19 shots, 9 of which were on-goal, 2 goals total.

So the question was, what was Japan going to do about it? The first order of business for Japan, Brazil aside, was to play their own style of football and not compromise. And they did. Though they did not have majority of possession, there were a number of good midfield-passing plays that brought the ball to the Brazil goal area. What I noticed most, while comparing Japan's Confed Cup play to those of other European countries, was that Japan has a very unique rhythm to their passing. The first notable, of course, was the beautiful zigzag passing-sequence up the center that led to Kaji's cool goal-but-no-goal at 4 minutes... it was called offsides, but my bias aside I thought it was a dubious call at best. There was also that great back-header by Yanagisawa from an Ogasawara free kick from the left that just hit the underside of the bar and bounced out. At half time, Nakamura commented that he and Miyamoto talked about increasing the covering-awareness when on the defense -- that if one player got passed, another and another needed to back them up. And Zico told the players to be more aggressive/tough around the ball. The first half had better one-touch clean passing from Japan, but there was still an air of being overwhelmed.

The second half started with Oguro subbing in for Tamada (who though was moving around well, did not help his team by messing up almost all his traps and losing the ball) and Koji Nakata subbing in for Ogasawara (who started off the game well but soon looked like he was out of it; Zico mentioned on his blog that Ogasawara was not in form this game). HNakata switched from dmf to omf. Almost immediately, Japan made an attempt from Oguro's approach from the left -- he tapped the ball forward past the defense to Yanagisawa but the goalie had crowded in and Yanagisawa's shot was smothered. Then, just after, a vertical pass from Fukunishi to Oguro on the right saw Oguro pass the ball through the legs of the defender in to Nakamura who was able to get a toe on it. The ball looked like it was going to be a second goal for Japan but a defender cleared it before it crossed the line. Brazil retaliated with a number of breathtaking attempts that were thwarted by goalie Kawaguchi -- who used pretty much every part of his body this game, including his face, to stave off a third goal by Brazil. The second half showed less of the direct one touch passing, an increase in passing mistakes by Japan which led to some dangerous moments. But the second half showed more possibility.

Japan's offensive performance in the second half showed Japan's increasing confidence and joy. Miyamoto said that after the second goal from Brazil in the first half, the team was a bit in shock -- particularly because it came right after Nakamura scored off an amazing 30 meter shot. It was also during the period where Japan was revved up to go for an additional goal, so that second goal from Brazil made Japan's shoulders sag a bit. But the introduction of Oguro onto the pitch (Oguro's entrance seems to revive the team's spirit) and HNakata to omf made Japan a much more effective team on the offense. KNakata's unglamorous but dependable presence in back also kept heads cool in the defense despite the many dangerous moments for Japan. And as I said above, from the periodic smiles among the Japan players in the second half, you could tell that they were feeling something good. Japan were threatened by Brazil a number of times, but Japan stuck to their style of play and kept attacking.

As the clock showed a remaining 10-plus minutes, Brazil started to play accordingly, hunkering down in back using possession well. Japan's persistence gave them a free kick from an ideal spot just outside the box in the final minutes. Nakamura sent in a lowish ball that went over the wall but curved to the right -- the ball hit the right post, ricocheted out, but was volleyed back in by Oguro. With the game in injury time, Japan made one last effort off a very elegant approach -- Santos got the ball and cut in from the left, crossing positions over with HNakata, and sent the ball to the right. Fukunishi chipped the ball for a careful lob to the area just near the left goal post where HNakata and Oguro had run in, beating the defense line trap. Oguro got his head on the ball, and the course was good, but the goalie was able to shove the ball away. Japan's third goal was not to be. Japan had 9 shots, 7 on-goal, 2 goals total. This was the first time in history that Japan got two goals against Brazil. And in a surprising change of protocol, the FIFA technical study commission awarded the Man of the Match honors to Japan's Nakamura (despite the fact that Japan are out of the competition).

After the game, the Japanese players were most dissatisfied by the fact that they couldn't get the result they wanted -- to go on to the next round of games. Other than that, most comments dealt with the good and bad things they learned about themselves following these three Confederations Cup games. There are still many many things this team needs to address on both defense and offense as well as individual mental, strength, and technical issues. But these games have given the team something to chew on -- they come out of it with hints and ideas about what to be confident about as well as what needs more work. This result at Confed Cup, tying in points with Brazil but ultimately losing in goal differential, also reminds us that in tournaments there is a need for consistency and goal-getting. If Japan had gotten a few more goals during the Greece game where they created so many chances but had poor finish; if Japan had held Mexico to a tie instead of losing focus and allowing the 2nd goal... if onlys are useless. But they taught us a lesson for next year. And most people in Japan are not satisfied by the draw result against Brazil -- because ultimately it was a loss.

Zico Japan's Metamorphosis

In a press conference prior to the game, one of the non-Japanese media people commented on the surprising fact that the Japan team's training sessions looked very cheerful and relaxed. Perhaps they were expecting to see nervous and tense faces from the Japan players on the eve of their encounter with world champions Brazil. But Zico Japan's team atmosphere is characterized by an effort by everyone to keep a positive and focused atmosphere where players can debate freely and compete amongst themselves at top level while contributing to overall team unity. Yanagisawa commented (returning to the after a year away) that he felt a difference in the team, that it was easy to slip into the team, and he was welcomed back naturally and without awkwardness. Oguro also mentioned that when he first got called up to the team this year, he was able to get along with the others after spending time with them in nontraining periods -- the card game UNO has apparently played a big part in creating a good team atmosphere, and we heard that this was how the group sitting in economy class during the long flight to Oman last year spent their time (the NT missed a flight due to typhoon and the younger members of the team had to sit in economy for lack of seats).

This part of Zico Japan's personality was probably established during the month-long stay in China during the Asia Cup last year. (They raised a few eyebrows the day before Japan's final against China, when the team went on a tour of the Great Wall...! And I believe the UNO trend began in China too.) One of Zico's last words before any game is to tell the players to focus on one play at a time and enjoy the game, but so far, during the knifes-edge two-ish years of qualification, it was difficult for the team to express or show any joy. You may think that this is unneccessary for an NT, where pros should be pros. But consider this -- the NT spent 138 days together in 2004. That's more than a third of the year stuck with each other shuttling between hotel and practice and games. So a certain amount of spirit, especially if you are not a top-five team in the world, is essential to carry you through something like a tournament or high pressure away games. And, for Zico Japan's style of Freedom Football (not to be mistaken with "Freedom Fries") to work the players need to express their creativity/inspiration, and their creativity/inspiration comes from joy.

I mentioned in this entry (see subheading "NT Version Upgrade") just after Japan qualified for the World Cup by winning the NK game, the first thing the Japanese players focused on after the momentary relief of qualifying, was to re-discover their own style and start building a team worthy of the World Cup. What was quite amazing was that the Japanese players were able to get right on the task within a week.

The Mexico game started off the Confed Cup with some confusion. The game started off with a sizzling goal from Kaji→Yanagisawa. But this early goal may have whet the appetite of the players to pile more goals on. Everyone was so eager to move forward that they all sort of forgot about their basic responsibilities or how to play intelligently. It was a bit chaotic. At half time, many of the players were venting their frustrations at each other -- they told HNakata he was going forward too much and was ruining the balance, they told Santos he wasn't contributing to the defense at all, and so on. Miura stepped in and tried to calm everyone down. And after the game, Nakamura (who had been taken out of the match partway through the second half) sat on the bench and stared out on the pitch long after everyone had gone in.

Because of Nakamura's back injury, and poor performance during the Mexico game, there was a danger that he would be pulled from the starting lineup. JFA chair Kawabuchi even commented that Nakamura was not ready to play. And what a mistake that would have been!

But perhaps Nakamura's strongest trait is his ability to come back from disappointment. He draws images in his mind, creates blueprints that get tucked away for a rainy day. He learns quickly from his mistakes. And he and the team came back with overwhelming force in the Greece game. The passing, the running, power, the pressing, the energy and the focus. It was all there. And it caught everyone, most of all Japanese supporters, by absolute surprise. Nakamura was awarded Man of the Match. From the North Korea game which was on June 8 to the Mexico game on June 16 and the Greece game on June 19th, to the Brazil game on June 22... they had exactly 7 training days where all starting players participated (the days after games, starting players don't do regular training but do light exercise at the hotel pool). Nakamura missed additional practices due to his injury.

It was kind of like watching someone search high and low for their keys and realize that it was in their pocket the whole time. Was it there all along? If so, why didn't we find it sooner? But perhaps this clearly illustrates just how under pressure Japan was to not-mess-it-up during the qualifiers. The Result was so overwhelming important, that all the players had to back off any risky notion of ambition or creativity in order to make sure they completed the Job.

We saw a glimmer of this new version Japan during the Bahrain game, and credit for the change in quality was given to the change in system to 3-4-2-1. But I don't think the system was the only catalyst for the change -- it was the self-awareness and consciousness of the team as a whole. In the same previous entry, I discussed the midnight meeting the team held at the UAE hotel just prior to the Bahrain game. The meeting was called to discuss defensive tactics, but it turned into a discussion about the psychological state of the players and a return of confidence in their abilities (the notion that they are not playing wrong, just playing with too much fear). The losses during the Kirin cup friendlies against Peru and UAE sent a spike of doubt and disbelief through the team, and the discussion centered around how they were going to change their attitude about the pressure they were under, and reaffirm the faith they had in the team. And if you look at the performance during the Bahrain game, and watch the game against Brazil, you will see many similarities. The big difference was that in the Bahrain game, Japan had the upper hand. This turning point was significant in a number of ways -- it showed that the players are able to freely talk with each other without dismantling the unity, that there is a natural mechanism for problem-solving, and that the nature of the team's play is truly defined by the players (not a specific strategy or system).

The fact that Japan was able to play Brazil with some effect and out-play Greece using the 4-4-2 system is also very important. Back in March, Zico changed to the 4-4-2 system right before the Iran game; and boy-oh-boy did the players revolt against it! After the players were able to convince Zico to go to the 3-5-2 system during the European tour in 2004, the players clung to the notion that they were unstable with anything else. What was funny was that Japan often switched from 3-5-2 to 4-4-2 during the course of a game, particularly when they needed to go after goals. And when they did, they did fine. But if you made them start with the 4-4-2, it was another matter. But looking at the systems used from the North Korea game to the Brazil game, we saw the team use the 3-5-2, the 3-4-2-1, the 4-3-3, and the 4-4-2. The conclusion is that the team can play with anything as long as they play their game and play intelligently.

As I said about a hundred times already in this blog, the 4-4-2 is Zico's ideal for the World Cup. I was wondering if he'd give up on it altogether after the Iran game, but he didn't. Instead he utilized it very well against Greece. The confidence the team got from that good game led to them overcoming their strange fear of this system. And now the players seem unfazed by the idea of using it. I guess they realized that the system was not the problem -- the problem was their own fear.

Players

Okay, so speaking of the 4-4-2 reminds me of sidebacks. And sidebacks reminds me that I have to mention Kaji. I wrote a brief entry about him a while ago, and I have been truly rooting for him. And wow, what an impression he has made in Germany. I don't know what it was -- the water, the air, the juicy Germany sausages? But the New Version Japan may have something to do with it. Particularly, the presence of Ogasawara and HNakata pull out good performances from Kaji. And HNakata's constant advice and critique has also given Kaji a kick in the rear -- almost an excuse to play with more ambition. Supporters have been most critical of the two sides for the past year, but this extreme improvement in Kaji just as we qualify and enter the world stage is intriguing. Kaji commented that he was at peak fitness throughout Germany, his body felt good. And he also said that he has more confidence; also, that up to now he had to prioritize the defense and couldn't time his overlaps very well. There are rumors that a German club (I think Hamburg) sent a scout out to the Brazil game to check on Kaji.

On the other hand (or should I say the "other side"), Santos.... Oy vei. His performance these three games has been absolutely awful. In fact, even if you look back to the Bahrain game, Santos has been working against his own team and has helped the opponent to a number of dangerous opportunities. His dribbling is awkward, his fake outs don't work, and his crosses have been poor. He gets unnecessary yellow cards, and gets overemotional. On the other hand, his absolute loyalty to the team is there, and I wonder what he thinks of his own performance. Will he change? And how long will Zico give Santos to clean up his act before giving someone else a chance?

As for the on-going issue about forwards -- well, let's say this. Yanagisawa and Oguro are still in. Tamada may really have to watch out. His strengths are supposed to be speed and dribbling. But he has been constantly messing up on traps -- he doesn't have that soft touch. But in the international level, where a 2 cm difference could mean the difference between keeping the ball and losing it to an opponent marking you, a controlled trap is the first step to a goal. Tamada is not going to be scoring many headers, so unless he can do something about his traps he may not be able to get goals.

People are frustrated that Oguro is not getting a starting position, but I thought this was probably the best way to use the forwards we had. Going into the difficult game, it's always good to have an ace like him up your sleeve. If we had started with Oguro, and things went badly, there would have been nowhere to go. I'm certain that Zico is going to be starting him in the next games (especially if it's true that he won't be calling up many/any of the Europe-based players for the EAFF Cup). Zico has commented that Oguro is the only forward who doesn't panic in the penalty area -- Zico's biggest headache right now is that many of the Japanese players lack composure in front of the opponent's goal mouth.

As for Suzuki, it all depends on the direction/style of the team as it develops over the year. from the type of plays that the New Version Japan has shown, it looks like Suzuki may not be able to contribute much to the team any more. At least, until Kubo or Takahara come back and show whether they are any good.

The Value of the Struggle

Looking at the timing of the Confederations Cup coming right after the fifth game of the qualifiers, I can't imagine what we would have been doing if we had not won the Asia Cup last year. By playing stubbornly through that exhausting tournament, with all the highs and lows, missing seven starters and stars, playing dull but results-oriented football, learning the value of never giving up (will we ever forget that Jordan game PK shootout? or the 10 man game against Bahrain?) and building a team environment that shuts out unwanted "noise" from the outside, the Asia Cup experience led to the Japan that exists today. The one that held it together despite all the problems cropping up, and qualified for the World Cup. The one that got to go to the Confed Cup and quickly switch mentality from Qualifying to Challenging. Sometimes 'It's not winning but how you play the game,' and sometimes 'Winning is everything.' Now, it is going to have to be about both.

The next NT game will be against North Korea at the EEFA Cup in about a month. Yup. North Korea. Again.... Twice in one year is enough, but a third??? ;) Anyway, Zico said that he was planning on using more Japan-based players, so I guess we may see a few new call ups. Of course, Japan must win the darn thing, EEFA or not, there's no value to approaching any of the games from now on with an attitude that it's "only a test".

[OOps, I guess I'm becoming dyslexic: what I meant was EAFF -- not EEFA.... EAFF for East Asian Football Federation....sorry for the error! And thanks Furtho for pointing it out!]

Japan 2 - 2 Brazil plus Video of previous games

2005-06-23T06:38:00.000+09:00

The game just ended a few minutes ago, so I won't be making any comments about this Brazil game yet. Will come back with my thoughts by late tonight if I don't fall asleep first. Japan drew with Brazil, 2-2, so we won't be going on to the knockout stage. Brazil will be going on instead to play against Germany.

The Japan NT's next chance to get together will be before the July 31st start of the East Asia Football Federation Cup. They will be playing against South Korea, North Korea, and China. The women's tournament will also be going on at the same time this year, so it will be a very busy few weeks if you plan on watching both men's and women's. The Japanese women have a good chance at getting to first place -- there are some very cool women on this Japan team. I may come back and discuss them when the tournament starts.

Video Clips
If you have not caught the goal highlights from the two previous games Japan played, here are some passed on by a viewer in the Middle East:

Please Right Click and Download

Japan 1 - 0 Mexico: Kaji crosses to Yanagisawa for the goal
Japan 1 - 1 Mexico
Japan 1 - 2 Mexico

Japan 1 - 0 Greece: Fukunishi recovers possession, sends the ball to Oguro but the ball gets clipped by Greek defenders and falls to Nakamura's feet -- Nakamura sends in a well-paced pass to Oguro who pushes it in for the goal

Here is the highlight clip from the Under-13 World Championships Final between Japan 2 - 0 South Africa. Note, the man sitting at the desk in the tv studio is a retired baseball player, and the cute boy who took both shots (that did not completely go in but was rescued by a teammate) is his third eldest son! I guess football and baseball can co-exist in one Japanese family... :)

The World Youth Championships run ended for Japan's U-20 team on Tuesday when Japan allowed an injury time goal to Morrocco (Morrocco 1 - 0 Japan). This means that Japan leave the tournie at the best-16, but without having won one single game. I watched this game, and have a few thoughts about this team's performance but it's a little fruitless to discuss it now -- these guys will be the core group for the 2008 Beijing Olympics U-23 squad, so all I'm hoping is that by then a better team and coach can be put together. There are a number of promising players, but all in all the team lacked maturity, confidence/composure, and a true creative leader. Particularly disturbing was the poor passing shown during this game -- though most people who have been following this team for a while say this was the team's most true-to-style performance, they are going to have to do better than this if they plan on making it to Beijing.

If You Can't Push, then Try Pulling: Oita Trinita (J1)

2005-06-21T12:29:00.000+09:00

This is Oita Trinita's third year since promotion, and the last few years have been a cycle of disappointing results and a fight to stay out of relegation.

Coach Hwangbo Kan (pic left), former South Korean international forward, just got promoted from support coach to head coach this year. In the pre-season, he asserted that "my personality is not one which is satisfied by merely playing defensive football." Though last year's coach Han Berger also pushed for a similar attack-minded style, Oita Trinita were able to only get 35 points for the season, finishing in 15th place. Not only that, they had the third worst number of goals allowed (56) last year.

Looking at the breakdown of last season's performance, an interesting pattern emerges. In last season's games, Oita have scored only 9 goals in the first half of the game (a quarter of their total). But, they have scored 13 goals in the last 15 minutes of the game. As for goals allowed, Oita gave up 20 goals in the first half; 20 in the first 30 minutes of the second half; and 16 goals in the last 15 minutes of the game. They scored the first goal in only 6 games, and had frequently put themselves into the difficult situation of playing catch-up in most of their games. On the other hand, the games in which they did score the first goal... these games they never lost.

Despite the vulnerability in the defense, Oita had emerged in this 2005 season still putting their priority on the attack. They have not made any clear reinforcements to their defense group or even the midfielders. And perhaps we can assume that this is an influence of an ex-forward coach. The philosophy may be that instead of worrying about the minutiae of their own defense, they'll use what fire-power they have to take advantage of the weaknesses in the opponents' defense. From the pre-season, Oita have collected 8 forwards (up 3) for their team -- including ex-Brazil international Dodo and former FCTokyo Abe. They also have U-23/AthensOlympic forward Takamatsu, and we cannot forget the force of Magno Alvez.

So all in all, the team this year is not very different from the faces we saw last year. Going into the season, it was clear that with no particular change in the roster, the difference/change would have to come from within: not depending solely on individual brilliance of the forwards, getting the team to think like a team and improve cohesion. And of course the performance of the defense would play a big role in the results.

From the beginning of the season, the key player looked to be fw Dodo (pic right), who is not only able to finish well but also has great passing sense. His ability to set up goals for fellow forwards like Takamatsu and Magno Alvez are crucial to getting goals. Also the performance of Yoshida, who is a forward but plays often as an omf or sidehalf, was also expected to determine the team's results.

But the team's performance during the first five games did not show the results they had hoped for. At one point, the team could not solidify their starting members or their system -- this led to confusion and a sort of self-destruction. The result was that after Round 6, Oita had fallen into last place -- especially following games against Jef Chiba and Cerezo Osaka where Oita ended up giving up the lead. The defenders wore out in latter half of the games and ended up unable to restore themselves properly before the opponents grabbed the wins.

Towards the last few weeks of league games, Oita coach Hwangbo has changed his tune -- in Round 6 he switched the team from 3-5-2 to 4-4-2 system, and since then the team has won 4, drawn 1 and lost 2. The personality of Trinita has shifted from the pre-season ideal of strong-attack-to-cover-weak-defense to defend-first-and-go-for-the-counter-attack. And somehow this new philosophy is actually bringing out the best of Magno Alves and Dodo. The defense is stable, with four in defense plus the two dmfs contributing with pressure+covering, and the counter-attacks have good punch. "In football, balance is the most important. If the balance of the defense crumbles, you can't hope to have proper attack," is Coach Hwangbo's new favorite comment. And with this clear plan, the players are able to focus and think on what they each need to do. To back up the two forwards, instead of isolating them up front, the midfielders are taking care to keep possession in midfield to give the forwards time and better opportunities.

As we saw in the Omiya game, Oita still have to improve on their combination play, particularly against a team that has a strong defense awareness and tall players like Omiya (Oita lost 3-1). The speedy and simple counter doesn't work against all teams, and this experience against Omiya (and Omiya mf Fujimoto's contribution to his team's plays) set a good example from which Oita midfielders learned. One of Oita's midfielders commented after the game that he'd like to use Fujimoto's example when he thinks about how he can contribute to the team's performance going forward.

Oita are currently in 12th place with 16 points, only 4 points behind 2nd place Sanfrecce Hiroshima. Their goals allowed is relatively high, with 17, but there are nine teams with equal or more goals allowed, so I guess they are in the middle. They are also in the middle with their results -- 5 wins, 1 draw, and 6 losses.

But it is too soon to relax for Oita: The departure of Dutch def&dmf Patrick Zwaanswijk (pic, who came from FC Utrecht and played with Toshiya Fujita during his time there) after his contract is up on July 14 will put a big dent in the Oita defense as well as offense (Patrick has height and is a crucial target during cks and fks). I have not heard if they are planning on getting someone new from outside or not. He'll be able to play with the team until Round 16, but I imagine the team will be trying out some other players during the next few rounds.

Oita actually have a very good supporter base -- last year I believe they were among the top with regard to spectator attendance. To be honest, I still have difficulty getting a good sense of the Oita club culture but it looks like as a team they have finally started to find a shape they like -- even though it turned out to be the complete opposite of what they aimed for at the beginning of the season!
[japan football soccer j-league]

Generations of Youth: U-13 & U-20

2005-06-20T13:28:00.000+09:00

I'm not sure many of you may know this (I certainly didn't have a clue), but for the past few weeks South Korea was hosting the U-13 World Championships tournament. "Under-thirteen" sounds so ridiculously young, but I guess you have to start young. And can we say, ADORABLE!

The strange thing was that we didn't really hear a peep about it til yesterday when the sports news segment announced that the Japanese U-13 team just won the championship -- in a final against South Africa, 2-0. They did show the goal clips, and they were actually very high quality approaches -- the first a long shot that hit the post on the inside but the ball was picked up by a teammate and slammed back in. The second came off a long dribbling approach on the left side, a cross to the far side post that was then pushed in. Anyway, it must have been such a blast for these kids, wearing the exact NT uniforms of their big brothers and representing their country.

As for the U-20 World Youth Championships, Japan is becoming known as the miracle team -- the first in tournie history to make it to the knockout stages without winning one single game (1 loss, 2 draws; total of 2 points). Not exactly something to write home about, but it's an opportunity that they should definitely take full advantage of. Their next game is against Morocco. If you have a chance to watch this game, keep an eye out for the forwards (Cullen, Morimoto, Maeda, Hirayama), plus Mizuno and Ienaga whose high quality crosses and kicks can often give Japan a new lease on life.

Japan 1 - 0 Greece (NT)

2005-06-20T12:18:00.000+09:00

System 4-4-2
This system was used mostly as a precaution against the height and air-superiority of Greece (a 6cm difference in average height exists between the two teams' players) -- by having the fullbacks occupy the sides, the aim was to keep Greece from freely utilizing the side pockets near the Japan goal for their often dangerous crosses. As for Japan, who had used the 3-4-2-1 system in the Mexico game, but found themselves having a difficult time finding teammates on the attack, the return of two forwards would help the omfs (Nakamura and Ogasawara) create more variation.

The Groove of the Forwards
It is also worth mentioning that Tamada, Oguro and Yanagisawa had almost no play time together before going into this tournament. Yanagisawa started for the first time (in over a year) in the North Korea game, and he was paired with Suzuki. He got to play with Oguro in the second half. The Mexico game started with Yanagisawa as sole forward, but joined by Oguro in the 23rd minute of the second half; and then by Tamada in the 37th minute of the second half, all three together). It will probably take a while before these three get better acquainted with each other (though I believe they are each quite comfortable with the omfs). But on the whole, Tamada and Yanagisawa, who started in the Greece game, kept good positioning in relation to each other and now it's more a matter of the finish.

What was funny, especially after the entry I wrote on Japanese forwards (and the overall Japanese tendency to shy away from taking the shot), was that in this game we saw a large number of Japanese players actually taking the shot instead of passing or sending in a cross -- aside from the forwards, we saw Kaji, Fukunishi, Santos, KNakata. I'm not sure if this is something that was discussed among the players prior to the game, or just came off the natural flow of the game, but it was definitely a change. Now if they can just get the ball inside the rectangular thing, that would be peachy.

Revisiting the Finish
If you saw the game, you'll probably wonder how we could have so many good opportunities and still be scoreless at halftime. Zico said after the game that coming out of the Mexico game one of his big concerns was not the finish but the final pass just prior to the finish. He said that 'It's one thing if that was the true reflection of the players' skills; but it isn't. The poor performance in the final passing during the Mexico game was a mental issue -- lack of focus, rushing, etc'. So in training, he concentrated on the passing just before the shot, not the finish itself. Well, as we can see, it seems to have helped the team bring up their perfomance in creating the chances -- perhaps the players are also getting used to the Confed Cup atmosphere. But the ridiculous number of missed shots is also the on-going saga of this NT. Whether it's the need for mental improvement or technical improvement, this is going to be the key theme for the team (and Japanese football in general) in the year ahead.

By not getting a goal in the first half, when Japan was using up a lot of their energy, they made the start of the second half very difficult for themselves. An uncomfortable air hung above the Japan team, and it gave Greece a renewed vigor. I hope Yanagisawa in particular is not falling into his old habits again -- he hesitated on a number of shots and missed the chance.

Total Defense
During the game against Mexico, I mentioned that Japan was simply lacking in overall unity and cohesion of thought, particularly when it came to pressuring Mexico (who had used their phenomenal passing skills to wear down and confuse Japan). Pressure was haphazard and the timing of the approach was off. This was a big big point for the team to correct going into this game against Greece.

But from start to finish, Japan was able to show that they had worked some of these issues out, putting enough power and pressure to regain possession over and over again. I was surprised that Greece did not in turn put more pressure on Japan. We saw in this game that Japan players were contributing to defense from the front lines (particularly Yanagisawa was running around keeping the pressure on the defenders as they looked to pass forward) while Fukunishi and HNakata picked up a lot of balls in their area and created a lot of chances that originated with them -- one of which led to the goal for Japan.

Probably the worst moment of the game was the period right after Japan's goal -- Japan seemed to lose focus a number of times, and one in particular was near-fatal (Tanaka fumbled his trap with two Greek players nearby, and fumbled the pass back to goalie Kawaguchi -- if it wasn't for some quick recovery and catching the Greek players off guard themselves, it would have been a goal for Greece no question). This period of fumbling around lasted five-plus minutes, but everyone seemed to calm down a bit after the above incident. After that, the team seemed to regain steadiness, and the midfielders did some interesting passwork -- as well as using up the remaining ten minutes while still making careful attempts for a second goal. These final moments of a game are always the most unnerving -- it's important for the entire team to have a clear understanding of what the priorities are with regard to risk-taking and chance-making, and how to spend the remaining time. The only thumbs down has to go to Santos, who got a yellow for a silly reason (took time throwing in the ball -- I swear he rarely gets a yellow card for actual dangerous play).

The OMFs and DMFs
One of the disappointing areas of this game was that HNakata and Ogasawara both wasted some perfect chances by sending very unpolished vertical passes through the defense line -- the forwards were making their best attempt to follow the ball through, but the passes were rather rough and had too much pace on them that it just wasted the forwards' energy.

Continuing from my question regarding Endo's substitution-in during the North Korea game (where he did not go in as a dmf but instead took Ogasawara's position as omf), I was excited to see him get subbed in again for Ogasawara in the 74th minute. One would expect to have HNakata go up next to Nakamura as omf with Endo in as dmf. But this did not happen. And what was even more interesting was to see Endo finally playing his more offense-oriented style. Despite being a dmf even at his club (Gamba Osaka), Endo's flavor is more in the offense (as he said in this article). At Gamba he is not only the place kicker, but also sends in crosses and through-passes to the forward three and is often involved in the play-making. For the past year, Endo has been patiently sticking to a defense-only style, because that was what Zico asked of him -- considering the type of games they had to play through (like the Asia Cup). Zico said in his post-game press conference that Endo has wonderful ball control, a soft touch. And it could be that Zico is more aware of Endo's true 'nature' than we had assumed.

Overall, Greece was prioritizing getting fks and cks, so naturally Japan would use the speed advantage and a counter-like pattern of attack after these kicks. However, unlike a classic counter, where only a couple players are involved, Japan switched between offense and defense very quickly and even though the speed was counter-like, there were plenty of players arriving in front of the Greece goal by the time a cross or shot was taken. This was probably the biggest area of improvement. This unified consciousness was missing in the previous games. Regardless of how the opponent performed, the first order of business for Japan is to find their own style and play with more creativity. After the Mexico game, Nakamura sat on the bench and stared out at the pitch long after everyone else had gone in -- I was interested to see how the team would recover from that defeat.

Well, onwards! With no time to waste, off to Koeln the NT goes...

2005-06-20T08:29:00.000+09:00

I have a bit of catching up to do, don't I? I promise I'll be back late tonight with a number of new entries, so please check back then. Have a good Monday, all!

Japanese Forwards

2005-06-17T12:24:00.000+09:00

Furtho once asked me why there are so many foreign players who play as forwards in the J-league -- why does Japan depend so heavily on foreign help on the front lines? I didn't have a really solid explanation for him back when he asked me, aside from the obvious ones -- like foreign players tend to be taller and have better finish (or at least Japan tends to recruit these types of foreign forwards), or that it was a quick fix to an age-old problem among Japanese players.

For people who are nationals of other countries, it must be very strange to think of a country where most of the forwards don't think their one job is to get goals. But it's true -- in Japan, many forwards feel that their job consists of a variation of tasks, only one of which is to aim for a goal. Japan likes intricate passing and setting-up of goals -- but it has developed players into decent passers and not decent finishers. Why? It's hard to say what's going on at the development level (like in high school or youth programs). It could be that Japan has had a mentality that Japanese players don't have what it takes to make a difference as an individual -- that teams get wins only when everyone contributes to numerous responsibilities. Many of the technically gifted players start off as forwards as boys, but then get moved to other positions (especially midfield) when they arrive in the professional league. But like I said in the entry about the World Youth Championships, Japan's U-20 stars consist mostly of three high profile forwards. So it will be interesting to see if the situation in Japan will change as time passes.

In Japan right now, the only Japanese player who is completely and utterly dedicated to getting goals is Oguro. Before and after every game, this is all he addresses. And the thing he repeats in every interview is "My job is to get goals, so that's all I think about. When the coach gives me the chance, the only way to repay his trust in me is to get goals."

In the press conference following Japan's advancement to the World Cup, forward Yanagisawa said "I realize the importance and significance of being a forward who can get goals." Yanagisawa is 28, and has played in Italy for 2 years. So you may say, 'what? he's a forward for all these years and he's saying this now?' My only response is to say, well at least he's gotten the point a year ahead of the World Cup... and maybe his words and Oguro's performance in the J-league last and this year will have some effect on the rest of Japan's forwards.

Of course, I am overgeneralizing, as there are other players who show the attitude -- but aside from Okubo (now in Spain) and Morimoto (who is now 17 and playing for the Youth NT), not many have that scent that promises of a successful goal-oriented forward.

Even Tamada, who is now slipping in the NT heirarchy, does not always play as a forward for his club Kashiwa Reysol. In fact, Tamada is so busy kicking all the free kicks and being captain or playing as an omf that he has little time to aggressively go after goals himself at his club. Even Takahara was told by his former-Hamburg coach to play as a midfielder last year (which he refused and ended up getting sent down to the non-pro team until he was resurrected by current coach Dorr). And Takahara does not have a good chemistry with this NT (well, he keeps getting hurt before big tournaments or games, which is part of the problem). He almost tries too hard to do too much.

And then there is Suzuki, who had started off as a defender at school (I believe...anyone correct me if I'm wrong) but then got sent forward. Despite the fact that everyone agrees he is far from a good finisher and not technically gifted, he has been playing as a forward for top club Kashima, got called to the NT under two different coaches, played in WC02, and even got to go play in a couple clubs in Belgium (one of which treated him very badly, but that's besides the point...). The fact that Suzuki had height and strength, and was able to contribute in other ways and compensate with what strengths he has, has kept him on the NT. If you try and look for another guy like him in the J league, you'd have some difficulty finding someone with his physical and mental attitude and experience but with better finish.

But Zico is currently favoring a 3-4-2-1 system, where the sole forward needs to be able to move fast and change positions well with the two omfs as well as finish. This means that Suzuki will have a difficult time holding onto his position in the NT if someone like Kubo comes back. Kubo has the height, but has the technique to overthrow Suzuki (though he will not contribute to multi-tasking like Suzuki does). And as I said before, most Japan supporters are eagerly waiting for his return. He wasn't great a few years ago during the Troussier reign, but maybe the style of Zico Japan suits him better because Kubo has played very well with omfs like Nakamura and responded well to feeds from dmfs like Ono in this past year or so. He doesn't run around like some of the other forwards, mostly stays put at the top, but he can play post as well as finish. But first he has to get back to his original form after his injury last year.

The 3-4-2-1 system that Zico has switched to is seen as his response to the inability for Japan's forwards to get goals. But it is also a way to utilize Japan's assets -- namely the midfielders. But even the midfielders cannot make a dent against strong opponents unless someone is able to finish.

Japan 1 - 2 Mexico (NT)

2005-06-17T08:09:00.000+09:00

The score sounds close, but the game was dominated by Mexico. However, Japan did have the opportunities to at least come away with a draw. I feel a little bit like how I felt after the Iran qualifier game -- that we could have played smarter and with more passion.

I am going to assume everyone reading this has seen the game, or have taped it, or have access to re-broadcasts. So I'm not going to really do any play-by-play breakdown and bore everyone to death. But if you haven't seen the game, or have seen it and want to address a specific play or player or noticed some patterns, please leave your comment! I am not sure who is reading this blog, so it's a little difficult for me to guage.

The general points:

- total defensive work was ununified. Japan let Mexico play way way way too freely, and for a team like Mexico who play with fluid passing and with a high quality of technique (ability to create long periods of possession) this should have been Japan's first care. Japan did okay for part of the first half, but there were also many periods of red-alert when Japan could not find their rhythm. They made the job more difficult for themselves by running around without organization.

- Nakamura and Santos were sloppy and unable to assert their presence on the field. These two were dragging the team down. They lost a lot balls to the opponent and seemed unable or unwilling to show energy. Nakamura's back/hip injury seemed to be adding to his ineffectiveness -- he kept getting blown away by the opponent, and it may have had to do with him not being able to plant his weight down properly. Nakamura looked very irritated overall. Though Nakamura tried a few things, overall he and Santos just kept breaking down any tempo Japan started to get. Santos was obviously out of it, and I would have preferred him getting subbed out. Nakamura's misses came from two things: not having the power to hold his own against one or two opponents who came at him, and trying too many tricky things at the beginning of the game (he should have saved some of his more creative attempts for later when Japan had gotten settled in more).

- the team lacked cohesion. It could be that the players were all going into the game with different plans drawn up in their heads. Like the Iran game, the team did not know how to get back control of the game as a unit.

- first half Kaji was actually doing better than the rest. In a strange twist of ... I don't know what .. oft-berated Kaji showed spunk in the first half of the game. He even got his first goal-assist in a very long time. Usually he ends up tied to the defense because Santos is going forward more; however, today he was responding well and timed his overlaps with the midifield as well as with defender Tanaka better. Most of all, he looked much more energetic compared to his teammates, and this could be owed to his fitness. He seems to have caught the eye of the German reviewers of the game, and also got recognition from Aresene Wenger who for some reason was asked to make halftime and post-game comments about Japan's performance.

- Inamoto coming in in the second half had a strange effect. I have only watched the game once, so I have to go back and see if my initial reaction is correct, but Inamoto did not look like he knew what to do out there. He is not terribly good at reading a game and knowing how to assess the situation, and I believe that he could have done better if the players talked to each other more on the pitch. And for someone who did not come into the game until partway through the second half, he did not move enough. I saw this in the North Korea game last week (was it only last week?) also, but there were numerous moments when he was just walking around not responding to what was going on in play.

- HNakata's philosophy going into this game was to keep his mouth shut and let the team play as they wished without barking orders around like he did in the Bahrain games. His intention was was to give the team a chance to do it their way, and let them learn from the experience. As I said above, the team did not talk to each other enough, and without HNakata doing all the yelling the team was unable to adjust and coach each other on the pitch.

- Chano played okay, and Miyamoto was able to adjust and communicate with him during the progression of the game. But I did miss Nakazawa, especially in height and power.

In the games against Asian teams of the last year, Japan had to figure how to play 1) for only the win and 2) with lots of possession against a very defensive team.

In the games of the World Cup, Japan will have to learn how to play 1) for the win/draw and 2) against teams that will inevitably control possession and play with a high degree of accuracy. Japan cannot get away with lack of focus or lack of physical presence or organized and dynamic offense/defense. And all the little minute mistakes end up costing. And for these reasons, the timing of this Confederations Cup in the context of Japan's schedule has been a very good thing. With less than a week to get over the relief of qualifying, Japan has been faced with the road ahead to WC2006.

The player comments (for those of you who do read Japanese, you can check out this page) included references to the way many of the midfielders used up their energy running around for the defense and wore themselves out. Particularly interesting was the relatively harsh comment coming from usually cool captain Miyamoto, who said "It's not like they were overwhelmingly superior, but we just let them do what they wanted, and in the end let them cut us off. We've got to make adjustments, all of us. We have to approach the next game with the mentality that if we lose it's over for us."

Zico's comments included points about "Japan losing their tempo in the second half and getting done in by Mexico's height -- alot of the chances Mexico created were high balls, and there are things we need to work on there." He also acknowledged that "Japan made numerous errors with regard to simple passes or rushed their play, and had poor positioning -- mistakes they normally don't do, they did today." And Yanagisawa, who scored Japan's only goal (following his goal in the NK game last week) got on the bus without comment.

In reply to the question 'When two-three Japanese players surrounded a Mexico player they still weren't able to get the ball and instead allowed a pass through -- like the play leading up to the second goal for Mexico. Is this the difference between Japan and a team in the top ten?', Zico said "It's true there does exist a certain amount of difference in levels, but it's not like this was happening the entire time. At first, multiple Japan players went to pressure and ended up rushing when we could have handled the situation with good covering instead. The biggest danger I felt for us was when Mexico started hauling the ball into the penalty area. Mexico is very strong in the air. As for the original question about pressing with muliple players, we will be working on that definitely. If we work out the covering, I believe we can handle these situations without panicking."

I didn't really talk about Japan's goal yet -- it was a simple and speedy set up where Ogasawara trapped a feed from Miyamoto in the back. He immediately sent it vertically forward near the right side line to Kaji who had already started running at high speed. Yanagisawa was running up the center and just met Kaji's low cross for a through-the-legs-type goal to the left side net. The really nice thing about this goal was that the blueprint for it was established in training. Kaji knew exactly where he needed to put it and Yanagisawa knew exactly where Kaji was going to put it because they had established this play in the preceding days. There was no hestiation, no "just haul the damn ball in and see what happens" type thinking. It increases the probability of a goal in games where Japan will not be able to get as many chances as they are used to at the Asia level.

I may take a look at the video in the next day or two and come back to this game if I find anything worth discussing.

Well, it's onwards! And focus and communication should be the first thing to address. The NT has only two days until the Greece game, but it will be worth the frustration of this performance if we see any noticeable improvement. "We're not in Kansas any more...." (Dorothy, in the Wizard of Oz -- haven't seen that in ages!!)

Details Start Spilling Out: Vissel

2005-06-17T07:57:00.000+09:00

The suspicion we had that Vissel Kobe coach Emerson Leao quit on his own will was incorrect. Apparently the club called for a meeting with him on the morning of the 15th and just informed him that they were firing him. Today, Leao expressed his disbelief at the way he was let go. Leao said that the Nabisco games was a period of testing and improving for the team -- but apparently Vissel management did not have the same opinion. In the last Nabisco game against Omiya Ardija, Leao did admit that his team deserved to lose with how they played -- he said the only player who did anything right was the goalie.

Still it sounds too much like some sort of coup d'etat... like Vissel couldn't wait to find a good reason to kick Leao out.

Anyway, I can't intelligently debate who was right/wrong, and what happened because I am not privy to what's going on backstage. But it just sounds icky in general. For the players' and supporters' sake I hope the club know what they are doing.

Vissel Kobe Hit Bottom?

2005-06-16T01:01:00.000+09:00

Things can't get much worse than this: You're in last place on the rankings. Your coach is switched only two months into the season. The new coach starts by working on the defense, and the performance improves but the team still has difficulty finding wins in the league. The league goes on break, and hopes are put on the Nabisco games. But you end up losing all the group games in the Nabisco as well. And suddenly two weeks before the league starts up again and only two months since the new coach had arrived, there is a mysterious announcement that the coach will be leaving the team.

This has been Vissel Kobe's story for this season so far, in a nutshell.

The rumors had started earlier, but the official announcement came today on Vissel Kobe's website. There are no details about the circumstances surrounding coach Emerson Leao's departure -- most supporters suspect he quit. The management announced that pretty much the entire coaching team will be changed.

Pavel Rehak (Czech Republic) will now (re)take over. He used to work as a supporting coach under former coach Matsunaga but got sent to take care of youth development when Leao came into the picture. It sounds like the team will give him this chance to show that maybe he may have a better understanding of what needs to be done to get the team turned around. Rehak used to be the youth coach and the head coach at Slavia Praha before coming to Vissel in 2004.

But just changing coaches is not going to be the Answer, as we have seen already. And so you have to wonder exactly what factors are contributing. I don't know Vissel very well, but the weird vibes I'm getting have more to do with management and club culture. One of the reasons I got sucked into the J-league to begin with was the supporter culture which led me next to the specific club cultures. The team will change year after year when players come and go, but a solid club culture and standards keeps a consistent personality for the team. I'm not really feeling any personality from Vissel, and it's a shame because right now they a few charismatic players. But the players are only one piece of the bigger picture, and it is definitely unfair to blame the whole problem on just the coach or just the players.

Two months is a very short time (especially since most of it was outside the league season) for a coach to try and then give up. Of course, it is still possible that the club kicked him out instead of him quitting himself. But either way you look at it, it is a very clear indication that things are going on backstage that are affecting loyalty and trust at a basic level. The club wants quick easy fixes that won't get their hands dirty. But if you look at the stories behind, say Sanfrecce Hiroshima's coach Ono's three-year plan which was built around Hiroshima-specific team-buidling, or even go way back to Zico's contribution to the birth and development of Kashima Antlers, or the dedication of Urawa Reds supporter culture which actually grew despite their fall to J2, you see there are such immense long-term effects of a certain amount of heart to go along with the proper planning. Vissel feels to me like one of those businesses that the owner feels it is not worth improving but trying to sell would be too much bother. The hire new coaches without really knowing what they want their club to be about themselves.

The supporters seem to be confused by the sudden announcement. More details will probably trickle out as the week progresses.

NT Update - Hannover Camp

2005-06-15T09:32:00.000+09:00

The Japan National Team camp in Hannover ahead of the game against Mexico for the Confederations Cup started off quietly but smoothly. From what Miyamoto said in his website, the chill in the air (about 15 degreesC in the morning sessions) is a giant leap in climate from the hellish humidity and heat of Bangkok. Come to think of it, this team has been doing quite a bit of jet-setting -- from Japan to UAE to Bahrain to Bangkok to Japan and then to Germany. All inside two weeks or so. I wonder if they take melatonin to deal with the jetlag? (If you travel alot and need to fix jetlag quickly, melatonin is great -- it has to do with the way your body naturally wakes up to daylight.)

Anyway, the first few days the team trained with 21 of the 23 players -- Shunsuke Nakamura was still trying to heal his hip injury that he got at the beginning of the Bahrain game, which probably explains why he did not kick many of the free kicks in that game; and Teruyuki Moniwa was a day late flying to Germany as a last-minute call up to replace injured defender Nakazawa. The team finally all got together in Tuesday's training, and it looks like they are traininig quite ambitiously.

The defender who will most probably take the starting position in place of Nakazawa on the left is Takayuki Chano (Jubilo Iwata). I joked before that he is probably the most invisible player on the NT. Mostly because he has not had the opportunity to start much plus his overall visibility in the J-league is not that high. Not because he isn't any good -- I think it's more a case of not having the star-power like some of these other guys do. Regardless, the chances that Chano has gotten on the NT have been quite challenging games -- he started against Hungary and Czech Republic as right defender (3-back), but lost the starting position to Nakazawa in the next games against Iceland and England and onwards. He did not make it back to start until the Germany game (where he played as a centerback in a 4-back formation). Chano's play is characterized by a toughness -- he may not have the speed of Tsuboi or the height and power of Nakazawa. But this is a good opportunity for him to make himself known to Japanese supporters again.

The other bit of news trickling in from Germany is that Zico seems to be reverting back to a 3-4-2-1 system. So the team may look like this: Yanagisawa as sole forward with Nakamura and Ogasawara shadowing as offensive halfs. HNakata is back next to Fukunishi in defensive midfield. And as usual, Santos on left, Kaji on right; right defender Tanaka with Miyamoto controlling the back line in center with Chano on left. Since Chano is a different type of player than Nakazawa, I imagine the defenders and midfield are also making sure to confirm everyone's defensive responsibilities/tactics. This is what the team looked like in their last game against Bahrain, so it is not completely new for the players. Nakamura commented after the qualifiers that he really liked the 3-4-2-1 system, that it was easy to move around and create opportunities. And those of us who watched that Bahrain game did see a notable difference in the flow of Japan's attack compared to the previously. The forward probably has the most work to do figuring out how to best move -- and not only Yanagisawa, but Oguro and Tamada will probably also be used as subs in for this sytem. In a way, the 3-4-2-1 is a compromise between the 4-4-2 (better for offensive plays) and the 3-5-2 (more stable defensively). Japan tends to have a difficult time against Central/South American teams no matter who they are, and this group with Mexico and Brazil...will be a good experience for the team. Because Japan has already qualified, they can approach this tournament without thinking about any qualifiers ahead -- I hope they will play without overthinking, and play to their strengths. And enjoy the high caliber refereeing, the high quality pitch, and the cooler weather!

As he announced after the press conference incident where Zico took offense to collective laughter at forward Takayuki Suzuki, Zico is going to be responding to questions during pre and post game press conferences only with regard to the general media. He used to make himself completely available after each practice session...but alas, no more. Though the press is playing it down as an indication of Zico's nerves ahead of the Confederations Cup, I think they should think again. Zico will answer any challenging/tough question as long as it is put in a serious way, but he has reacted badly to the press being unnecessarily insulting to his players. Zico does of course attend the official press conferences the day ahead of any game, and of course after games he makes all the interviews. In a way, though I hate not getting any extra info, I think this is a good thing. Zico has kept a policy of complete openness for three years but the media ends up taking advantage and misquoting/blowing out of proportion what he says or does silly stunts like I addressed in this previous entry. Of course, if you want a private peek and see some fun photos of what goes on during the NT camps you can always check out Zico's blog which he constantly uploads with photos.

The players of course have been great about answering the press, and we've seen a number of interview clips -- nothing notable except for the usual "we're looking forward to playing against some of the best teams in the world" etc etc comments. The players and Zico also have been good about taking time after training to sign autographs for the small group of fans/observers who have come to watch, some Japanese some German.

German Press Scratch Heads over Japan
Some hilarious stuff has been coming out of the German press as well. In one paper, in a segment introducing the teams participating in the Confederations Cup, the Japan team has been quite messed up -- they got a number of names wrong, not to mention predicted a completely off formation, where they had forwards as midfielders and so on. I guess they got confused with all thes crazy Japanese names... I swear, sometimes you wonder how writers can make a living out of doing this if they can't even get the names straight. In another paper, Hide Nakata was labelled the "strangest player" -- apparently German media have been puzzled at the aloof attitude of Hide among his teammates. The paper said "he doesn't respond to questions from the media. and he doesn't warm up alongside his teammates." I guess they haven't been keeping up with what's going on -- Hide is just using his psychological tricks to bring a little tension and adrenaline into the team. In fact, JFA chair Kawabuchi has said that HNakata is using the bad-cop trick (which would make Miyamoto the good-cop?) to get a rise out of the team, light a fire under them.

In a recent on-camera interview on tv, HNakata even said that everything he does, how much he yells at whom, his choice of words, etc., it's pretty much his way of communicating that intagible battle-mode attitude to his team. A big part of what he believes is missing in the team right now, he's said, is a matter of attitude and spirit -- not technical things like strategy or formation (though of course those need to be improved too). Even captain Miyamoto said in an on-tv interview that this is HNakata's way of communicating with the team, his message if you will. And the team is completely aware of it -- which means that they get fired up without getting personally insulted or offended. Of course, this was not the case at the beginning of last year -- everyone was completely ticked off by HNakata, but that was back when the rest of the team lacked a certain amount of confidence and intra-team understanding, and players felt like they were just being talked-down to. Now the team knows that they have the right to talk back and argue, that it just goes towards building a stronger team.

Oguro Changes Number
If you are a fan of forward Oguro, you may want to note that he is going to be changing his NT jersey number from 31 to 16. He has had his eye on that number for a while now, and I guess this means he is now 'more-officially' part of the NT. He likes 16 because he is a great fan of ex-Hanshin Tiger (this is baseball we're talking about) Okada who is now the coach there, that was his number when he played.

Confed Cup Tests New Ref Guidelines

2005-06-15T09:08:00.000+09:00

As you all know, the Confederations Cup tournament was basically created as a trial-run in preparation for the real thing -- the World Cup. And Germany seems to be on track and doing fine with regard to the infrastructure and organization so far. The only thing that is still in the air is how the referees will be implementing the new refereeing rules/standards. These standards will be tested out for the very first time in the world during the Confederations Cup.

Do any of you know the specifics of some of the major changes? If you do and would like to elaborate on my pathetic attempt, please do. (leave a comment!)

I'm not clear on all the specifics, but the two that got my attention are these: 1) players will be penalized if they do anything to slow the game down during stopped time. So let's say Japan wins a free kick, and Nakamura is standing there contemplating how to swing his foot and get a direct shot over the wall. He notices the ball's nub is not facing in the direction he wants, so he stoops to adjust it -- will the ref get on his back about slowing the game down? How does the rule apply to throw ins? 2) the off sides rule also sounds like it will get a little bit more complicated, and defenders who take a lot of care keeping a disciplined line may face some very narrow calls. I read one article a while ago, and can't seem to find it again.

Goals Goals Goals: Kyoto Purple Sanga (J2)

2005-06-15T07:59:00.000+09:00

Without a doubt, Kyoto Purple Sanga have players who can score. Goals. Lots of 'em. Enough to win. And looking at both J1 and J2, this is certainly a rare characteristic. Japanese teams of late have been characterized by trouble on the finish -- they have great passing, good crosses, speedy midfielders or forwards. The ball goes riiigggghhhtt there, and...ah....no goal. In fact, if you read most post-game comments by players or coaches on any given day, you will find plenty of quotes that say something like, "we couldn't get the goal when we should have."

Kyoto Purple Sanga were favorites to get the J2 championships last year. But they couldn't quite find the wins they needed and slid slowly down the rankings finishing the season in fifth place. Coach Hashiratani came into the team in the middle of last season, but I guess it wasn't enough time to implement all the changes he would have liked. And at the end of last season, Kyoto lost some key goal-getting players like Kurobe (now Cerezo), Choi Yong soo (now Jubilo), and Atsuta (now Verdy) -- people were convinced this would do lasting damage to the Kyoto attack.

But... in the 2005 pre-season, Kyoto got two confidence-boosting "helpers" (ie, players from abroad) in Alemao and Paulinho (both forwards). Hashiratani spotlighted the two Brazilians and said they played with a high quality of direct one-touch passing -- this greatly helps in putting on a speedy attack. In the side positions, Hoshi and Kato came from Yamagata and Shonan respectively and strengthened the team's ability to attack from the sides as well. In defense, Washida came from Jef, Ricardo from Sanfrecce, and right side specialist Okubo brought a lot of options for the coach who had been trying to get the team to ambitiously create attacks using the sides. Their 4-back system was centered around Ricardo's great decision-making abilities. The look and feel of the team had really changed.

The 2005 theme put forth by Hashiratani is "aggressive". Three forwards, Tahara, Matsuda and Alemao are tall powerful players who are particularly aggressive goal-getters, and so Kyoto started off the year with a team that was focused on the Win. Many reviewers had predicted that if Kyoto were able to function in the optimal way, getting the ball to the front using variation and speed in the midfield while also getting the sidebacks to participate, Kyoto would no doubt burst forth and finish the race lengths ahead of any of the other teams.

Well, so far we are 16 games into the season and Kyoto have shown that they just may be living up to expectations. But looking at the content of many of their games so far, it is not like they are completely overwhelming their opponents. In fact, the opponents are well aware of Kyoto's strengths and have made good efforts to squash particularly the two Brazilian forwards. It's just that wnen they do have the opportunities they get the ball in the goal more times than not. They are able to outnumber their goals allowed with the goals gotten (goal differential +17) and are now 15 points ahead of second place Avispa. Even after Paulinho got injured in the Bellmare game, the team were still able to play their way to wins until his return.

Perhaps the next challenge for the team is, now that they have a confident and ambitious base to build on, to use better passing sequences when on the attack. So far, their main weapons have been to use long balls from the back and crosses from the sides, hauling the ball in front of the goal. Though you could argue that this is the best strategy given how much pressure Kyoto particularly gets from opponent teams (who are probably hoping for at least a draw against them).

In this last Round 16 game against Fukuoka, Fukuoka controlled the rhythm of the game and used passing sequences and varied speeds on the attack, to get by Kyoto. Kyoto defense were focused and did not allow Fukuoka the shots they wanted. But again, though Fukuoka were closer to creating more of the opportunities (and in fact got the first goal of the game off Alex's bicycle kick), they ended up losing 2-3 to Kyoto. One of Kyoto's goals came from a PK, and another from an Own Goal. The winning third goal came right after coach Hashiratani sent in Paulinho (78 min) -- Kato, who had been creating a lot of momentum with his speed on the attack was fouled in a good position, and Paulinho took the free kick for the goal.

We have seen in the J1 this year the notable performances put on by Omiya Ardija and Kawasaki Frontale (just up from J2 this year) so far. If you are planning on sticking around for at least another year of J-league football (and why wouldn't you?), it is definitely worth it to get a head start and get to know Kyoto Purple Sanga. It's still a long way to the end of the season, but with the J1 league on break right now it's a good time to browse (or check out future
competition!).

P.S. If you are wondering where they got the name Purple Sanga: purple was the team color they carried over from their Kyoto Shiko Club days. The "Sanga" comes from two things. One is that it is the sanskrit (they like the temple imagery of sanskrit) word for "circle of friends/group". The second is a sort of a play on words with the Japanese word "sanga" which indicates the "mountains and rivers/natural surroundings" of Kyoto. The club changed to this name upon promotion to the JFL 1st division in 1993.
[photo from blog.so-net.ne.jp/_images/blog/yan2o/915.jpg]
J-league soccer football japan

Mini-Update: Transfers, etc.

2005-06-13T23:59:00.000+09:00

Following the news that FC Tokyo defender Teruaki Moniwa was called up to the NT camp in preparation for the Confederations Cup, I woke up today to the news that Italy's (newly promoted) Serie A club Genoa are in final talks to welcome FC Tokyo defensive midfielder Yasuyuki Konno, age 22 (see entry I previously wrote on him). I'm not sure how concrete this information is, but it's strange to even think of FCTokyo without him... Tokyo have been doing poorly in recent months, but they have been one of my favorite teams. I had my eye on seeing four of the FC Tokyo players make big improvements during this year, and already three of them (Kaji, Konno, and Moniwa) are getting their breaks. Strangely enough, the one player who I thought had the biggest attention-grabbing quality is the last to be tapped on the shoulder -- Ishikawa. But I think it's just a matter of time. Ishikawa played so well in that pre-season friendly against Barcelona last week, but he is also a difficult player to incorporate into a team. The current FCTokyo greatly revolves around Ishikawa so he's been able to function there.

There is no doubt that Konno is ready and capable to transfer overseas now. He may have a hard time with the culture shock and the language issues, knowing his personality, but play-wise I believe he'll contribute well in Italy. He's a very hard worker. Again, though, this is all just sports-paper chatter so it is most probably best to wait and see.

In similar news, Kashima Antlers offensive midfielder Mitsuo Ogasawara, age 26, (currently with the NT, see previous entry I wrote on him) is reported to have gotten many offers in recent weeks from various European clubs -- in particular, sportspapers are saying that Italian Serie A club Lazio are going after him quite aggressively. But Kashima are reluctant because the club is currently built around Ogasawara's blossoming captaincy and have a better than good chance at grabbing the championships this season. Kashima had already lost their former captain and defensive midfielder Koji Nakata to France's Olympique Marseille this year. But the club also understands that they cannot stunt Ogasawara's career/growth by holding him back -- especially with the World Cup looming ahead in a year's time. Many in the J have noted that part of the reason why Ogasawara has had problems living up to expectations in the past few years (in his youth many called him the "next Hide Nakata") is because he has not been challenged enough in the J. He's had too cushy a position with his club, and hasn't been able to close the gap between his own abilities and those of his competition on the NT (like Nakamura and HNakata).

The shock of course to me, is that FCTokyo and Kashima Antlers are the two teams I am personally supporting -- and this talk of transfers leaves me with some mixed feelings. On one hand, I want to be able to watch these two closely from week to week, contributing to the J-club and getting them as close to the championships as possible. But on the other hand I cannot think of anything better for them than to send them off on the next great challenge. They will have the opportunity to play against some of the best teams in the world in Italy, and that would be exciting to watch as well.

In other transfer news, Mallorca's Yoshito Okubo confirmed that he will be staying with the Spain club and has signed all the necessary documents. Atsushi Yanagisawa is also confirmed to stay with his current Serie club Messina. And as I said before, Daisuke Matsui has signed on for another few years with his French club Le Mans. (He is currently in Japan, and in last week's Purple Sanga game we caught a glimpse of him visiting with his former team!)

As for Shunsuke Nakamura, there is a question mark over his head about whether he will remain at Reggina -- he's apparently had numerous offers, the most interesting coming from a few Spanish clubs. I believe Reggina understands Nakamura wants to find new challenges at a different team, so they are making a good effort negotiating.

Shinji Ono just got out of the hospital today following his foot operation. He'll be spending the next couple months in Japan recuperating -- and he also has to decide what's going to happen with his future. There is talk that if he were to go it would be to Spain too, but I'm not sure whether anything truly concrete is happening.

Now the two who have something to worry about are Koji Nakata (Marseille) and Junichi Inamoto (West Bromwich) -- there is little transfer talk, and their situation at their respective clubs is pretty bad. And I think the idea of them coming back to Japan is almost out of the question. Which means they are very stuck. I truly hope these two can get a break soon -- it's a matter of finding a club where they will be in a position to start frequently.

One of the biggest concerns for all the players going to or in foreign clubs is whether they will be able to get enough play time during the next season. They know that if they don't get to play in games, they will not be able to improve or maintain their skills and physical condition. This will also affect their performance on the National Team. Which would jeapordize their call-up and performance at the World Cup. And the players want to plan and spend this next year until Germany carefully and productively. There's a lot of gamble involved in these transfer talks, so I hope they do consider the choices thoroughly without rushing.
j-league soccer japan football transfers

Player Selection (NT)

2005-06-12T09:22:00.000+09:00

I know, this has been an NT-heavy few weeks at this blog. But with the end of the qualifiers (in effect) for Japan, I thought I'd wrap up a few NT things before I get distracted by other things. I will be going back to my J2 team profiles soon!

Today I thought I'd roughly review Zico's player selection. (For purposes of this entry, I am going to concentrate on midfielders as I want to address forwards in a different entry.)

Zico's player selection has caused frustration and puzzlement among many who follow the NT. Personally I think it's a waste of time and space to groan over why Zico isn't choosing the players we have special hopes for. It's a coach's perogative, and as it is the JFA has been communicating with Zico about their wish to see him test out more players. By the way, according to an NHK program on tv, Zico has called up 55 players since he took over in 2002. One of the impressions I am getting is that Zico doesn't like the idea of "test" -- he either calls up a player that he is convinced can do the job or he doesn't. He also seems to have players ranked in heirarchy (especially forwards), but as I'll discuss later on, this heirarchy is not written in stone and has been shown to get modified over time.

Looking at the midfield and defence, it seems that Zico likes his players to have:

1) a consistent track record over a long period of time. This means that just because a certain player in the J-league (or even abroad) is starting to get a lot of attention and showing some good stuff, he does not call them up until he's seen that same level of performance over a period of time. And after that, if a place becomes open due to injury or other circumstances he'll call the player up -- as with Yuki Abe (Jef Chiba), Masashi Oguro (Gamba Osaka), and now Teruaki Moniwa (FCTokyo).

2) high quality physical. As we saw in the past two years, the players are required to withstand a lot. Endurance, physical strength/presence/height, ability to survive a long tournament from the group stage to the final (like at the Asia Cup), ability to put on a consistent performance regardless of climate or busy game schedule. [Side note: when Oguro first joined the NT camp he said that the biggest impression he got with regard to the difference between the NT and the J-club level was the physical training and expectation for a high level of basic fitness.]

3) experience. Experience at the international level, playing in high stress environments; also includes a certain amount of intelligence. Of course, you can argue that other players won't get experience unless Zico calls them up, so it's a bit of a vicious circle -- but as we saw with a number of "new" players, like Tamada last year or Kaji, and now with Oguro, once he calls the player up he tends to keep calling the player back over a long period of time. He does not base his opinion on one or two performances. But again, there is a heirarchy, so if you are at the bottom and one of the players above you returns from injury, for instance, you may not get called until a spot opens up again.

4) adaptability. Most of the players we see on the current roster can play more than one position, and have the maturity to adapt when the case arises. This could also go under the "experience" category. But regardless of the position, Zico expects a certain level of performance and consistency.

5) defense. Zico will probably not choose players who are a risk defensively (let's forget about Santos for a moment...). If you are a player in the midfield, you must have a certain amount of ball-keeping ability or be willing to hustle in the defense.

6) technique. Most of all, Zico looks for technically superior players especially in the midfield. He likes players who have beautiful free kicks. He also likes players who have the skills to change the game with one play, and this is probably what he sees in Santos that balances out his risk on the defense.

7) goal-getting. In conjunction with the numerous players who have beautiful free kicks, you'd also need players who can receive those kicks -- players who have height and shown they are capable of scoring in the deadball situations. Also players in the midfield are expected to overlap, so midfielders have to be able to have long-range kicks as well.

So by now you are probably saying to me, hey this list doesn't jive with all the players in the NT. And you're right -- which is the portion that is probably going to forever elude me. The list above is merely an outline of prioritized characteristics -- but most players aren't going to have all the above. The question then is of balance. Something that results in a balanced team that is able to function on both offense and defense. You can also argue whether this is working or not, and I welcome comments as I am not entirely convinced either -- though a lot of our issues may revolve more around the forwards than any balance issues in the midfield.

(cont'd in the entry below)

Player Selection (NT) Part 2

2005-06-12T09:20:00.000+09:00

Now let's look at specific player positions and how they have been used in the various formations during recent games:

Bahrain game last week -- It was assumed that Zico switched to a 3-4-2-1 formation for the Bahrain game to accomodate both HNakata and Nakamura in the lineup. With Ono and Fukunishi for the defensive midfield. When Ono got hurt, most people assumed Zico would either put in another dmf in his place (for heaven's sakes, we have enough dmfs!) and keep HNakata next to Nakamura. But he didn't. Instead, he pushed HNakata down to dmf (which is not his usual position though he played there in the previous Bahrain game) and placed Ogasawara next to Nakamura. So he kept the 3-4-2-1 system but did not line HNakata and Nakamura up -- most people were convinced that if HNakata were to be pushed down to dmf, the system would go back to 3-5-2, but it seems his thinking wasn't as simple as that.

At a press conference he said that he chose to put Ogasawara in (instead of making other players change) because Ogasawara had been looking very good in practice. In other words, he was willing to shove HNakata down to dmf and keep only one forward because Ogasawara was showing top form in practice. So again, what he's been saying about choosing his starters according to performance during training and overall ability/consistency may have been the truth -- though most supporters had been convinced he tends to just choose favorites and depends too heavily on the Europe-based players.

North Korea game last week -- this game blew a lot of suppositions out of the water for me. In a post-Bahrain-game interview, Nakamura had been asked what he thought the team would look like against NK without himself, HNakata and Santos. Nakamura squinted his eyes a little, and then said "Yanagisawa and Suzuki....and Ina and Koji Nakata." Meaning he thought the team would return to a double-forward system with Ina in dmf and Koji Nakata in for Santos on the left. I remember seeing that interview and being puzzled by Nakamura's answer. What happened to Miura for the left side? Where did he get Koji Nakata? Why Ina and not Endo? The fact that Nakamura perfectly predicted Zico's eventual starting lineup right after the Bahrain game off the top of his head (right after he, Santos, and HNakata had just gotten their second yellow cards and were unable to play in the NK game) means that Zico's eventual NK lineup was absolutely reasonable and predictable from Nakamura's point of view. This means that stuff goes on in training that goes beyond our assumptions of who-is-a-sub-of-who or of which-players-play-which-position.

If you looked at the bench during the NK game, Motoyama was missing. Motoyama usually plays as an omf next to Ogasawara at his club Antlers, and sometimes also plays as a forward substitute. The fact that both Nakamura and HNakata were out of the game meant that if Ogasawara got hurt during the game Motoyama would be the likely substitute if you followed logical reasoning. But Motoyama was not on the bench. So who was Zico planning to put there? In the last few minutes of the game, Zico replaced forward Yanagisawa with usually-dmf Endo. But looking at Endo's positioning during the remainder of the game, he positioned himself next to Ogasawara as an omf in a 3-4-2-1 system. It was a defense-oriented 3-4-2-1 system, but still it may be the first time I'd seen Endo play there. Why Endo and not Motoyama? Could have been that Motoyama was performing poorly in practice, or Zico was going to choose Endo over Motoyama because he needed a defense-capable player available on the bench who also had good chemistry with Oguro (who I am sure he was planning to use in the second half no matter what the first half looked like). But if Ogasawara had been hurt during the first half of the game, was he planning on using Endo there? Or perhaps was he saving Miura to back up Ogasawara, and that is one of the reasons that Miura was not used as the left sidehalf? And Endo was back-up for the dmfs?

Only one person really knows the answers to these questions, and I won't be sitting down to tea with him anytime soon. So maybe it will be a mystery for a while longer. But one thing is clear -- Zico does not use one-for-one reasoning for his player substitutions. He may have chosen this group of players because he can best move the available players around to fit any set of circumstances. This is important in a tournament type situation, where you can only go with 23 players and that's it for two-three weeks, depending on whether you can keep winning. If players get hurt, any number of options have to be available.

One of the biggest complaints people have about the roster is the lack of enough sidehalfs/sidebacks. We currently only seem to have Santos, Kaji, and Miura. Miura can play both right and left, but what if both Kaji and Santos get hurt or have to sit out on bans? In a press conference a while ago (some time in the second half of last year), Zico said that he had plenty of players who could cover those positions if the need arises. And if we think about it, it's true -- you could very well put HNakata on the right side (and the media buzzed about the possibility of HNakata taking Kaji's position right before the Iran game this March). Or Nakamura on the left (Nakamura has played on the left during Troussier Japan, though I don't think he likes it). Ono has also played side, under Troussier. We saw that KNakata was appointed left sidehalf in this last NK game, but he used to play left defense under Troussier. The important thing for Zico was to have the best collection of high quality players who had the maturity and experience to play under difficult situations in various positions -- the positions and the system would then be determined according to the circumstances and available players with an eye to balance.

It was also surprising to see Fukunishi and Inamoto paired up in defensive midfield during the NK game. As was discussed in this article about Japan's dmfs, there had been a clear pattern until now that suggested Inamoto and Fukunishi were competing for the same dmf spot, and Ono and Endo were competing for the other dmf spot. But now with HNakata also showing his leadership and game-controlling ability in the dmf position, we will probably be seeing that this pattern is no longer going to be the guideline anymore. I'm still not sure why Inamoto was used, as he looked rather unready for full-length play and made a number of strange mistakes. Perhaps this had to do with Zico wanting to keep Endo on the bench for other unexpected situations (like how Endo went in at the end in the omf position). Or perhaps he felt that Ina should start getting into games, as he had not been playing at his club or on the NT for a long time. Or perhaps Ina just looked better in practice.

Moniwa to Replace Injured Nakazawa (NT)

2005-06-11T23:00:00.000+09:00

FCTokyo defender Teruyuki Moniwa (see a previous entry I wrote about him here) was called up today to join the Japan National Team in Hannover Germany for the Confederations Cup. Yuji Nakazawa (Marinos) was carrying an injury to his knee from the WC qualifier Bahrain game, and he had decided to sit this tournament out to recuperate. Moniwa was last called to the NT for the first round qualifier game against Oman in 2004. He then joined the U-23 Olympic squad at Athens where he played in all three of the group games against Italy, Ghana and Paraguay.

The Japan NT left for Germany today and will be playing Mexico on Thurs June 16 in Hannover. The team will then move to Frankfurt to play Greece on the 19th, and Kern for the game against Brazil on the 22nd.

Some may wonder why Marinos defender Naoki Matsuda wasn't called up as a first choice -- probably because he and his club are currently returning from the US (Los Angeles) after having played the Major League Soccer club L.A.Galaxy in a pre-season friendly. Marinos won the game 2-0.

This is a great opportunity for Moniwa, and I've been hoping that this chance would come around for him some day soon. Other FCTokyo players on the NT include Akira Kaji (right side) and Yoichi Doi (goalie).

Nabisco Moves on to Knock-Out

2005-06-11T22:51:00.000+09:00

The last time I updated news on Nabisco standings (click here for the entry), three of the eight teams moving on to the knock-out round were yet to be determined. Today was the sixth and last group round games, and it looks like the following teams are getting through: Urawa Reds, Omiya Ardija, Gamba Osaka, Jef Chiba, Shimizu S-Pulse, and Cerezo Osaka, plus Jubilo Iwata and Yokohama Marinos.

I'm particularly happy for Omiya Ardija -- this is their first season in the J1, and so far they have surprised many with the results they have gotten. In the league Omiya are currently in 8th place (tied 17 points along with Reds and Jef). Now they have an opportunity to maybe get their first title with the Nabisco! I don't know which teams are to play each other in the next round, but will let you know when I do.

More Birthdays

2005-06-11T09:10:00.000+09:00

I mentioned before Takayuki Suzuki's birthday was on June 5 (he turned 29); but I also forgot that these couple weeks included the birthdays of other Japan players -- Naohiro Takahara just turned 26 on June 4; Yoshito Okubo just turned 23 on June 10; and Atsushi Yanagisawa turned 28 on May 27. Masashi Motoyama's birthday is coming up on June 20 -- he'll be turning 26. It's weird that all the Japan players who have birthdays in this two-week period are forwards... (Motoyama is originally a midfielder but he also actually plays as a forward periodically, even at his club).

I'm not into astrology, but just for fun I checked the Yahoo Astrology site, and here's what they said about Gemenis in 2005:

Gemeni (May 21 - June 21)
"Abrupt and sudden changes during summer may not seem to be of the long-term variety when they occur, but if you take a step back and look around, you'll realize that you're really at the beginning of a metamorphosis -- and at the end, you'll be glad for each and every event that contributed to making you 'the new you.'"

Okay, now I'm being downright silly.... but after all the tension of the last few weeks I thought why not be doofy for a change!

World Youth Championships

2005-06-11T08:59:00.000+09:00

I don't know if anyone who reads this blog is aware of this, but the 2005 World Youth Championships is currently kicking off in the Netherlands. Japan's U-20 team is in the same group as host Netherlands, Benin and Australia. There are 24 teams total. It has been difficult keeping track of the youth games this past year, and frankly I don't know much about the team (only that I don't like the coach). But I did want to mention it in case anyone reading may want to check out the site. Watching these youth teams can be refreshing, as they are different in personality from the National Team of the same country and you get a glimpse of some 18-19 year olds with potential. In Japan, for instance, the youth team's stars are all forwards (Cullen, Jubilo Iwata; Morimoto, Tokyo Verdy; Hirayama, university). Other familiar names include Masushima of FCTokyo and Honda of Nagoya Grampus. I won't comment on whether they are any good, because I've watched only a few of their games. Plus a number of players were switched around just before the Championship began so anything I saw previously may not give me an accurate sense of how they will perform in the Netherlands. They have a tough job to do as the bar was set high by the 1999 Nigeria World Youth Championship Japan U-20 team:

"The sensations of Nigeria '99, however, were the team from Japan, coached by Frenchman Philippe Troussier. The Asian side waltzed their way to the final, ousting England, Portugal, Mexico (who beat holders Argentina) and Uruguay en route. Led by the two gems in their side, Masashi Motayama and captain Shinji Ono, the young Japanese played excellent football throughout, with the exception of the Final, when fatigue clearly took its toll. Japan's second-place finish was nonetheless the best by an Asian side since Qatar finished runners-up in 1981." -- excerpt from Fifa.com review

Some of the members from this 20-player 1999 roster who are in or near the NT today include Junichi Inamoto, Yasuhito Endo, Mitsuo Ogasawara, Koji Nakata, Akira Kaji, Naohiro Takahara, and Hitoshi Sogahata(gk), plus Shinji Ono and Masashi Motoyama as mentioned above.

These are big shoes to fill, but the 2001 Japan U-20 team and the 2003 U-20 team didn't make it past the group stages.

Yesterday/today (depending on your time zone), the U-20 team played the first game against the Netherlands (ouch, that's a tough game to play on the first day!). Japan 1 - 2 Netherlands. I caught a glimpse of the game, and the overall impression is that the Japan team looked out-classed by the Dutch. Power, speed, technique, accuracy on shot, mental strength -- they just didn't compete. However, Japan created enough opportunities to clinch at least a draw, if they had just capitalized on a number of perfect opportunities.

Looking Back One Last Time

2005-06-10T07:31:00.000+09:00

This is a really long entry, but just to document some of the detail surrounding this historic moment in Japanese football I've left in everything I thought of during these past few days. I figure we'll always remember the big stuff, but the details get lost with time.

Come a Long Way, Baby
Needless to say, Wednesday's win over the North Korean national team to qualify for the 2006 World Cup will become the next notch in the Japanese football history books. It will be the third time Japan will be going to the World Cup, but even more than that it is the first time that Japan was able to qualify on their own strength -- for the 98WC Japan went through only after waiting the results of another game; and of course, the 02WC was co-hosted by Japan so we did not need to go through this unnerving qualifying process. Before that, we all remember the Doha tragedy of 94WC qualifying when Japan let Iraq equalize literally in the last minute and ended their own hopes. Also funny to think eight years ago, Japan was the team to get scored on in the last five minutes; now it is Japan that tends to score in the last five minutes.

The last time we qualified, in extended time on a golden goal, the game ended with players and staff rushing out onto the pitch arms raised. Elation and joy bursting from all players and staff. This time the game ended in a much more relieved and calm manner. There was more of a "mission accomplished" air about the team -- proud, satisfied, but not elated; all the expectation, the criticism, the tough battles away, getting the team back on track after the Kirin Cup double defeats just prior to the Bahrain game... these had been an immense weight on the players. No longer are we a team that is going to do cartwheels and dance around in circles just because we got a ticket to the World Cup.

Friendly Neighbors
I'm not sure if there is another group in the world that has as interesting a relationship dynamic than the four teams of Asia's GroupB. First of all, Bahrain, Iran and Japan all played each other in tough matches during the Asia Cup in 04 -- and these three made it to the Best Four. Not only that, as I said before, the Asia Cup MVP (Nakamura, Japan), the Golden Boot Winner of Asia Cup (Hubail, Bahrain), and the AFC Best Player of the Year (Karimi, Iran), all belong to this group. There are country vs country grudges as well. Iran supporters still have not gotten over the slap in the face Bahrain dealt them in the WC02 qualifying game when Bahrain's result against Iran enabled fellow Arab nation Saudi Arabia to go through AND after the game Bahrain players circled the stadium flashing the Saudi Arabia flag. This Wednesday, the Iran vs. Bahrain game took place after the Japan vs. North Korea game. The supporters who gathered long ahead of kick-off were treated to large screen broadcast of the end of the Japan/NK game, and the crowds were waving their flags and rejoicing at Japan's victory (and getting the ticket to Germany). A banner depicting both the Iran and Japan flags next to each other and a Japan flag with "Iran Japan" painted on it were being waved around by the Iran supporters. And of course, Iran supporters were not impressed by the North Korean host crowd that turned into a mob scene in March. However, Japanese supporters who flew to Bahrain came back impressed and with a great impression of the Bahrain people -- which was a big aim in Bahrain, to increase tourism.

Japan and North Korea have their unique relationship -- mostly political/historical. I read an article written by a South Korean journalist saying that the North Korean coach's first priority was to build his team around defeating Japan; extremely detailed player analyses, etc., have been collected about the Japan NT (with help from the South Korea Football federation as well). Even with four defeats going into the game against Japan, it would be gratifying enough for them to have beaten Japan in this one game. From the point of view of Japanese fans there are other complicating factors. Two of the best players on the NK team were born and bred in Japan and currently play for two J-league teams. They have had to occupy an extremely difficult position as ambassadors for both sides in a way, and have also made great efforts to inject the idea of international sportsmanship standards among their teammates. I look at them and feel proud that they are taking the skills and professionalism they have developed in the J-league and sharing them with their North Korea teammates.

There was a bit of a scuffle at the last minute of the game, when four players went down successively for different reasons, and ended up with Tanaka trying to avoid landing his legs on Miyamoto who was lying on the ground right next to him and instead got them by NK#9 Kim's head (Tanaka was on his back with legs in the air). Kim retaliated by stomping his foot in the area of Tanaka's head like he was crushing a particularly nasty cockroach. Nakazawa leapt to Tanaka's defense and Kim kicked out at him too. Then Fukunishi leapt in to protect Nakazawa, but the ref had gotten in between and held out a red card. Kim did not seem to accept the ban, but NK's Li (one of the J-leaguers) took Kim by the shoulders and apparently encouraged him to stay cool, that they had tried their best (talking about the 2-0 loss in the game) but it was over. I was annoyed to hear that in South Korea the incident was depicted on the news showing only the footage of Tanaka's legs swiping past Kim's head but without any subsequent footage of how the scuffle ended. It is disappointing that despite the success of co-hosting the World Cup in 2002 together, they are not willing to at least depict the situation as accurately as possible without the awkwardly biased editing against Japan.

Focus of This Game
Though the media blitz surrounding the Japan vs. NK game back in February was one trying to unmask the mystery of the NK team and spotlighting the two NK J-leaguers to the point of harrassment, this time round the media was more interested in the Japan team. Seriously, in February's game you'd turn on the tv and think we were living in North Korean the way everything was about them. But this week, various factors like the absence of many starters, having the ticket to Germany right in front of our noses, and the fact that the game was being held in a third country with 'no spectators' (I'll explain the quotation marks later) held the greatest attention. Making it to Germany depended on so many ? factors that Japan worked itself into a frenzy of worry -- about NK's grudge-like play against Japan, about the weather/climate, about the change in players and formation coming out of the Bahrain game. All the what-ifs and if-onlys. I kid you not, but some of the reporters for the basic tv channels were running around Thailand visiting Thai pychics to predict the outcome of the game: interestingly enough many of them said that NK would win. Even a "psychic" elephant (in Thailand, elephants are the most sacred of animals) seemed to think NK would win.

After the game, the media had completely dropped the NK angle and switched quickly to other themes like the unity of the team, the overarching journey of the past two years of qualifying, what the team needs to do in the next year, the economic effect of Japan going to the World Cup (some say up to 4 trillion yen), Germany's preparation for WC06, etc.. And lots and lots of replays. The average tv rating was about 43%, which went up to an incredible 58% at the moment the final whistle blew. The coverage and discussion of the game and Zico Japan continued through the night and into Thursday morning just as the NT got off the plane at Narita airport and headed to a press conference. This press conference was also a sight to see. All 23 players, Zico and JFA chair, suited up and serious, were presented in a three lines of white clothed tables with the usual Kirin sponsor backscreen. Specific players received and answered questions. On Thursday night, Captain Miyamoto, forward Oguro and defender Nakazawa made the rounds of the tv network Live sports and news shows -- I don't think they were able to start heading home until after midnight! You could follow them from channel to channel, it was quite ridiculous..

No Spectators Didn't Mean No People...
This whole "no spectators" thing ended up being one of the most interesting experiences of this qualifying road. First of all, about 300 Japanese media were given VIP passes by FIFA to attend the game in the stadium but were told that no one in the stadium was allowed to cheer or clap for either team. Some of the Japanese media had to make do with wearing the NT uniform under their shirts (uniforms were also not allowed), to show support. The NK contingent brought a large group of people carrying the same VIP passes; however none of them looked to be journalists. From what I could see on the screen, no one was writing anything and there were a number of children and family-types of units. When the NK team made some type of effort, a burst of applause of shouting could be heard. I'm thinking these were NK embassy people and their families. The Japanese media on the other hand kept quiet mostly though towards the end, when Oguro sent in the second goal in the 89th minute, I think none of the journalists could hold back their joy.

Supporters Make Big Impact
And like I mentioned in my brief entry on Wednesday, the presence of a group of supporters standing outside the stadium and cheering/chanting/drumming through the bars of a locked gate was something that became the other theme of the day in the media. They were even unable to greet the NT bus as the players arrived at the game. They were able to keep contact with someone watching the game on tv via cell phone, and would change the chants according to what the state of the team was. When Yanagisawa scored the first goal, you immediately heard the Yanagisawa-chant coming through the tv microphones. I have to admit, I was extremely proud of this small group of dedicated people. Not only did they get our message of support from Japan directly into the ears of the players, they showed us that there were no limits to what supporters (even a small group) could do -- how much of a difference their presence made to the team. The presence of these supporters was acknowledged by the players in the post-game interviews and also got mention by Zico and JFA chairman Kawabuchi during the press conference held the day after the game in Narita right after the team returned to Japan. Of course, these weren't the only people cheering -- there were others who had flown to Bangkok, and in Japan from the tv ratings we know the large audience there, and at the four virtual stadia where over 40,000 supporters gathered (not to mention all the Sports Bars, etc. that were occupied by huge crowds). There was also a Blue Card Project sponsored by Adidas, where people could write messages of support for the team in silver pen on blue cards. Some 30,000 of these cards were picked and made into a huge book by Adidas. This book was presented to the team before game day -- at half time, the camera pans in on this blue rectangle thing propped up near the NT bench; that's what that thing was in case any of you were wondering...

I don't know if it just happened that way or the JFA people allowed it to happen this way, but they did not force the fans to keep out of the area but instead allowed the supporters to surround the NT bus where the players were exiting the stadium. The Thai security created a narrow pathway to the bus entrance by linking arms and holding the crowd back on both sides. The crowd was yelling out "thank you" and "congrats", etc., and the people nearest the pathway would reach out and pat the players on the shoulder "good job" as they walked through. For these people who had been denied the chance to watch the live game, I thought this was a nice gift from the team. The bus was unable to move for about 15 minutes while the supporters sang to their content.

In a way, I think this whole no-spectator thing may have resulted in a number of good things. First, the relationship between Japanese fans/supporters and the team players seems to have been reinforced -- "absence makes the heart grow fonder" etc. Second, the fact that there were no fireworks (literally, Iran celebrated their qualification with a sell-out crowd and fireworks after the game; it was a party!) after the final whistle blew may have helped the team keep things in perspective. Many of the comments by the players after the game was of relief and satisfaction, but also already of looking ahead to the battle to be done in Germany. In fact, the team has very little time to be wasting on basking -- they will be on a plane for Germany on Saturday. They will be playing three games all within three days of each other, so the lack of that extra celebration may have been good for them. Third, this experience of the no-spectator game may come in handy some day in the future. People will know better what to expect from the situation, etc.

What the Mikes Picked Up
The other unique thing about a no-spectator game is our opportunity to hear everything going on. The tv crews apparently had a difficult time trying to figure out exactly where on the pitch they should place all the mikes. The echoing thud of the football being kicked, a cell phone ringing in the stands, a police security dog barking..... And most of all, we were able to hear what the players were saying to each other. In fact, I wish the tv network broadcast the game with an auxiliary audio option where you could cut out the commentator chatter. It was really educational to hear what types of directions were coming from goalie Kawaguchi or captain Miyamoto from one moment to the next. When Koji Nakata just missed a header and ended up on the grass for a few seconds you could hear Miyamoto yelling "帰れ” (go back) because NK was already on the offensive and Koji needed to get back to his position. In another instance, where Kaji and another JNT player were battling to get the ball from an NK player just at the sidelines, you could hear Miyamoto yelling "ファウルするな” (don't foul). It was also interesting to hear Zico yelling heatedly from the sidelines. Sometimes he would use Japanese, sometimes I heard the translator. Particularly interesting to hear were Zico's instructions after specific moments -- if a player messed up, or sent in a cross too early, or had bad positioning and couldn't get to a loose ball in time. From what I heard him saying, it was reassuring to hear him say things that made good sense and would come in handy in the remaining period of the game. Many people think Zico doesn't instruct the team enough, but that was actually the Zico.ver.2002. Since 2003, he's gotten more and more specific about his instructions and more passionate in his delivery in both practice and on the pitch. As the World Cup draws nearer and the team plays stronger teams, I have a feeling we'll be seeing a much more severe demanding side to Zico as well, though he will probably never surpass his days of whip-wielding as a Kashima Antlers coach. But like the commentators said, the players should have been talking more. I was expecting more.

I Love You Belgian Refs
And what an incredible difference a ref makes. I briefly discussed Belgian ref Frank De Bleckere previously, and he did a solid job this day. Aside from a couple of arguable off-side calls, it was perfection. Having had to deal with the inconsistencies of the AFC refs for so long, sometimes you can't even imagine such refs existing in our reality (not on satellite tv refereeing some big European match). I swear, I could kiss this man.

King Hide and Prince Shunsuke Wait Confident
It was also a very very new experience to see these two sitting in the stands like this. In a way, the way this whole ban thing worked out also had good results. First, Hide had to spend this past few days as part of the "non-starter" group -- which meant that his responsibilities within the team dynamic also had to change. Up til now, he would come into the team and immediately get the starter position and others got put to the sides. This time, Hide had the opportunity to show the team that he could play the part of support as well -- he lugged equipment, made a point to chat with of the non-starter players (particularly seems to be taking forward Oguro under his wing), never slacked off during the practice games, and made public comments of confidence with regard to whether the team would get the result they wanted from the NK match (namely, a win). Shunsuke Nakamura spent most of the time at the hotel recovering from pain from an injury during the Bahrain game. But he showed up for the pre-gameday training session, as is the unwritten rule at NT training. He along with Nakata, watched the game serenely and joined the team at the end. Though apparently Nakata mumbled his dissatisfaction regarding the players lack of on-pitch communication. It was also a great chance for players who had not played much (like Inamoto, Yanagisawa, Oguro, KNakata, Endo) to be present on the pitch when Japan qualified.

As for the Game Itself
It was a solid but heavy game from Japan, where the name of the game was controlling time and the opponent. (Unfortunately, the clock at the stadium was not running and the players could not tell how much time had passed unless told by the bench) First half was heavy on prioritizing the defense while making whatever effort whenever possible on the offense. Allowing a goal was unacceptable so it was important to do this first. Second half picked up as the team knew they only had 45 minutes to go and could better calculate their stamina (temp 37 degreesC, humidity about 68%). It was good to see that forwards got both goals. There were a number of stupid mistakes, but overall the team covered each other and kept NK goalless.

The Legend of May 31st
It is slowly becoming a legend. On May 31, at 11 pm, while back at the hotel in Abu Dhabi, Captain Miyamoto called a player-only gathering. The team's two losses in the Kirin Cup just prior to going to Abu Dhabi had affected the team's confidence. There was doubt. Like Miyamoto said, "This team is not used to losing." And so the group got together and hashed things out for an hour. In this meeting, everyone said what was on their minds and all the players refer to this night now as the turning point. They were able to regroup and remotivate, without any help from the coach, and had the freedom to be honest about their opinions. Though the details aren't public, I think it may have been half a question of the psychological. The players who came into the camp without playing in the Kirin Cup, like Nakamura and HNakata, had been emphatic in their confidence that the team would get the results from the Bahrain and NK game if they just played strong and maintained their balance on the pitch. There were also other items discussed regarding total defense and overlap priorities. Zico was not there of course, but Miyamoto did tell Zico the basic content of what happened.

NT Version Upgrade?
At the press conference held in Japan upon the team's return, there was a number of comments made by players that hinted at a change to come. First, Miyamoto said that after the game Zico had switched to World Cup mode and was already talking about individual player responsibility with regard to improving (strength, stamina, technical, game-planning, mental strength). Zico told the team, "Let's become a team that will surprise the world at the World Cup." Hide Nakata also said "Frankly, looking at the team now, I don't have confidence that it can be the kind of team that could win their way through the World Cup. We need to improve ourselves in every aspect." Atsu Miura backed up Nakata's comment saying that "Hide is only being strict with his comments because he cares for the team." Nakamura also said that he wanted the team to spend the next six months concentrating on the content and performance rather than results. Nakamura being the creative ideas man for the team, I think he's been patiently waiting for this day when the NT could be freed from the onus of qualifying and direct their focus on inspiring play that bursts with the Japanese style/flavor. Goalie Kawaguchi also said that "Up til now we were playing to fit the necessities of Asia and the qualifiers. But now we are past Asia and will need to change our play priorities." Nakazawa also said on a tv sports show that the team will need to "throw out the type of play we've shown so far." Another player said that since most of the players in the NT are major players in their J-league clubs, they tend to get away with slacking off a little, not challenging themselves as much as they should. But this year will be the true test of these players, seeing if they can improve some aspect of their overall aibility and expressing that in the J-league as well as on the NT.

In other words, the team is well aware of how they have played so far but felt it was a necessity considering the limitations of preparation and the harsh qualifier stakes where only the results truly counted. They cannot wait to get to the type of football they really want to play. And, now that they have this incredible unity and experience from the past two years of qualifiers, they will be able to work through the implementation of all that effectively. And next week's Confed Cup will be a good place to jump start the change. I am looking forward to see them play some top level teams again, and hope that they are able to find joy and fun in play as well despite the tough travel and games of the past few weeks. Nothing as motivating and inspiring as playing Brazil two weeks after you qualify for the World Cup!

The other interesting thing was forward Yanagisawa's comment in response to a question regarding the difficulty of Japan players to get goals (particularly forwards). Yanagisawa said that he has been getting a lot of comments about prioritizing taking the shot, playing with more aggression in the penalty area, etc., and though he does have a slightly different philosophy with regard to his overall job he said after the game against NK he did acknowledge the importance and necessity for that kind of prioritization. I think it's been so long since he's been a "hero" like this that the taste of it may bring out changes in his play going forward. I'm not sure if this means he will start to play with more aggression (like Okubo in Spain, who a lot of fans want to see called up to the NT and soon) or he plans to balance his play with more variety. But it's yet another indication that the play content is heading in a new direction.

A Year From Yesterday
In exactly a year from yesterday, the first game of the World Cup will be played at the gorgeous Munich Allianz stadium. (Complete trivia, but did you know the plastic material that makes up the bubble structure was invented in Japan?) Anyway, how perfect for this team to have a whole year to prepare. As we saw in the last 365 days, a lot can happen in a year. This time a year ago Japan had just played England in a friendly in the UK and returned to Japan to play India in a 7-0 qualifier game. I wonder what things will be like 365 days from today...

Tomorrow

2005-06-09T11:59:00.000+09:00

Yikes, I was supposed to have an entry up by now, but I won't be able to get one up until late tomorrow. There's a lot of stuff to cover coming out of the NT match against North Korea, a number of themes I thought stood out and some fun stories. I'm not going to spend much time on the game itself -- I would like to concentrate on some new developments that may give us an indication of what to expect from the NT players going forward.

See ya tomorrow!

First to Qualify in the World

2005-06-08T22:44:00.000+09:00

Japan 2 - 0 North Korea!!!!!!

Japan is the first country in the world (aside from host Germany) to qualify for the World Cup 2006.

Right now, all I can say is "Thank You" to everyone who watched, rooted, or sent their good vibes over to Bangkok. And thank you to the 150 or so Japan supporters who got on a plane and flew to Bangkok for this game that they were not allowed to watch -- they weren't even allowed to be within about 100 meters from the NT players as they got out of the bus. BUT, they gave up the chance to watch the game live at the various public viewing setups at hotels, and instead stood outside the perimeter of the Stadium outer gates and beat their drum and sang for the full 90 minutes not knowing what was going on inside. AND YOU COULD HEAR THEM!! Yes, indeedy. You could clearly hear their chanting and drums wafting over from off in the distance like some echo vibrating over from the over 40,000,000 people predicted to have watched this game. But these guys really made a huge difference.

And it didn't rain.....AT ALL!!

I will come back with details about this game and this day in an entry tomorrow. (Plus I'd also like to address the Juventus/FCTokyo game that was played Tuesday night...)

Now, I can finally relax....a little.

The NT will next have to fly to Germany for the Confederations Cup which starts on June 15th. They will be playing in the same group as Brazil, Mexico, and Greece.

Zen and the Art of Focus

2005-06-07T23:58:00.000+09:00

Focus is to be the theme of the next 21 hours. Focus for those of us who wait with hope. Focus for a team that has faced myriad challenges during the last three years to have arrived at this point.

And all it comes down to is this one game. The team is united and centered. The players understand the Task to be done. What's left is for them to play with joy and pride. No fear, no regrets. Sure, certain players we expected to see in this game are going to be absent. But this just means other players who have not gotten the chance to contribute to this team's on-pitch play can now step up and show their quality and participate in the team's advancement. It is an unspoken understanding in the team that those that are not starting also contribute as much as those that are starting -- from advice, practice partners, to little things like carrying the heavy equipment and keeping the morale high.

If you have a little energy to spare tomorrow, please join me in sending some over to our boys in Nippon Blue.

I forgot to mention this earlier, but this Sunday was foward Takayuki Suzuki's 29th Birthday. Happy Birthday, Takayuki! This is the fifth year in a row that he has celebrated his birthday among his NT teammates.

One of the funniest things that Suzuki has ever said, was in a previous year when on his birthday an interviewer asked him about how the team celebrated. He said that his teammates gave him a very nice bash..."I haven't had my birthday celebrated like this since....last year!"

Juventus vs. FCTokyo Live Online

2005-06-06T23:44:00.000+09:00

To register for the Free Live web game stream between FCTokyo and Juventus, click here.
Then click the top RED button to the right of the media screen.
Then fill out the form and submit. I've translated the form into English below. (If you have registered already, you do not need to register again)

Once you got through the process, go to this page and check out some of the previews (click the big red buttons and see what happens!).

On Tuesday June 7 at 5 pm, the streaming will begin. Kick-off is at 7 pm (all Japan time).
In the diagram below, I've pointed to the button you need to click on this page to go to the media streaming page. Note: you won't be able to click it until Tuesday night.

If you have questions, please leave a comment! Enjoy!

NT Update and Fujita Transfer and Ono Op

2005-06-06T22:18:00.000+09:00

As I said last week, the days preceding a National Team game is an exercise in waiting for the other shoe to drop. Unfortunately, this week it's more like waiting for the fifth, sixth, and seventh shoe to drop... Today, it was reported that Yuji Nakazawa, Japan's toughest defender has been carrying an injury to his knee acquired during the Bahrain game when he landed on it awkwardly. The pain got worse as the days passed, and it doesn't look good for him to start in the upcoming qualifier against North Korea. This is certainly a blow to the team, which has already lost Shusuke Nakamura, Hide Nakata, and Alex Santos to yellow cards; and is without Naohiro Takahara and Shinji Ono due to injury.

Sunday's practice session took place during an intense downpour. The pitch flooded immediately, and the video footage of the practice session looked more like a game of slip'n'slide (the long plastic sheet you put out on your front lawn on those hot summer days when you were a kid, hosing down the sheet with water so you can hurtle/slide your way across). Click here to see photo. I even think sometimes the players were sliding headlong into the goal on purpose, just for the fun of it. But this rain thing is going to be a big problem during the game -- the pitch at Supachalasai stadium is created on clay-based soil which has a very slow rate of absorption. Even with a brief shower, the pitch can turn into one big puddle. And the hard clay makes the ground even more slippery. I'm not sure how the players plan to deal with the rain, but it's not like it's the first time for them. They are pros afterall, so they'll have to make the best of the situation if it happens.

From the practice sessions, we are getting a clear picture of what the starting formation and roster will be. Zico seems to have returned things to a 3-5-2 system, with Ogasawara as omf, two forwards Suzuki and Yanagisawa, Koji Nakata in for Santos on the left side, and Inamoto as the second defensive midfielder next to Fukunishi. I'm not sure who will take Nakazawa's place in left defense -- probably Tsuboi.

There were quite a few raised eyebrows with regard to KNakata's placement on the left side -- everyone immediately assumed that Atsu Miura would be there. But I hear Miura has been carrying an injury from the beginning of the Kirin Cup games training a few weeks ago and perhaps that was part of the reasoning. Miura did not make it to the bench during the Bahrain game either, so I'm thinking this is probably the case. KNataka will not be playing as offensively as Santos, since he is more of a defensive player. I know he played on the left side in a few games at Olympique Marseille (his current club), but I haven't really seen him play much so I can't really say how effective he is there or how well he and Kaji on the right side can take turns contributing to the offense.

Today's practice session included an 11-on-11 game between the starting players and the non-starters. Not much info about this game, but it sounds like the players were having trouble controlling the ball and passing accurately. This the first and only day both teams are allowed to practice on the Supachalasai stadium pitch, as the groundskeepers are trying to protect the (already-pretty-terrible) condition of the pitch for the actual game on Wednesday.

Fujita to Nagoya -- lofty sum
There was an official press conference today, with Fujita putting on his new Nagoya Grampus uniform. He has been given the number 10 jersey, and the clubs has come to an agreement of a record 110 million yen a year and a two year contract. This is the most paid to a Japanese player in the J-league, and he beats out Seigo Narazaki (who is the goalie for Grampus and part of the NT) who is getting 100 million yen. (Rich sponsors, those Toyota guys!) Fujita himself had been wanting to go to Urawa Reds, but the Jubilo Iwata people told him he had to take the deal with Nagoya or remain at Jubilo... (meow). Considering how much Fujita wanted to leave Jubilo in order to breathe fresh life into his career, I guess there wasn't any question of him taking the offer. Excuse me, but it's going to take me a while to get used to him in orange! He will join the Nagoya team for practice this Thursday.

Shinji Ono Operates
Ono, who is carrying a stress fracture in his right foot, underwent surgery today. Though the fracture has still allowed him to walk on his own without help, the doctors said that considering his career as an athlete it would be dangerous to leave it like that. If the bone ends up completely breaking, it would make it very difficult for him to play football again. Without surgery, the bone would heal within 3-6 months, but the likelihood of it breaking again is high. The doctors will embed a titanium screw inside the bone; after that 2 weeks of hospital stay. But the screw will remain in there and will help prevent the bone from breaking again. The doctors expect it to take about 2-3 months to heal.
[Japan football soccer national team]

Kashiwa Reysol Meeting

2005-06-06T08:00:00.000+09:00

Since the J1 league season so far has been characterized by a 'crowding in the middle' one tends to forget that this still does not mean that some of the teams are more in danger than others. We saw last-place Vissel change coaches already this season; we saw an initially spirited run by FCTokyo suddenly turn into disaster when the team went on an unbelievably long no-win streak. And Kashiwa Reysol is also in the throes of...something. In fact, it seems that the supporters got so tired of waiting for the club to do something proactive that they decided to jump-start the process by demanding talks with the club.

This is a follow up to this entry (scroll to middle) where I mentioned that the Reysol club management agreed to meet with the supporters to discuss their concerns and wishes following a looonnngg period of declining performance. The meeting took place this weekend, with almost 800 supporters attending. The meeting took place out on the supporter end of the stadium seating area. The details of the meeting are not officially announced, but some people have given an outline of what happened on their blogs. However, from what some of the supporters say on their blogs it was mostly a beginning to a beginning, mostly questions that revolved around intention, attitude, and possibility. They reaffirmed their dedication to the team, asked pointed questions about the intention behind the coach's decision-making in various areas. Below is a translation of some of the questions and answers that came up -- which were outlined on this blog.

Even if you are not a fan of Reysol, it is still illuminating to hear what goes on behind these types of meetings, and what the dynamics of the Q&A are in these situations. Overall the supporters seemed to want to hear directly from the horse's mouth -- from the owner, the coach, etc. And see them stand in front of them and have to address the concerns of the supporters directly. The next meeting will take place right before the league season starts up again.

Q: Is Reysol an attacking team or a defensive team?
A: (coach Hayano) If the team can start off the game with an attacking mentality, it opens up more possibilities. I would like the players to play more ambitiously from the sides with crosses in. We want to face each game with an ambitious and forward-thinking mentality.

Q: What criteria do you use to choose the players?
A: (coach Hayano) If we break it down to spirit/attitude, technique or strength/physical, I'd say techniqus is top priority.

Q: Is there a possibility that with the declining performance, Hitachi will withdraw its support of the team?
A: (owner) No

Q: Having experience at both Marinos and Reysol, what do you (coach Hayano) think are some of the differences?
A: (Hayano) When I took the reins at Marinos, it was the third year, and my predecessor was not able to build the team into a champion hopeful. The situation was different than what we have in Reysol, but the basic problems revolved around lack of communication and the fact that we could not find wins. But the team had been the top of the JFL for three years, so implementing adjustments and changes was relatively simple then. Reysol has a lot of young players but they are fighting hard. I'd like the team to tear through the barrier of a "young team".

Q: What exactly is the goal for this team for this season?
A: (owner) To stay in the J1. Somewhere above the middle within the top 9.

Q: What does the team need to do in order to avoid relegation? What is behind your conviction that the team will remain in the J1?
A: Implemented reinforcement so that the team is able to create a lot of goal chances.

Q: A number of top new-comers to the J were rumored to be coming to Reysol (like Robert Cullen, who is now with Jubilo Iwata), but they ended up getting grabbed by other teams. Doesn't this show that our scouts are not getting their job done?
A: The scouts are doing their job and working hard. We were able to get the number one university player this year.

Q: The team motto this year is "走魂宣言" (directly translates to 'Running Spirit Proclamataion')but it looks like the team is losing to opponents with regard to running/speed. Do you think you are cementing the positions too much?
A: (Hayano) We have been training to get the players to create movement on their own. We are going to keep doing so in training. You say we are cementing the positions too much, but we having making an effort to get feedback from players.

Q: There are a lot of players who are currently being rented out. And many of them are getting good results in other teams. Do you think this is an indication that there were errors in player selection?
A: We are looking for the growth of these players, and are always trying to see when the best time is to call them back. Please understand this is part of the development process.

Q: Reysol is know to be a "get-along club". This isn't a bad thing. But yesterday, right after the end of the Bahrain vs. Japan game, we saw Hide Nakata talking animatedly to Tamada (who is a Reysol player) and giving instructions, etc. At Reysol, there doesn't seem to be a player like this, someone who can be the center of the team and lead the group. It seems like Myojin is too quiet for this type of responsibility.
A: (Hayano) This is something that happens naturally among the players. I can't tell one player to just do it and then it happens. Myojin is aware of this expectation put on him, and he is showing his leadership through his play. Anything more is a question of personality and team dynamics, and I can't comment further.

Q: The 4-back system does not seem to be working. Are you planning on trying a 3-back?
A: (Hayano) Since this is a strategy issue, now is not the place to discuss this.

Q: You mention the word "Vision", but what exactly is this vision?
A: (owner) To train/discipline the young players and make them into top class. I endorse coach Hayano's attitude regarding this vision.

Q: You said that you would be using this break in the league season to strengthen the team. What exactly do you mean?
A: Improving the physical fitness of the players and shifting up gears with regard to offensive attitude. Also converting players and gauging their aptititude; looking at the individual speed of the forwards and improving the combination plays among the players.

Q: Even when a player makes errors in the previous games, you still keep using them in the next game. Why is this?
A: I look at the overal strategic strength of the team and choose the players accordingly. Mental strength, technical ability, and the strategy are things I pay attention to. I do know that it is an option to replace players as a means of strengthening the team as well -- I know it is one was of doing things.

Q: What is the immediate goal for this team for this season?
A: In order to get to the middle of the rankings, we will be aiming to get 40 more points in the league.

Q: I heard from a player who transferred to Reysol two years ago that there is not much communication between the management and the players. Is this true?
A: We believe we are communicating with the players.

There were tougher comments thrown at the club as well, including "No wins at home so far, and the supporter satisfaction level is zero", or "We could solve 80% of the problem if you change coaches." But the owner said that he is sticking with current coach Hayano and has declared that money will be spent to improve the team.

Weekend of Draws for Nabisco

2005-06-05T12:11:00.000+09:00

Lots of draws among the Nabisco games this weekend, with the exception of Reds 3-1 Ardija, Albirex 1-0 Vissel, and Sanfrecce 2-1 Gamba. After this fifth game, it looks like Urawa Reds, Gamba Osaka, and Shimizu S-Pulse are going through to the knockout stage. The only question remains with Jef Chiba, who have ten points followed by Kashiwa Reysol's seven. But Jef Chiba have a goal difference of +6 whereas Reysol have goal difference of -2, so Reysol would have to put on a heck of a show to make it onwards as the group leader.

Marinos and Jubilo had been excused from the group rounds of the Nabisco due to their participation in the Asian Champions League -- they will be joining in the Nabisco once the knockout stage starts.

The remaining two slots for the knockout round will be determined after the next game -- the second-place team from each group will be compared, and the top two of the four will make it to the knockout stage. The top two will be determined by looking at total points > goal difference > total goals. If THAT still doesn't weed out the top two, the teams will be chosen by lottery (though hopefully it will never come to that!).

Notable is the performance by Urawa Reds in the Nabisco group games -- they have won all games so far. If they keep this up, they may end up repeating their climb to the finals again this year. They missed out on penalties against FCTokyo in 2004, so I imagine their feelings towards getting this Championship is greater than most of the other teams.

False Report and NT update

2005-06-05T12:01:00.000+09:00

I wrote in a previous entry that I read a number of articles saying that Daisuke Matsui and Yoshito Okubo had been registered as part of the Japan NT for the Confederations Cup coming up in a couple weeks. But there were articles yesterday saying that the JFA announced the Confederations Cup roster, and these two players are not part of the list. Zico will be sticking to the 23 players that are currently with the NT (for the WC qualifiers).

Naohiro Takahara's hamstring injury is not getting better, and it has been announced that he will not be able to play in the upcoming qualifier against North Korea.

The NT took the day off yesterday (though the schedule was for them to train Saturday), and then got on the charter plane to Bangkok, Thailand. They arrived this morning, and looked neither tense or over-excited as they got on the bus.

The venue for the game against North Korea is Supachalasai Stadium -- reports from Bangkok say that the pitch condition is very poor. Large patches of uneven grass are patchworked together and overall the ground is bumpy. There is also fear of sudden showers during this season. The area around the stadium is devoid of tall buildings, but the only building with any height located nearby (Hotel) has been hounded with calls from Japanese people inquiring about the use of rooms with a view of the stadium. A group of Japan supporters have already headed to Bangkok straight from Bahrain. Others will join them from Japan. The hotel is planning on putting together some sort of event where Japan supporters can gather and try to squint their eyes (or use telescopes/binoculars) to see what's going on inside. Thai authorities and a FIFA security consultant have organized hefty security for the occasion (though no supporters will be allowed in anyway), and have said that NO live broadcast of the game will take place on Thai tv...though I hear they will be able to watch by satellite. Kind of strange to think a qualifier game (and one that would decide Japan's advancement to the World Cup) is going on right there and to have to watch from the outside like this.

Japan Supporters' Away Adventure

2005-06-04T22:29:00.000+09:00

In case any of you are wondering what these chartered mass group flights to support the Japan NT are like, this is a nice photo-journal of how the trip went from start to finish. If you want an explanation of certain photos, leave your question here and I can translate. Enjoy!

Japanese Press better Watch Out

2005-06-04T19:37:00.000+09:00

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.

Never Trust Rumors: Fujita to Nagoya

2005-06-04T18:48:00.000+09:00

Well, this will teach me to suspect my sources! It looks like Jubilo Iwata's Toshiya Fujita will NOT be going to Urawa Reds afterall but to Nagoya Grampus instead. The deciding factor was, what else, money. At this point, I'm not sure why Grampus wants Fujita -- they seem to need forwards... but anyhoo, this is all I'll say until I get more official detailed info.

Japan 1 - 0 Bahrain, and I need sleep

2005-06-04T09:54:00.000+09:00

Arr, by the time the entire game and follow-up show (with interviews, etc.) ended, it was 4 a.m. I've missed my window of opportunity for sleep and now am teetering between feeling dazed and buzzed.

Well, as you all know by now, Japan was able to get their 3 points. They are still in second place in Group B, behind Iran by one point.

Host Bahrain
Bahrain turned out to be quite a friendly host. I was suprised by the type of reception Japan (and Japanese supporters) got in Bahrain. They country/city made it into a bit of a tourist promo, and the Bahrain football people were very gracious -- they had announcements in Japanese through the game, and also had a "welcome Japanese visitors" sign on the electric display. They provided two thousand seats out of about twenty-five thousand for Japanese supporters, reserved the seating area behind one of the goals to create a "cafe area" for Japanese supporters to get drinks, etc. And they also provided little radios so that the Japanese supporters were able to listen to the Japanese commentary while they watched. The section of seats that we got were kind of bad, but hey, it's an away game. The Bahrain football suits also bought up about twenty thousand tickets and gave them out free to those that came; however, they were very good about controlling the numbers and making sure to adhere to stadium capacity. They provided all the Bahrain supporters with red ponchos, flags, and bullhorns.

There are about 150 Japanese people living in Bahrain (I hear), and add to that the 700 that came from the near region and the 1,200-ish that hopped on the charter flights from Japan, and you got a pretty good away crowd in a relatively cozy stadium. The temperature shot up game day, and the humidity was even worse compared to what Bahrain had been experiencing the past week, and I think it caught both teams by surprise a little. Luckily, Japan had just spent a week in a humidity hellhole at the UAE camp, and the players said that worked in their favor during the game.

I did want to mention here that the response by the Bahrain people for their team was really good to see -- the own-goal by Bahrain would have created murderous thoughts in some other countries, but the nation welcomed the team back after their own-goal loss to Japan in the previous game. The entire nation was supportive, the football federation created a festive but civilized atmosphere, and overall the tiny island nation stepped up to the plate. The only concern I had was the tears shed by some of the Bahrain players after the game. And there seems to be a mood among the home supporters that Bahrain lost out on quality against Japan, and this means an end of hope. Japan still have to draw against North Korea in the next game, and Bahrain still has the play-offs. Fortunately for Asian teams, there is a plus-.5 slot to make it to the WC -- two playoffs could still get Bahrain through.

United Gameplan, New Options on Offense
Overall, what Japan did worked very well. The entire team had a very strong united concept of how the game would be played. The first twenty minutes or so was a balancing act by both teams, each trying to gauge the other's attitude and plan. Japan was playing with one forward Yanagisawa and two omfs shadowing behind him (Nakamura and Ogasawara). The ideal plan of attack was to use the overlap of midfielders up the center of the pitch, but Japan was not really able to do anything resembling that until about the twenty minute mark. But once Japan got a feel for Bahrain, they started to move up and create a number of interesting opportunities using one-touch, zig-zag and triangular passing sequences that broke through the Bahrain defense. Though many people think of Japanese football characterized by breakthrough from the sides, these types of intricate passing sequences by midfield overlap up the center is also a big part of the Japanese flavor -- think classic Jubilo Iwata. The goal came when HNakata sent a strong vertical pass up to Nakamura who pushed it to Ogasawara with the back of his foot. Ogasawara did a little fake-out and found a clean low shot for a goal to the left side of net. While Ogasawara held the ball, Nakamura had opened wide to the right and Yanagisawa was streaking up diagonally left through the defense from behind -- this was probably what gave Ogasawara the shot, as the defenders were pulled apart by the threat from Nakamura's position and Yanagisawa's speedy movement.

The big difference between what we've seen in recent Japan games and what we saw in this one was just this sort of overlapping from the middle with quick passing. It is one of the most effective type of play against a team that packs the defense and has lots of tall players -- as we saw in the last Bahrain game, just hauling the ball in from the sides is ineffective when the opponent is able to easily beat you to in the air. For this type of play to work though, you need players who know how to move and position themselves quickly. In this game, HNakata was truly the leader -- he kept good balance with respect to the others, contributed heavily to both offense and defense, and was seen constantly talking things through with the players. Of course, Nakamura, Ogasawara and Yanagisawa had promising combination plays and gave us an idea of what the potential for this team can be again.

Of course, the game had its share of dangerous moments for Japan. One shot by Bahrain hit the left post and bounced almost in the path of a Bahrain player who had run up. Another when Nakazawa challenged for a ball in the air and ended up heading it backwards instead of forwards, dropping it at the feet of a Bahrain player who was completely free against goalie Kawaguchi, but he shot wide. But the defense line worked through the adjustments on the pitch while the game went on, and overall things were pretty stable.

The heat/fatigue was a major factor in this game, and I was surprised by how much it affected the Bahrain team (as opposed to Japan, who you'd think was at a disadvantage here). But like I said, Japan had experienced worse weather prior to arriving in Bahrain, and it must have done the trick. The second half started off with lots of effort by Bahrain, but they petered out after the thirty minute mark or so. Even the home crowd were quieting down, and you could clearly hear the Japanese supporters singing Vamos Nippon.

The other thing was that Zico told Nakamura to save his energy for the offense rather than running around trying to do everything and wearing down. In fact, it was interesting to see that Nakamura hardly took the free/corner kicks in this game, I think only one or two -- mostly Ogasawara and Santos kicked in these situations. It could be that he was saving his energy, or that there weren't any fks given in good positions, or that they wanted to give variety to the kicks by only using him a few times (unlike in the previous Bahrain game, where Nakamura must have kicked almost twenty place kicks).

Good Kick in the Pants
A major theme of this past week of training was getting over the two consecutive losses in the Kirin Cup and figuring out how to use HNakata. According to the players, they held a lot of player-only meetings at the hotel as well as training, and everyone contributes thoughts and opinions about the state of things. This team has over the past year slowly developed a very solid environment of communication and contribution, regardless of whether you are the ace or the last sub. I also think that Nakamura and HNakata's confidence about being able to safely win this game helped the team regain courage and fighting spirit. Though many players seemed to be "aiming for a tie at least" after the losses at the Kirin Cup, Nakamura and Nakata told the others that we had everything it took to win the game, that if we played with toughness and intelligence there was no question of winning. The key was for each player to put his all to each play, and approach one-on-one situations with aggressiveness and power. This in turn helps out the defense and allows Japan to keep the opponent at bay. Using HNakata in the defensive midfield may seem like a bit of a waste, but I think that he serves the team better in that position -- he can communicate with everyone on the team, and has a good view of the game from the rear of the pitch which allows him to analyze the state of the team better.

. . .
The end of the game had all players on the pitch dragging their feet and looking like they were ready to keel over. Zico substituted KNakata in for Nakamura -- KNataka went to defensive midfield and HNakata went up to offensive midfield. Then Inamoto was subbed for omf Ogasawara (Ina normally plays defensive midfield). The final sub was Tamada for Yangisawa, both forwards. So I guess Zico was more interested in keeping the pressure on up front rather than fiddling with anyone in the back or sides.

Speaking of sides, the two sides were complete duds. Santos was repeatedly the creator of many dangerous situations for Japan and did not make any effective attempts, and Kaji had only one real contribution to the offense when his short low cross from the side almost met Yanagisawa's foot before the goalie caught it. Both did not back up the front three players, and made things very difficult for Nakamura and Yanagisawa by not being able to be in good position when it was required. Nakamura said as much after the game.

And referee...oh, well, let's not get started on this again. But for a guy who likes to let real fouls slide by he also gave out a heck of a lot of yellow cards for very little reason. And he denied a very obvious penalty kick to HNakata.

It is also interesting to think about Ogasawara's position. Previously, he could pretty much kiss his chance at starting goodbye if Nakamura (let alone HNakata) were available for a game. This was the very first time that all three were present on the pitch at the same time. Unfortunately it took an accident to Ono for this to happen, but knowing Ono's lack of true toughness on defense it was probably a good thing that HNakata played dmf today.

There are still a lot of things for this team to get sorted out, but the leadership of Nakamura and HNakata helped put things more on track with regard to confidence and fighting spirit. It was also evident that HNakata had found his way into the team's sense of unity, helped out by Nakamura vote of confidence (the players truly trust Nakamura's opinion) -- it could be that this vote of confidence to the team helped the others more openly accept HNakata's coaching. HNakata had often stood out as the naysayer of the group, pointing out things that were wrong with the team. But this week he came at the problem from a different angle, use a little sugar to help the medicine go down.

Onwards...
Santos, HNakata, and Nakamura have each gotten their second yellows -- so they will not be able to play in the next match against North Korea. It is quite a shame to have to pull apart what the team has shown in this last game, and the absence of the two game leaders is also going to put a lot of pressure on those that replace them. At this point, I have no idea what to expect from Zico. He will probably not want to mess with the formation too much, but considering how much trouble North Korea gave Japan previously when we played with only one omf Zico might try and put in a second omf to partner up with Ogasawara. It could be Ogasawara's Kashima Antlers partner Motoyama; or even Inamoto, who subbed in as omf towards the end of this Bahrain game and has played the position at previous club. For dmf, it may possibly be KNakata -- his height and accurate feeds may be effective against North Korea.

As for forwards, Yanagisawa did a good job considering he has not played with the team since last June. He seemed to be speedier than Tamada on the run, and his time in Italy has made him relatively tough. He knows how to use/create space, and has a good feel for breaking through the defense using speed. There were moments in the game where I wished Oguro was in the forward position instead -- moments where Yanagisawa had a difficult but attemptable shot very close to the goal but he sort of wimped out. Since Oguro is doing very well this season, it would be interesting to see him and Yanagisawa up front if there were to be only one omf.

Let's look at the remaining midfielders available:

Koji Nakata: plays dmf. also left def and left side. strong in air
Junichi Inamoto: plays dmf. also omf and right side. good long-range shot
Masashi Motoyama: plays omf. also forward. speedy dribbling
Yasuhito Endo: plays dmf. quality place kicks
Atsushi Miura: plays left side. also right side and omf. quality place kicks

So there are a number of ways you could combine players for the next game. But with only four days to practice, I expect the changes to be minimal.

The next game vs. North Korea:
No spectators
Belgian Referees
In Bangkok
No Ono, Nakamura, HNakata, Santos, or Takahara
...and a Draw result at the worst can get Japan through to Germany. If Japan loses against North Korea, but Iran wins or draws against Bahrain, Japan can still get through.

It is going to be yet another unique game for the history books, one way or the other.

NT Update:

2005-06-02T18:30:00.000+09:00

The week preceding an NT game is like waiting for the other shoe to drop. If it ain't the weather or the logistics or the politics or the whatever, it's surely injuries. Today, it has been reported that Shinji Ono has injured his leg during a practice game yesterday. In fact, some report it as a broken bone -- so he will not be able to play in the upcoming qualifiers.

Despite all this, and the sense among supporters of doom and gloom, it really isn't surprising. I mean, it's a shock and bad news, but this isn't like we haven't seen his glass legs give out before. There was no serious tackling or roughness that led to the injury, so I can only assume that the vulnerability was there to begin with. If it hadn't happened during practice, it would have happened during the game, possibly.

This team has been through way too many injuries to be greatly bogged down by the bad news. Last year, right before the Czech game, Hide Nakata got injured and we all thought it was the end of the team right there. There is a bigger task here to get done -- more important than any one player. And despite the grumblings and criticisms of a nation, the Task has always been the focal point for the team. We each have our own un-favorites and favorites, people we want to see called up, criticisms about how the team performs, views on Zico's management and philosophy, etc. But right now, all that is absolutely besides the point. I actually like this team -- I am not satisfied by them, but they represent something different than anything we've seen before in the Japan NT. They also carry a burden rarely seen in recent Japanese sports -- perhaps the only group of athletes with the same amount of assumption for results put upon them recently is the Japanese Judo team (men's and women's) and they are the Brazil of the judo world. And perhaps some of the gambling spirit has gone out of the team because of that pressure and the criticism. We from the outside may be contributing to the second-guessing downward spiral. But the team knows itself the best and at this point the only thing I want to see is for them to play to their own satisfaction -- without fear, and most of all, without regrets...

I don't think Zico's original philosophy is wrong either. He wants to see a Japan NT that can think for themselves, make the final crucial decisions on the pitch where it counts -- not merely be a momentary mechanism for a blueprint for a coach that is going to be gone within four years at max(regardless of how the team performs, we could assume the coach would get switched in 2006). We saw the limitations of that in the matches of Japan's WC02 games, when the NT started to talk amongst themselves and decided on a plan of their own, ignoring coach Troussier's instructions. This is an organic process that is hard to predict and more difficult to sit patiently through. Most of all, it challenges the individual wisdom and abilities of the players -- and now, with Euro-club's Takahara, Inamoto, and Ono not among the starting, it is also kind of a "test of the J-league" as well. I don't even think Zico is entirely satisified either, but he has been stubbornly patient. It has only been after the two losses in the recent Kirin Cup games that he's switched up gears and attitude.

So, what will Zico do now that Ono is out? According to reports following Ono's injury during the 11-on-11 practice game, HNakata was dropped back down to defensive midfield (like he played in the last Bahrain game) and Ogasawara was put in next to Nakamura as a second offensive midfielder (like the last 20 minutes of the NK game). I've read nothing about Ogasawara's performance (the focus of the articles has been on Ono's injury), so it's hard to say whether the team will retain this 3-4-2-1 shape, or go back to the 3-4-1-2 shape... The question being what kind of difference the second offensive midfielder can bring to the game as opposed to whether Nakamura could create more opporunities if a second forward were available instead.

I don't know who visits this blog, or whether those that do follow the Japan NT at all, but if you do, I hope you'll join me in sending this team only the most positive and energetic vibes on Friday night.

Fujita to Urawa Reds

2005-06-02T18:10:00.000+09:00

Nothing official has been announced yet, but the talk is that it is almost certain that Toshiya Fujita (currently with Jubilo Iwata) will be transferring to Urawa Reds. There was an article last week saying that Fujita and Jubilo coach Yamamoto had one last meeting -- but both sides could not come to any agreement, and after that Yamamoto was heard to say that it was now out of his hands and the rest was up to the club to decide one way or the other.

The hurdle that stood between Fujita and Reds was a monetary one. Aside from that I believe Fujita had his eye on Reds as his number one choice. However, it seems that they were able to come to some agreement on that matter and we may hear an official announcement within the next week or so. As for his Reds number, some speculate it will be his number with the NT, "16".

Quick Review of Marinos vs. Juventus

2005-06-02T17:27:00.000+09:00

As most of you have heard already, Juventus beat Marinos 1-0 (a goal by Del Piero in the first half). The first half hour was pretty much all about Juventus, but it was also a very concentrated effort by Marinos on defense. As could be expected, the accuracy and quality of the Juventus forward-three was evident despite their travel fatigue and jetlag. It seemed that Juventus were pretty confident in their technique and used that to their advantage. However, Marinos made a solid effort on defense -- despite countless attacks by Juventus (and really high-quality ones at that), Marinos held firm. The goal by Del Piero was off a cross that was deflected by defender Kawai -- but the ball dropped quietly right in front of Del Piero for the shot.

The remaining 60 minutes was much more exciting though. Marinos started to pick up their energy, and made more ambitious/confident plays. I think most people expected it to be another star-euro-club-vs-j-club atmosphere, with lots of smiling and playfulness, where it was all about the visiting team's star players and multi-goals. Juventus was missing a ridiculous number of top players due to NT obligations, and had invited several players from other Italian teams like Messina and Brescia. But this turned out to be a game full of fighting spirit and serious play from both sides. There were even a number of "fights" between players of the teams. In the final minutes, you could see Juventus Kapo and Turam arguing with each other -- the last ten minutes saw many good chances from Marinos, and you could almost taste a goal coming; one free kick ended in a goal for Marinos but the whistle had blown right before Kawai had tapped the shot in with his heel.

On the Marinos side, returning forward Kubo started and had two good chances but he was not quite up to his potential (though overall I don't think many Marinos supporters should/would be disappointed by his performance). Dutra on the left side, Oku and his sub Ohashi in the middle, and forward Sakata all had some fine moments. I was also interested to see Yamase, who had relatively recently joined the starting group after transferring from Reds and recovering from a very long injury. Matsuda was another focal point -- usually he is the one to get overly excitable, but this game he was extremely focused and diffused many close Juventus chances. He wasn't distracted by little things and was tough but cool -- kind of inspiring to see.

Actually it was a relief to see Marinos play with this much concentration and spirit -- during the league season so far, Marinos players were having a hard time finding joy in playing. The team were missing many top players, two of the NT members were shuttling back and forth between both teams, and the addition of the ACL group games added further strain. (For teams like Juventus, this may be nothing to gripe about, but for J-league teams it can be a hard blow to overall performance.) The mood had seemed to be "god, not another game.." and their results reflected that attitude. They weren't enjoying it, but simply bearing it.

The biggest difference in quality between the two teams was probably in the speed and timing. Juventus players, whatever their position, had overall superiority in making good quick decisions, being able to read both their teammates' movements as well as their opponents'. But the focused effort by Marinos also seemed to say to Juventus, "You'd better do something pretty fantastic to get a goal from us." One example was a perfect vertical pass through a high Marinos defense line to Trezeguet saw him practically alone against goalie Enomoto. But he may have counted his chickens early, as he held on a might too long before taking the shot -- Matsuda's hustle and slide squashed the shot.

Next game against FCTokyo will probably be an entirely different type of game. FCTokyo have been on a losing streak for so long (though they finally won a Nabisco game last week) that I wonder how they will approach this game against such a high quality team like Juventus.

Highlights of Juventus vs. Marinos on web

2005-06-01T22:01:00.000+09:00

If you missed watching the game live, the website that showed the live stream of the game (see previous entry) will be showing a highlights program Friday at 12:00 (noon) Japan time.

Oh, and if you are also interested in watching the Juventus vs. FCTokyo game next Tuesday June 7, the same website I referred to (see previous entry) will be showing that as well. The live stream begins at 5 pm Japan time, and kick-off is at 7 pm.

Registration Process Translation

2005-06-01T19:12:00.000+09:00

To register for the Live web game between Marinos and Juventus, click here.
Then click the top RED button to the right of the media screen.
Then fill out the form and submit. I've translated the form into English below.
Once you got through the process, go to this page and click the left red start button if you have broadband. If your connection is slower, click the right side button for a smaller stream.

Daisuke and Yoshito Geared for Confed Cup?

2005-06-01T17:49:00.000+09:00

This was a suprising article to sumble across. According to the report, Daisuke Matsui (LeMans France) and Yoshito Okubo (Mallorca, Spain) have been registered as members of the JapanNT for the Confederations Cup that is starting on June 15 after the two World Cup qualifiers.

First of all, I am not sure how these reporters find out who is registered or not and whether this is accurate, but if it is true it is going to be rather exciting news for Japanese supporters. Not only are these two extremely popular players from the Olympics squad (U23, 2004), but they have also made a great impact in their respective clubs as Japanese players this past season. Both players debuted on the NT at the Confederations Cup two years ago but Okubo has the most recent contact with the NT -- he played in last year's Singapore game in Japan.

The article asks why they were not called for this week's qualifying round for the World Cup as well. The most reasonable explanation is the experience factor -- the qualifiers are an extremely tense process, where one mistake or one "bad" foul could cost the team crucial points. Though Okubo has the guts and desire to go for goals, he is also known (in the past) to be susceptible to red cards (and temper tantrums) in a game. As for Matsui, he is still a question mark with regard to the NT -- he has not played with the NT in so long it is difficult to predict how he would stand up against these qualifyer opponents. We still don't see a lot of defensive work from him, and physically he may still be comparatively light. But both these players have a certain magic that is undeniable. It may have been interesting to give them the experience of being part of a qualifier team, so they can carry that experience four years down the road to the next WC. But I guess Zico may have felt this was just not the time to add "new" people to the mix -- it is difficult enough already just re-integrating the European-club players that are there.

I really do hope this is not a joke or false reporting...

NT moves to Bahrain today

2005-06-01T11:30:00.000+09:00

The four additional players coming from the European clubs have arrived at the NT camp in the UAE, and all players (minus Takahara who is sitting this one out in Japan) are now present and accounted for. Well, it's about time!

But before the above four arrived, the training focused mainly on confirming all the defensive strategies, etc. This is the priority for Japan right now. There was a speculatory article in sports papers yesterday detailing Zico's change in coaching attitude and the question of how he will be using Hide Nakata in this next game. Here's a link to the translation of the article in English (read post #7).

Last night the sports news showed clips from the training yesterday -- with Nakamura and Nakata joining the starting eleven. From the looks of it, Zico will be cutting out one forward and putting Nakata in as an offensive midfielder next to (or slightly in front of) Nakamura. Suzuki will most probably be starting as the single forward at the top. Everyone was drenched in sweat (the humidity over there is much higher than I had expected it would be) but from the player comments it sounds like they are focused.

As for what I think of this altered 3-4-2-1 formation, I think it's fine. Japan's strength is in the midfielders and this game is one where the defensive responsibilities is the priority. With Nakata present alonside Nakamura, the two will be able to run interference for each other -- Nakamura tends to get heavily/roughly targeted by opponents. Putting these two quality players up front may also keep the team from unnecessarily losing the ball on the attack. They will still need the other midfielders (the sides and the dmfs) to come up to support on the offense, but their ability to hold onto the ball will enable the others time to come up without worrying about leaving the backside less populated. Nakazawa has returned to the starting group, which is a plus for both offense and defense. As for getting goals, well, it's hard to say exactly what will happen -- whether there is enough time for this trio up front to gel with each other and with the midfielders behind them. We can only maintain faith.

I mentioned in a previous entry that during the Bahrain home game against Iran the pitch was so bumpy that all players were having difficulty with possession. It sounds like those complaints made it to the ears of the groundskeepers -- apparently the pitch was so unlevel in that previous game that there was a 10 cm difference between the highest and lowest areas. They have announced that the ground has been leveled and made flat -- which may mean a very speedy ball. The pitch is hard, too, which will add to the shock on the players' bodies adding to fatigue. It will be important for our team to get used to the pitch and think of how they are going to use their energy during the full 90+ minutes.

The team will leave UAE today and head over to Bahrain.

Juventus Arrives

2005-06-01T11:28:00.000+09:00

Juventus have arrived, and tonight will be their game against Yokohama F Marinos. I'm going to assume that most of the usual suspects from Marinos (minus Nakazawa, of course) are going to be starting. But it will be interesting to see coach Okada's forward selection. Will he start with Kubo or sub him in the second half? It would be extremely valuable to see Kubo play against top players like Juventus to get a feel for how much he's recovered his game since returning from injury. I'm not going to expect a goal from him, but just to see how he moves and makes his decisions on the pitch.

There has been relatively little fanfare for the arrival of Juventus. (Absolutely none for Hamburg, who played against Urawa Reds yesterday and won 2-0.) There was footage from the press conference (Nedved and DelPiero in attendance) on Sport! yesterday, but I was actually expecting more of the crazy hype that we saw with Real Madrid or even Barcelona last year. I guess the difference being Beckham and Ronaldinho... And half the sports writers and camera crews in Japan are off scouting around in UAE and Bahrain for the NT matches, so I guess the networks just didn't have the extra people. Kind of a relief that we aren't embarassing ourselves in front of visiting teams like we have in the past. The press conference was pretty banal, but Juventus were very gracious in their comments. It was the first time for Nedved in Japan, but he said that he was sorry they weren't going to have enough time to really see Japan. Probably one shopping spree is scheduled... Maybe if you camp out in Akihabara (the electronics store town) you may catch them.

As for the Hamburg/Reds game, it was not televised on either regular tv or the net so I only saw about 5 seconds of goal clips. I also heard that Urawa had a hard time populating the stadium -- the attendance was just over ten thousand, which I guess must have been a disappointment for them. The general commentary about Urawa's performance was that they weren't able to make any promising shots on goal. But they did have speed against Hamburg. But Hamburg had both height and a desire to fight at any cost -- Hamburg won the air, and also stopped Urawa's speed by tackling. In other words, Hamburg showed that "pretty" is not necessarily the ideal, and to get results you have to be willing to throw yourself into the game. It would have been interesting to watch -- I do watch Hamburg on cable off and on, so I know the team fairly well (not really a favorite team of mine, but I have the basics down).

The Juventus/Marinos game, as I said before, will be televised (delayed video broadcast at midnight) on the network tv, but you can also watch it live on the net. It's free, and the registration process if very simple. I'm not sure whether people accessing from overseas can also hook up, but I haven't read anything to the contrary so I think anyone will be able to watch. If you need help with the Japanese in the registration process leave a comment or send an email -- I'll walk you through it. I'll come back with my impression of the game afterwards, but I want to just plain enjoy the show. Hopefully it will be a good match with exciting play from both sides!

Going into the Next Rounds: J2

2005-05-31T11:55:00.000+09:00

Wide Margin Lead

Since no team got relegated from J1 last season, the general prediction about the J2 this season was that it was going to be a close season for many of the higher-level teams. But what do we know? Kyoto Purple Sanga have taken a huge lead over the other teams -- after 13 rounds, they have 10 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss. Like Sanfrecce Hiroshima of two years ago, and Kawasaki Frontale of last year, Kyoto have leapt ahead.

One of the main reasons for Kyoto's great results this season is none other than their great goal-getting ability. In the J2, there are almost no teams that are able to control the majority of a game. So, regardless of who is supposed to be the stronger or weaker team in any matchup, both teams have many opportunities to score. And in Kyoto's case, they have been able to make the goals consistently happen when the chance comes around because of their non-Japanese forwards like Paulinho and Alemao.

When you look at the defense, though, you don't see the same sense of strength. The basic style of Kyoto's defense has been for the back 4 and middle 4 to assert their lines properly -- they lure the opponent into their area and steal back the ball from there. They have some tall centerbacks who can defend against crosses, and the defensive midfielders (like Meta and Saito) pick up the ball from there. This has been the general policy in the team continuing from last year, and everyone involved is absolutely aware of their responsibilities. However, as a whole the team does not have a united concept of defense, and the general feeling among reviewers is that Kyoto's defense may prove too fragile if we were to put them in a J1 environment right now. If you look at the 0-3 defeat to Sagan Tosu in the 12th round, the centerbacks were unable to respond well when Sagan were able to get the ball into the area behind the sidebacks despite the fact that their defense line wasn't kept that high. But Kyoto have been able to maintain a decent amount of stability overall because they were able to add good players to their roster in the preseason -- even when their main defenders like Teshima and Okubo could not play, the defense line did not crumble. The new recruits like Washida and Ricardo have been performing well in their place.

Part of the new transfers this season included a trio who have played under coach Hashiratani during his Yamagata days. These guys quickly understood the coach's strategies making things much easier for the team as a whole. Of course all these new transfers were made possible by Kyoto's advantageous financial situation. So even if we look with a little concern to their defense, on the whole we have to acknowledge that this team certainly deserves to be way ahead in the table.

Race for Second Place

First of all, Ventforet Kofu are playing high quality football. The overall impression is that all the players have a very clear understanding of coach Ohki's strategy, what he wants from each of them. For instance, what do the other players do when one of the forwards gets the ball, who goes to support the forwards, who runs into the spaces created, etc. The same goes for the defense as well. The back 4 and the middle 4 keep disciplined lines and know exactly when and where to put pressure on the opponent. Though Kofu are currently in 5th place overall, many reviewers are looking to Kofu to put on a good fight for the top (or at least second). Particularly important in their future performance is Bare. Because the team as a unit has a very clear understanding of how to create opportunities, all they need next is someone to finish things off with a goal. Bare's got speed and physical strength and has gotten 7 goals so far. [Oops, I seem to have fallen behind the times: Bare scored a hattrick in this weekend's game so now his goal total is 10! Thanks to Furtho for pointing out my error!]

Shonan Bellmare: This team is currently in 6th place, but the overall comments have been that their games have promising content. The presense of newly acquired players seems to have shaken the rest of the team, motivating everyone to play better. One player to focus on would be Sato, who came from Cerezo Osaka. Though many think of him as a left sidehalf, his move to defensive midfield at Bellmare has proved a very smart move. Organizing the team from that position, he creates a good rhythm for the team and uses his accurate passing skills to mix long and short passes, giving the team different options on the offense. He likes to use the sides too, so if the team is stumbling against persistent pressure from the opponent Sato will use long balls to poke at the back side area for opportunities. Coach Ueda stresses a compact team, and the players seem to understand that.

With regard to Avispa Fukuoka and Montedio Yamagata, they are doing okay but have been getting too many tied games (Fukuoka have 8 draws, Yamagata 6). They should have been doing better, securely getting the three points in a number of matches they ended up tied. It is possible that this inability (by these two teams to get the wins) is the reason behind the congestion of teams vying for second place in the J2.

Sagan Tosu: I did a review of Tosu last week already, but just to touch on them in the context of the entire J2... Tosu have been able to put a better performance this year because they have made great improvements to the individual quality of players as well as the team strategy. Lots of new players with better abilities have been brought in. And there is a defensive awareness in the team that starts higher up on the pitch -- not just back at the defense line. By putting on the pressure higher up near the front line, they have been able to put together swifter offensive plays.

What about the Newbies?
A little painful to watch are the teams new to the J2 -- Thespa and Vortis. Though Thespa Kusatsu has gotten a new coach in Tetsuka, who had started off by declaring he wanted to create an attacking team, the players have not been able to either understand or put into play his wishes. At the 11th Round, they switched the formation back to 3-5-2. Though they haven't seen the results yet, the return of experienced playmaker Yamaguchi may prove to be the next piece of the puzzle. Thespa have players who can put on a solid/decent performance, so all that the team seems to need in order to make improvements is to have a clearer understanding of what the coach wants from them -- and put it into practice. As for Tokushima Vortis, they seemed to have everything lined up -- 7th year coach Tanaka and new players with experience at the J1 level. But these new players aren't fitting in well. One article said "the rest of the team is trying to fit themselves to the new players, not the other way round." By doing this, the team has basically ignored all that they have learned and built up to this year. Plus the injuries to Hayashi and Kataoka (who were key players during Tokushima's fight to the top of the JFL) have been a blow to the team.

The Season is Long...

After 13 rounds, this is just the beginning. Perhaps after another 12 rounds or so (which would put us at the midpoint of the season), we will start to see a pattern of performance that clearly separates the top 4-5 teams. As the separation becomes clearer, we will also see some teams start to pull away in the opposite direction downwards -- teams that feel like they have no chance at J1 and therefore the performance starts to slide along with the motivation. (Though last year we saw Fukuoka do just the opposite. They put on a fierce fight upwards in the second half of the season just as everyone was writing them off.)

And on to the next...

2005-05-30T06:35:00.000+09:00

Japanese players in Europe Avoid Relegation

Reggina, Fiorentina, and Mallorca, who were each not out of relegation-danger going into their last round game, were able to scrape by and remain in their respective leagues.

... And four Euro-based players added to NT roster: Hide Nakata, Shunsuke Nakamura, Atsushi Yanagisawa, and Koji Nakata were called up to the NT roster for the upcoming WC qualifier games. Naohiro Takahara joined the NT last week but his hamstring injury is going to keep him from going to the Bahrain game -- he'll wait to join the team for the next game against North Korea.

Back in Japan

The Nabisco rounds were played on Saturday. I wasn't able to watch any of the games, but some notable news coming out of these games:

Gamba's Maeda tipped in a crucial game-winning goal in the final moments of their game against Frontale. After becoming the 10,000th goal scorer in the Nagoya game, Maeda went on to add an assist to his record in the game against Cerezo, and now has come through on a game-winning goal. It's good to see that he is taking full advantage of the opportunities he gets to be out on the pitch.

Kashiwa Reysol lost to Jef Chiba 5-1. After the game, the supporters refused to leave the stands for 90 minutes calling for the sacking of Coach Hayano. The club management people went out to negotiate with the supporters, and I believe they were able to come to an agreement to meet together some time later this week. The club situation is very bad. There was that incident when Reysol supporters charged into the visiting Nagoya stands after being provoked by calls from the Nagoya supporters. It ended with a 10,000,000 yen penalty on the Reysol club, the dissolution of two of the main supporter groups (who felt it was the right thing to do to show their remorse for what happenned), and formal charges filed against one of the attackers. The supporters this weekend aimed their frustration at the club and particularly the coach. But from what video footage I saw, it looked like the supporters weren't fixing for a fight -- they just wanted to be heard and get face time with the club. Hopefully something positive will come out of this. This season already saw Vissel changing coaches, and other teams who were supposed to be on top not doing as well as hoped initially (Jubilo, Marinos, Reds), the rapid sinking of FCTokyo, etc., so there is still a lot that can happen and time to turn things around.

Speaking of FCTokyo... Hey! They won their first game in...how many games? well, let's not waste time counting. It has been a very long time, and this weekend's 2-0 win against Trinita must have been like a cup of water to a team who had been circling lost in the desert for way too long. Welcome home, boys!

Visitors
They're...coming...

May 31: Hamburg SV vs. Urawa Reds
June 1: Juventus vs. Yokohama F Marinos (click here to watch free on web on the page, you will see a set of link buttons to the right of the mediascreen. click the top red button to complete a short and simple registration process. let me know if you need further help.)
June 7: Juventus vs. FCTokyo
June 8: LA Galaxy vs. Yokohama F Marinos
June 12: FC Barcelona vs. Yokohama F Marinos
June 15: FC Barcelona vs. Urawa Reds

July 27: Liverpool FC vs. Shimizu S-Pulse
July 28: Bayern Munchen vs. FC Tokyo
July 28: Manchester United vs. Kashima Antlers
July 30: Manchester United vs. Urawa Reds
July 30: Liverpool FC vs. Kashima Antlers
July 30: Bayern Munchen vs. Jubilo Iwata

Japan 0-1 UAE
Well, I wasn't able to write all weekend for the blog, so I am unfashionably late addressing this game. You all probably have read much about it already, so I'm not going to blabber on too much. The shift that I noticed in both these friendly games is the team seems to be more worried about their inability to score, which means a big portion of the game had many of the Japan players up front and creating chances but unstable in back. The gap between the defense line and the defensive midfielders will probably need to be looked at, and deciding how quickly the defense line slides down may be another issue to resolve. And of course each player's toughness in one-on-one matchups. The overall impression of this team is one that is in the midst of struggling out of some shell or cocoon. But it will also be important for the team to balance the reality that is in front of them looking at the WC qualifier group standings -- that we have to tie or win the game against Bahrain. And if this means we have to play more defense-careful, so be it. Without knowing what strategy Bahrain will bring, it is hard to predict how the game will go. What I do remember from watching the Bahrain home game against Iran was that the pitch was quite poor, and attempts by the Iran players to dribble backfired. Bahrain is strong in the air, and seems to have analyzed Japan's place kick varieties -- so perhaps one tactic to use against them is speed, breaking through the back of the defense line. Also the heat will be a factor.

The team has already flown to UAE for their pre-camp yesterday. And I hear they've completed their first training there already. The UAE time zone is 5 hours behind Japan, fyi!

Daisuke Comes Home

2005-05-26T12:37:00.000+09:00

France's now Ligue 1 Le Mans Daisuke Matsui arrived at Kansai Airport today. He has confirmed a 3 year contract with the club and will be getting about 100 million yen a year. He was rented out to Le Mans from J2 Kyoto Purple Sanga in September of last year and made the full transfer this year in April. He has steadily made his place at Le Mans as an integral presence on the left side.

He'll be taking a rest for about a week, have his injury looked at, and will return to training at the Purple Sanga grounds. He'll be returning to Le Mans next month on the 20th. With Le Mans promoted to Ligue 1 now, Matsui will be the third Japanese player to play in the Ligue.

"I'd like to play against Koji's (Nakata) Marseille team... I'd like to keep getting results in the Ligue 1 so that I may get called back to the NT in the future," he said. Matsui made his NT debut in 2003 at the Confederations Cup game against Columbia. At Le Mans this past season, he has scored 3 goals and has been chosen in the Best Eleven 5 times.

Japan NT's DMFs@Weekly Soccer Digest

2005-05-26T09:11:00.000+09:00

Well, I thought I'd try and find another magazine to introduce this week, one that I hadn't touched on already, but this week the news is pretty much dominated by the National Team no matter where I look. There was an interesting interview of Zico in this season's issue of Football Japan ,(click here to see what FJ looks like) but it's on the expensive side and there was only two articles that interested me in it so I decided to buy the Weekly Soccer Digest (click photo to enlarge) again. I do promise that in the future I will try and introduce different periodicals so people who do not live in Japan get a taste for what's out there.

So, as you can see from the cover of this week's issue, the Japan NT is the focus of things. What caught my eye about the Digest was that they decided to focus on the fact that right now might be the Era of the Defensive Midfield in Japan. Of all the positions, this is the position with the largest number of players competing. If you have been following the NT in just the last year, you know that we have seen six very different types of players play here, in different combinations, during different games. Actually, if you count Yuki Abe, who was called to the NT at the beginning of the year NT camp, it is seven.

First Article: "Late Arrival: Profile of Takashi Fukunishi"
(again, I warn you my translation is going to be rough, I didn't have a lot of time to do this today!)

Fukunishi had a difficult time getting a chance to start for the NT since the days of Troussier. He was called for three years since 1999, went to the World Cup in 2002, and then continued to be called by Zico, but it was only last year in June that he finally got his big break and held on. This was when rival Junichi Inamoto broke his leg during the England game. "I'm not particularly concerned by the Europe-based players, and I don't really think of myself as a substitute for one of them. But it is a fact that I get the chance to play when they are absent. I can't argue, this is a chance for me, and I want to put on a performance that first of all I am satisfied with. I want to get results," he said. Since the Asia Cup last year, Zico's trust in Fukunishi has noticeably grown. After that, even when Inamoto healed, Zico waited to call Inamoto until late December. Last year, the NT played 22 games total and Fukunishi has played in 18. This year he has started in ever single one so far. Even teammates acknowledge the growth and significance of his presence on the team. Teammate Endo said, "Fuku-san, maybe being originally a forward, has great strength in offense; however, he is dependable in defense and is probably the best all-rounder."

Most people misunderstand his cool countenance as "not having ambition or hunger", but it is his strength that he retains a confidence and calmness that is not penetrated by surrounding distractions.

There is a reason why he has evolved into an all-round type player. On top of any natural abilities, having the demanding presence of Dunga at Jubilo was a gift -- a great influence to improve and grow. As a high school student, Fukunishi was not part of any National Youth team. Even after he entered the pros, he only had his experience at Jubilo as reference. But even so, the various "educators" in his life have sniffed out his potential and kept demanding more from him. From the eras of Hans Ooft and Luiz Felipe, he was trained in the complete requirements of a "volante" (what Japanese usually call the dmf position, comes from Brazil's football vocab though argued it is not used correctly in Japan). And when Gjokica Hadzievski came and said "the presence of an offense-oriented libero is a must for the team", Fukunishi was given the task of filling that position. Then it was Takashi Kuwahara who came and focused on Fukunishi's offensive capabilities by not only having him play in dmf, but also as a game-maker and forward at times. So it was a big change from his high school days, when he only played as a forward. His encounters with different influencial people gave him the training and experience that has led him to be the all-rounder that he is now.

Even Zico had been counting on Fukunishi's abilities from the beginning. However, various injuries kept Fukunishi from being able to consistently show his capabilities for a while. He has shown that his performance does not drop or rise according to who he partners up with in dmf, and has the flexibility to pair with different types. "As I've gotten more chances to start, I've begun to think more about the whole team. I think most about how best to move keeping in mind the team unit."

Second Article: "How the DefMF Pairs Changed"

At the time of Zico took over the NT in 2002, the first choice for the dmf pairing had been Ono-Inamoto. Supporting their fellow "golden quartet" Nakamura and H.Nakata (omf), this was the shape of the JapanNT that brought the most excitement and hope among supporters. But in the two and half years since, a lot of changes have taken place. And the dmf players are currently in tough competition. It has been about a year since the Ono-Inamoto pairing has been seen. One or the other's injury has kept the two from meeting up in a long time. Even before that, it has been difficult to always have these two make it to all the NT games what with their club duties and negotiations not working out.

This article is accompanied by a chart that breaks down the appearance of the dmf in all the Zico Japan matches, with all the pairing combinations, broken apart into those games that Zico was able to call everyone he wanted and those where he was unable to call up some of the players due to club issues. One thing becomes clear: if you look at the pairings that have the most amount of play time, the top three pairings all include either Ono or Inamoto: Ono-Inamoto, Endo-Inamoto, and Fukunishi-Ono. In other words, these two are up there at the top of Zico's list.

In the Argentina game in Dec 2002, Ono-Inamoto was unavailable and Fukunishi-KNakata started. So we can read that these two were the top second-choices. In fact, until the Parguay game in June 2003, KNakata continued to get chances to play. What changed then? Well, the Argentina game that took place three days before the Paraguay game. Japan lost 4-1 to Argentina in this Kirin Cup, and this was when Zico made his shock move by overhauling the entire defense line. Along with the defense, he also decided to use that loss as a chance to fiddle with the dmfs. He gave Endo, who had just debuted with the NT the previous month, a chance. And that shape remained through the Confederations Cup which came right after. So until the October (Tunisia game) return of Ono from injury, Endo remained in the starting position.

And so, from the East Asia Championships that year, the Endo-Fukunishi pairing continued when Ina-Ono were unavailable. During the 2004 Europe Tours Endo-Fukunishi continued to get chances to play. And then at Asia Cup 2004, they held fast through the tournament as Ina was still injured and Ono was off at the Olympics (though Endo was red-carded and could not play in the final of the Asia Cup; KNakata took over). And this year, the most surprising thing was that despite the return of full form Inamoto, Zico has kept Fukunishi starting. Also the pattern of pairings seems to indicate that Endo and Ono are competing for the same half of the two dmf positions, and Fukunishi and Inamoto are competing for the other. On the chart, we see that the Ono-Fukunishi pairing have a total of 351 minutes together, whereas Ono-Endo have 16 min. The Ina-Endo pairing have 390 min together, but Ina-Fukunishi have 45 min.

We also mustn't forget that on top of these main five "true" dmfs, Ogasawara also sometimes slides down to play in dmf. But more interesting is the option of H.Nakata as dmf. He first played that position in this year's qualifier against Iran (HNakata started as omf in 4-4-2, but slid down when Ogasawara subbed in). In the next Bahrain game, Ono was out on ban, so HNakata started alongside Fukunishi with the team playing 3-5-2 and Nakamura as the single play-maker. The discussion in the above paragraphs showed the changes to the pairings over time as a pretty logical progression. However, add HNakata to the pot and lots of things are no longer clear cut. First of all, Zico has not been using Inamoto since the friendly against Germany last December -- though Ina is pretty much to full form now. That priority ranking of having Ono-Inamoto as top choice is no longer the rule. And now the question of how to use H.Nakata if the team keeps playing with a 3-5-2 system.

This Bahrain game was the first time HNakata was playing in the 3-5-2 formation. (Until Nakata's injury last year, Zico Japan played in the 4-4-2 formation.) With the introduction of this option as a workable one, Zico now has one more alternative. And on top of that, HNakata is a different type of dmf player than those that already exist in the NT. Now that Ono is back from his ban, and Inamoto is getting stronger, it is difficult to predict exactly what pairing will make it onto the pitch at the next Bahrain qualifier. And what system will be used.

Article 3: "Yasuhito Endo & his DMF Teammates"

[This is an article by Endo, where he discusses his fellow dmfs. Given his position as teammate, it is positive commentary, but it's still interesting to see them through his eyes.]

Zico's requirements: The thing Zico tells us the most is that first, do not lose/give up the ball. Of course, first your duties are to defend and then pass the ball. But the job of dmfs today also requires us to be able to see ahead -- to the offense. And I don't really think that Zico is as concerned with the pairings he starts in a game. He's pretty egalitarian/impartial about it. The basic outline is to have two dmfs; but depending on who those two are, the job for each is a little different according to the pairing. At the end of the day, the two have to talk to each other, confirm who does what and how and when, how they will maintain balance in midfield, etc. I personally have fun no matter who I'm paired with. Each has their idiosyncrasies and strengths, and that may lead to slight changs in the way I play. With Shinji (Ono), we like to take advantage of his long passes. With Hide-san (HNakata), it's that directed pass with a plan. With Fuku-san (Fukunishi), it's to make proper passing sequences. With Ina (Inamoto) it's to get him in front as much as possible. With Koji (KNakata), we like to focus on our balance. At Gamba Osaka (Endo's J-league club), I play much more offensively, up front. But at the NT, it's quite different. The speed with which we put pressure on the opponent is probably the biggest difference. At the NT, it's much more about "safety-first". Usually I'd want to put pressure at the point 10 meters in front; but depending on the opponent, or what our plan is, it affects that decision of where and when to got for the press.

First our job is to create a good rhythm in the passing. Without that, the team just goes out of sync. So the dmf's job is very important to the overall health of the team's tempo. Zico's ideal is 'fast and quality passing'. That is the base on which we build. And we are told not to go forward if there is a certain amount of risk involved. Well, that is one of the first differences compared to Gamba. And so there is a need to change my style a little at the NT. But it's the NT, so that's a given. And we dmfs all understand this and play with this first in mind.

About H.Nakata: I haven't had the chance to see him as a dmf much. But he maintains his style no matter where he plays. First and foremost, Hide never passes the ball backwards. And when he is able to get the ball relatively unobstructed, he can take advantage of that incredible long-range shot. And I think that he has certain abilities that shine more when he plays as a dmf. He can hold onto the ball despite pressure, and depending on the play he can move the whole team forward offensively. Especially if he plays in that area just behind the omf.

About Fukunishi: I've said this before, but among the current group, Fuku-san is most able to "do anything". He's strong heading, has a strong body, is a great passer. He doesn't kick long-range shots or long passes, but I think if he thought to do them he'd probably be good. In the J.League I think he has the greatest presence of the dmfs, though I never thought it particularly difficult/taxing to play against him. He's very cool and collected, and he sort of hunkers down in the middle without being pulled to the sides. That's great. When he plays with me or Shinji, he plays like this. But I think at Jubilo he goes up more -- he's a very clever guy. He doesn't force himself to go forward if it's not optimal. And the other thing is that he doesn't dribble -- I say this as a good thing. When he gets the ball, he gets it out again without playing around with it much. I think his stability allows the offensive players to go forward without worrying about what's going on behind them. And I hear he may seem a little scary at first, but he's actually really sociable and good humoured!

About Inamoto: I think after going to the Premiership, he's gotten much more offense-oriented. When you look at the 4-4-2 system they use in the Premier, the center is flat, so you'd have to really be attacking continuously. In that formation, if you go for the ball and the opponent can fake you out and get past, you're in trouble. So Ina's time there has probably made him increase in toughness and accuracy. When Ina decides "now" and goes forward, that's his best move. I've played with him a lot, so I'm most comfortable with him. I can play very evenly with him. We keep an eye on our distance from each other, balance, and understand each other. Though it has been a while since we played together... Before, I think I'd play a more offense-oriented role between the two of us, but now I know he'd be the one to go up more.

About Ono: Genius. I'm hard put to think of anything else to say about him. I mean, I don't really like to use that word, but I have to here. He wasn't a dmf to begin with (Ono originated as omf). But even if I were coach, I'd put him in dmf, in the center of the machine. In current football, if you play in omf the pressure you get from the opponent is extreme. And for Shinji, I'd want to give him as much space and freedom as possible. His passes are so accurate, and he can also send out long kicks, and though he is not a defensive specialist he does the job at a high enough level. He's good at getting rid of the guy marking him, and he has the ability to see what's going on around him. He also doesn't dribble much but aims great through-passes, which is one of my favorite things about him. lol. The game is affected by how much you can get the ball to him. Everyone puts great trust in him, so we all look to get the ball to him. Personally, I would love to see the Ono-Takahara (who is a forward) connection fired up again. And along with Ina and Hide-san, Shinji is another who should go forward as much as permittable.

About Koji Nakata: I think going to Olympique Marseille is going to be a huge experience for him, a catalyst. Koji is...his head. Yup. The height and the brains, both meanings. He is able to play with the interests of his teammates in mind. And because he's played in a number of other positions, that experience has been a plus for him. And when it comes to effort (gambaru), he probably has the best attitude about putting in the most effort possible. Taking on whatever tasks required. Like Fuku-san he hunkers down; but these two are very different. If Fuku-san assesses the situation and thinks he isn't going to do much good in a certain place or against a certain individual, he will cut away and find another position to follow-up on the defense. But Koji, he stubbornly persists against the opponent. With regard to delaying the opponent, he is number one. If he is marking you, it's hell. lol. And finally, his left foot -- Koji has speedy and accurate middle-distance passes.

About Me, Endo: I guess I don't lean too much either offensively or defensively. Not sure what this means, but... But if I'm told do the defense only, I could do it. Anyway, I have so much respect for my NT teammates. I think it all grows out of our trust in each other. And even if I don't have a starting position, though of course I hate to lose out on that, I don't feel frustration or dissatisfaction about the team over that. I just have to keep working harder to be worthy of getting that position back.

P.S. Well, it's almost the last two qualifiers. This is where we want to put all our energy and focus. To be honest, I was a little curious to go to Pyongyang (North Korea). But I was also pretty worried about playing on the artificial turf there, so I guess this worked out okay. I'm used to playing in Thailand, and I have a good image of the place. As for the no-spectators; Not sure. Maybe it will work for Japan, who knows?

WSD's J1 "Best Eleven" Picks After 12 Rounds:

FW:
Oguro, Gamba
Araujo, Gamba
Alex Mineiro, Antlers

MF:
Hasebe, Reds
Sato, Jef
Endo, Gamba
Abe, Jef

DF:
Morioka, S-Pulse
Dininho, Sanfrecce
Uchidate, Reds

GK:
Sogahata, Antlers

+ Supersub: Anderson Lima, Albirex

Running Late

2005-05-25T22:56:00.000+09:00

For those checking in and wondering what happened to my magazine-of-the-week entry, which I was supposed to have up by now, just want to let you know that I will be posting an entry about this week's mag sometime before the work day starts tomorrow.

All of this week's football news in magazines revolve mostly around the Japan NT (all the colorprinted pages were about the NT on most magazines). Some of the interviews in magazines happened before this Sunday's Peru game, so the content was a little out-of-date. I will probably end up doing a summary of one interesting multi-page segment in this week's Weekly Soccer Digest about Japan NT's defensive midfielders. It's actually really interesting to look at this position with regard to Japanese football because the offense really starts in this position, and figuring out how the defensive abilities are weighed against the offensive capabilities (ability to read the game, see the scope of the pitch, passing effectiveness) of players in this position defines the stability and creativity of the team.

Anyway, apologies for being late with this. I am running a bit behind schedule today!

2005-05-25T01:02:00.000+09:00

The final word on Naohiro Takahara's hamstring injury is that it probably will affect his ability to play in the Bahrain qualifier coming up in a less than two weeks. He arrived in Japan Monday but after the doctors in Japan took a look at it they were not as optimistic as the Hamburg SV doctors were on Sunday.

I did speculate in this entry about what would happen if Takahara were unable to play -- who, if anyone, would take his forward spot on the roster. From what I hear, it does sound like I was right: Atsushi Yanagisawa (Serie A, Messina) was reported to have gotten a sudden call-up notice today. Poor guy -- he always has to rush onto or off a plane at the last minute!! Whether he is going to hop onto a plane right away and join the training this week, or whether he will wait to join the NT at the UAE camp (along with Nakamura, Nakata assuming these two get called to the final qualifiers roster; oh, who am I kidding of course they will!) has not been announced.

I was thinking that maybe Yoshito Okubo may have a chance at getting called, but then I remembered his team is still fighting to avoid relegation so he wouldn't be able to make it til the last minute anyway. It's too bad, since he looks to be flying high right now (two goals and two assists in his last two games). From the clips of this last game, I was particularly impressed by the quality of his crosses and his cool-headedness on one-on-one situations (against a defender or the goalie).

Sorry I haven't been adding too much overall coverage this week. I will use tomorrow to go over the magazine-of-the-week and then do another J2 club profile entry on Thursday.

Okubo 2 assists 1 goal

2005-05-24T03:20:00.000+09:00

I briefly mentioned this yesterday, but Yoshito Okubo has scored another goal this weekend during Mallorca's match against Deportivo. He also assisted in the first and second goals with some really nice crosses. Mallorca's 3-0 win in this game brought them out of the bottom-three cut-off mark, but they are still in danger of relegation depending on how things go in the last round of the Liga. It's good to see him getting some results with the team again. He had a great debut in the Liga with a goal and assist (also against Deportivo) but after that he sort of hovered on the bench for a long time plus was out to injuries as well for a while.

For a video clip of the highlights, please right click and download this link.

Sighs of Relief in Europe but Japan Go Down to Peru

2005-05-23T08:00:00.000+09:00

Okay, let's start with the easy stuff: In Europe yesterday. ◎Feyenoord's Shinjo Ono got the second goal of a 6-3 win over Den Haag -- he broke through to the top on the left and completed with a left foot shot to the right side of the goal. ◎Okubo scored another goal for Mallorca in their 3-0 win over Deportivo. ◎Reports from Takahara's Hamburg team doctor seem to indicate that Taka is okay to join the Japan NT. He looked to have torn/pulled his hamstring in this weekend's game. I guess he'll have to be checked by Japanese doctors when he arrives in Japan tonight or tomorrow.

Japan Lose to Peru 0-1 in the last couple minutes of injury time.

The fault was not in any one player, which makes it difficult to simply blame it on one mistake or one specific performance. Instead, we sort of wasted time with meaningless passing.In Japan, the catch-all word used for the lack of a high-quality finish is 決定力不足. (ketteiryokubusoku) There were a number of fine opportunities -- but the finish went directly to the goalie or wide. Despite having so much possession, we hardly used that time to advantage. There was room for much much more.

But even before we get caught up in the idea of the finish, it's probably more important to look at the series of events and decisions that preceed the finish. Today, Japan had the majority of possession yet could not find their rhythm, couldn't move together. Peru did start the game with persistent pressure, and you could partly blame that. But after the pressure eased a little, the Japan players were still positioned poorly and lukewarm on offense.

Most of all, the defensive midfielders were missing (or slow to arrive) for the offense up top. Japan's offense requires midfield participation, so it's a must that enough numbers are present when a cross goes in, etc. There were huge holes on the field just when it was a good opportunity for Japan to turn the heat on -- players had few options for passing and creating chances. When offensive passing did occur, they lacked precision control (control on the one-touch, control of the trap). Most of all, there were very few targeted angled passes -- those passes with pace and a clear thought/plan behind it -- to perfectly open space into which teammates should run.

Peru did a nice job of holding back Japan's sides -- mostly Santos, actually, who seemed to worry them most. On the other hand, Miura who played on the right today was one of few players who showed dynamism. He did show that he may have more options in his arsenal than Kaji has shown so far. Particularly effective were his speedy low crosses and his mid/long-range non-rotating shots. Ogasawara was clearly marked by Peru, and did a decent job of things, but he also lacked that surprise factor -- he made some attempts down the middle, but they were thwarted by the defense. It also didn't help that the forwards and the dmfs were all over the place. There were a number of good free kick chances, but those kicks did not go in -- if they had, it may have changed the energy of the game. Overall, though, the impression was a tired game of Peru staying back and erasing Japan's strengths and Japan unable to move past the midfield.

I mentioned the performance of Miura above. He has not had many opportunities to start, and he did use this game to show that he is at least better offensively than Kaji. Defensively, Kaji is probably more stable. In addition, the substitution-in of first fw Oguro and dmf Inamoto clearly showed these two Osaka boys could add energy and attitude to the offense. Motoyama was subbed in as a forwad in the final moments of the game for Suzuki but he was not a particularly threatening presence there. I guess Zico was hoping he would use some of his quick footwork and dribbling to break down the defense.

Tsuboi made his first start in this game since his injury last summer. He played on the left side of the defense line. (It seemed today the defenders were playing a zone-ish defense, as Nakazawa was missing) He was okay, used his speed to his advantage for most of the game, but still seemed to lack confidence when it came to feeding the ball forward -- he handed that task off to Miyamoto a lot. It also sounds like his muscles were tightening up by the end of the game and he couldn't run normally by the time Peru was on their counter-attack in that last couple minutes. He was supposed to cover the player with the ball coming in, but he fell behind slightly, just allowing Peru to tip the ball passed goalie Kawaguchi who dived for it. (There was a little hesitation between the two in this scene.) It was not entirely the defense's fault though -- it was the final moments of the game, and Japan obviously had to go for a goal with the score tied 0-0 -- they had a lot of players up front, but their attempts in were blocked and the ball bounced to Peru for the counter. It was a calculated risk we were taking, and it rolled in Peru's favor.

What frightens me most is the inability for many of the players to "feel" the play in advance -- sense where they need to be before the ball gets sent forward. See the play two passes into the future. Anticipate, run, slip in. Free running. Off-the-ball. Whatever we call it. In this, I have to say Inamoto and Oguro played better than the rest. Ina told Endo he was going to go up, and he made sure to keep moving ahead of the play so that he was in a good place when the ball needed somewhere to go. First, if the team can deal with their positioning problems and lack of energy, that would certainly provide some better opportunities in future games.

From the player comments, it does sound like everyone is pretty disgusted with themselves as a team. Peru was a darned good team to play against at this point in the year ahead of the qualifiers. Certainly better than the two teams we played before the first qualifier against North Korea this year, where Japan won 4-0 and 3-0 and then went on to be caught off-guard by the toughness and fighting attitude of the NK team. Nothing so dangerous as complacence. And nothing as motivating as a loss like this. It was also good that Tsuboi and Oguro got to play for a certain length of time too.

As for the next game against the UAE, I don't want to speculate, but we may see a different line-up starting.

Misc. Catch-up

2005-05-22T01:01:00.000+09:00

Oh, and I forgot to mention this sooner but the Nabisco Cup games were played yesterday. I had been cheering for FCTokyo, but alas they were again defeated by Jef Chiba's ability to make the goal when the chance came, though the second half was mostly FCTokyo on the attack. What is it about Jef that is keeping them in the J-league shadows all this time? It's almost shocking that they have not gotten the kind of air-time that some of the other teams/players have been getting in the J-league. I mean, Captain Abe is always a mass media favorite, if sports news producers want to play up that angle. And forward Haas (who was out to injury for this game) is more than a "big foreign forward" -- I think he could more than rival Verdy's Washington in terms of overall technical ability, soft touches, and has an amazing passing sense. On TOP of that, yesterday's Nabisco game against FCTokyo saw the debut of .... Gabriel Popescu. Yup, THAT Popescu; he came to the J this season from K-league's BlueWings. He hit things off well with his first J goal...the only goal of the game.

Catch Up on Le Mans Videos: Here's a clip from the LeMans vs Guingamp game (0-0) and here's one of the supporters celebrating the move to Ligue 1.

NT Update

2005-05-22T01:00:00.000+09:00

Well, the Kirin Challenge game between Japan and Peru is...oh, already twelve hours away. Kind of strange how these games sometimes creep up on me. I've been keeping my ears open for any interesting news from the NT training camp in Niigata, and the only news of late has been the injury to Yuji Nakazawa (left def) during a practice game against the Albirex Youth team. It looked from the video like the pain was in his lower back/right side area. Jubilo defender Chano was called up to take up the empty slot ahead of these two friendlies, but I believe Reds' def Tsuboi will be starting today in Nakazawa's position.

After the tumult of the last two qualifier games and all the drama that those two weeks contained, it's difficult for me to have any idea what today's game will be like after the two months lull. The players look/sound tired -- they had all those games to play in the J-league these past few weeks, and they have four international games ahead of them within the next two weeks. I can only assume they won't be at their fittest in today's game.

I saw a bit of the game between Hamburg and Bochum today, but unfortunately JUST as I tuned in they went into halftime. And then the minute the second half started, Takahara got hurt. I don't know whether to laugh or be mad, but really this is terrible timing for him. The injury looked like a muscle thing (he was holding the back of his left thigh, and stopped running and fell to the ground). If it turns out to be a serious injury, I wonder who will be called up to the NT to replace him (he was supposed to join the NT within the next few days) -- from past Zico choices, I am going to assume it's going to be Yanagisawa. Perhaps Yana will join the team in the UAE camp after his club Messina finishes their last game -- it could cut down on the jet lag/fatigue factor. If Zico wanted someone right now though, it's hard to figure who he'd choose from the J-league. Most of the J's top forwards are not Japanese. And the only other person I could think of is Okubo who is currently in Spain (he just got his second goal at Mallorca last week). But he'd have the same travel/time zone issues as Yana.

I had mentioned in a past entry that Yana's inclusion in the Juventus tour of Japan in June basically assumed he was not going to be included in the NT games this month (the friendlies, the qualifiers, and the Confed cup). Yana strayed away from the NT last year when he was chosen to be part of the squad that was heading to China (Asia Cup). He had just signed on with Messina, and I guess he thought it was better for him to make a name for himself at the club rather than play for the NT at the Asia Cup (which doesn't have the same dazzle factor in Japan's football community). Anyway, he specifically asked Zico if he could leave the NT and go back to Italy. Of course, what awaited Yana there was less than splashy, while the NT went on to play legend-creating games in hostile China. Yana was then called to the India qualifier in September but was suddenly told he didn't need to come (he and Nakamura) because I guess Zico felt the team could pull a win without these two having to fly all the way over. Right before the Iran game this year, Yana was called up suddenly after Fujita was injured. Yana was able to play, and was involved in Japan's only goal of the game. But if it turns out that Yanagisawa is called to the NTwithin the next week or two, it will be interesting to see to what degree he will trump Oguro in the pecking order.

The current buzz right now is on how Zico will or won't use Oguro (fw, Gamba, and current top goal-getter in the J-league). Zico stated in a press conference yesterday that he will be starting Suzuki (fw, Antlers) and Tamada (fw, Reysol) in today's game. When asked about why he is not starting Oguro (who has scored ten goals to Suzuki's 2 and Tamada's 0 in the J-league this season), Zico answered that with regard to intra-NT choices he puts more emphasis on the overall contribution/experience of the player in the NT, not just at the club level. In other words, Oguro will have to take the opportunities he does get and climb his way up in the sacred order. Japanese football fans are convinced he will be able to blow his competition away if he'd only get the chance, and his performance during the practice games with the NT recently has shown that he meshes very well with omf Ogasawara. He's shown in practice that his off-the-ball movements (his movements while the ball is not in his possession) has brought variety to the offense. But again, this is in practice games against youth players who know who Oguro is. He attracts opponent defenders and thus allows his teammates to freely use the exposed sides. However, at the international level, he may not affect the opponents in the same way. And, Oguro on the bench may turn out to be better to have as an ace-up-the-sleeve if things get tight for Japan (like at the North Korea game). It's reassuring to know he is there, though -- considering Tamada and Suzuki don't consistently get goals and Takahara is out to injury.

As for other news, it sounds like Kaji (right side) is still nursing an ankle injury, and Atsu Miura will be starting on the right today. Atsu Miura started in the Iran game as a left sidehalf when Santos was injured, but he actually is able to play either if necessary. At Vissel, the new coach Leao has even started him playing as an omf (not that the NT needs another omf, but...). But still this is a plus for Miura as it has allowed him to experience the game from a different position already in the last few weeks.

Follow Up on Sagan Tosu Round 13

2005-05-21T23:59:00.000+09:00

I'm always worried that when I discuss in depth a team that is finding its groove in this blog, I am somehow going to jinx them. Which was why I was a little worried about seeing the J2 results today; I actually put it off for a while. Of course, I HAD to look eventually, and what a relief to find that after all I went on about them yesterday, Sagan Tosu were able to get a clean win against Sendai 1-0. And the first time at their home stadium too. The goal was a beautiful long range shot (30 meters) from Takabayashi. The story of new heroes continues for Sagan, as this was Takabayashi's first league goal. In 13 rounds he's made it to the bench 3 times, and this was his first time starting, so he is another one of Sagan's fresh new "lucky boys".

Anyway, whew! I'm not bad luck afterall!

Sagan are now in 2nd Place, another first for this team's history books.

J2: Sagan Tosu

2005-05-20T23:01:00.000+09:00

The Nabisco games are starting up against this weekend, but I thought I'd take this break from the J1 period to spend a little time with some J2 teams. I did consult with Furtho about where I should first start...when you're 12 rounds behind, it's almost impossible to do a proper catch-up, I admit. But he did give me a few places to look, and I thought I'd start off with a little peek at how things are going for Sagan Tosu.

Patience is said to be a virtue, and Sagan have indeed kept things slow and steady. The pre-season spotlight was on Sagan's dedication to development over time. Second year coach Matsumoto (63 years old) has been planning for this season since the middle of last year. The long-term focus is on building a team that can properly participate at the J1 level... in other words, without falling apart the minute they start playing J1 teams. If you look at the new additions to the coaching staff, you'll see human resources have been plucked from among people with J1 club experience like Verdy, Jubilo, Grampus, and Antlers.

We've even seen drastic changes in the player list. At the preseason, half the players were newly acquired. Sagan had done really well in the first leg of last season, climbing up to fifth place at one point. However, as they entered the second half of the season their strategies were being easily analyzed by opponents, and they ended up not getting the results they needed. It is said that this experience may have pushed the club to change so many players this year. And the focus is not just on getting new faces, but choosing new players with specific outstanding characteristics -- height, speed, or ability to think&act during a game. So on top of the usual team strategies, each player is expected to use his unique characteristics to add that x-factor to the pot.

This is a very young team, but with an experienced staff, so the way the coaches could develop the team from the preseason through the 44 league matches will probably decide whether they crash and burn mid-way or pace themselves nicely through to the end. Some of the fan favorites include goalie Junnosuke Schneider who provided a lot of exciting moments for viewers in the Mito game. Then there is Ochiai, who was converted from def mf to defense core -- he has always been good at responding to dangerous situations, but while he was at Kashiwa Reysol, he was beaten out by teammate Myojin for the spot. (Unfortunately, he got a 5 game ban penalty for "expessing his anger" at the Ventforet game so the team wasn't able to depend on him for most of the past few weeks. Hopefully he's learned his lesson!) Also, Sagan just got a new addition in April -- Takachi (previously at Kyu-League's FCRyukyu), who started just two days after officially signing with the team in the Thespa and Mito games and showed his dribbling strengths and contributed as defender to the team's wins.

After twelve rounds (about a quarter of the way through the season), the J2 rankings have Sagan in 4th place with 19 points. But Kyoto Purple Sanga have already broken ahead with 29 points for first place. In second and third place are Montedio and Avispa with 20 and 19, so Sagan is sort of clinging onto the top half grouping right now.

At this point, the thing most J2 watchers will bring up if you mention Sagan Tosu is their 3-0 victory over Kyoto Purple Sanga in the last round. Kyoto, who were undefeated for the first eleven games of this season. Looking at the Sagan supporter blogs, even they are astonished and sheepishly cannot hide their joy over this unexpected result. (Two years ago, Sagan only won 3 games total; this year they've already won 5). From what I hear, the first twenty minutes or so was Kyoto's to take -- but the Sagan defense line, controlled and focused, thwarted crosses in and managed to successfully catch Kyoto in off-side traps about five times in the first half alone. Worth mentioning is Biju's move to defensive midfield -- he helped the team successfully nab the ball nearer to their forward line making it easier to invite mistakes from Kyoto's defenders and screwing up their offensive buildup as well. It was also nice to see that fw Suzuki, who had been a replacement for Ujihara (who comes from J1's Grampus), brought the golden touch to the team this game. Suzuki scored twice.

I think Sagan has stayed alive in the rankings because they've been able to maintain some amount of stability in defense -- with 5 wins and 4 draws so far, and only 11 goals allowed (more than half the J2 teams have allowed 14 or more goals already). The other strange thing is that they haven't been able to get a win at Home -- whether that signifies anything or not... But their last game at home was a 0-0 draw with Shonan, a game that was a perfect example of how difficult it is sometimes to get that ball to go inside the goal one measley time. In fact, Sagan should have by all logical predictions won this game against Shonan. A red card to Shonan's Shirai in the 23rd minute gave the home team a numerical advantage. Sagan was also recorded to have made 16 shots on goal -- 6 shots more than the average for a J2 game and 14 more shots than Shonan made in the entire game. But alas, Shonan was focused and able to follow instructions from their coach to "stay calm and go for a counter-attack when you get possession". Sometimes it's just easier to be cornered into having only one way to fight -- keeps things uncomplicated and easier to focus.

Sagan's coach Matsunaga had said after this game that it showed that the inexperience of the young players made it difficult for them to solve their problems on their own, figure a way out for themselves. The players commented that the problem was partly because they did not have enough options in offensive plans/strategies. It's interesting to see this gap between the two sides -- the players blamed the fact that they weren't prepared with enough back-up plans, whereas the coach was hoping that the team or individuals could take some leadership and figure out things independently. Sometimes it is more difficult to play a game like this, when the opponent is so defensive, because it forces the other team to come up with something that puts psychological pressure on the defensive team, something different, clever, or truly high quality. Perhaps Sagan will be able to develop this area as they play through more games this season.

Well, I wanted to go back to the older rounds too, but this entry will get too long. The next game is Sagan vs. Sendai. Sagan won the first meeting 2-0 away, and now will have to finally prove that yes indeed they can win at home too. They have been unable to play with the ideal starting lineup so far, what with injuries and bans; but they have been able to stay true to their type of football (of putting pressure quickly, active running) and each game has introduced a new hero to the drama (from goalie Schneider, Arai, Miyahara, Hasegawa, to now Suzuki). And don't forget that they have held opponents to 0 in 7 games. But Sendai are just coming into their own as well, and most predict that Sendai will control possession of tomorrow's game. I am curious to see how Sagan will enter this game, after their confidence-boosting win over Kyoto and before a home crowd that is getting impatient for a home win. The team being as young as it is, I wonder how Matsumoto will control his players' psychological state going into the match -- will they be gung-ho on the attack? or attempt to play a little more mature and patiently?

If you're just getting interested in the J2 now, Sagan is a fun team to root for. Their current standing teetering just on the edge of the top clump, the youth of their players, new heroes being born every week, the well-thought-out player selection by coach Matsumoto, keeping the level of nervous excitement just high enough to make us curious about their performance over the remainder of the year. If you live in the area, it may also be fun to go watch one of their games at the Tosu Stadium (pic) -- which allows 25,000 capacity (the largest in Kyushu) and is located right by the JR Tosu station.

Never Learn

2005-05-20T05:36:00.000+09:00

I guess Bahrain is not taking any hints from Iran. During their last home game at Azadi Stadium, the Iran football association decided to cleverly open up the upper half seats free of charge for anyone. As a result, the masses flocked in, and the stadium was brimming 20,000 over capacity. People died in a post-game riot/confusion. It was a very crucial game for Iran, and I guess everyone thought, "hey, the more people cheering for our team, the better."

I guess Bahrain's football association agrees. They have announced that everyone who shows up will be allowed in free of charge. Looking at this article, I wonder if the "gates will be open" phrasing means that no one will be counting the number of people entering the stadium. Against Japan, in a qualifier game, and free entry -- I am more than certain that masses of people will show up. Perhaps the crowds aren't as hard-core as the Iran crowds, but in a World Cup qualifier I would expect any of these crowds to get heated up. I mean, we saw how the North Korean crowds could get worked up, and they don't even get to regularly watch football.

I only hope that they are going to keep a careful eye on the crowd numbers, and make sure that they respect the stadium capicity. These crowd trouble stories are getting veerrrryyy old. At least have tickets -- they can still be free, but somehow the numbers should be controlled.

Ref Changeroo

2005-05-20T05:30:00.000+09:00

Well, it's weird that I didn't speculate very much when I discussed the referees that were being assigned to Japan's next two qualifier games -- why have a blog if you can't rattle off all your speculations? lol. Anyway, I noted that the referee for the North Korea game was going to be Mr. Maidin of Singapore, the same ref who blew the whistle during the Iran game a couple months ago. I thought it was strange to have the same ref appear again for second game in the same round of qualifiers for the same team -- last year we saw six different refs for all six games.

I'm not sure if it's some weird fate that is giving Japan all these unusual referee incidents. Now, FIFA has announced that they are sending a non-AFC referee to judge the upcoming North Korea game that is going to be held in Thailand with no spectators. The replacement for Mr. Maidin will be a Belgium referee Frank De Bleckere (pic right). No explanation was given by FIFA regarding this change....not that we have to struggle hard to come up with a few obvious explanations.

But still, it's weird, no? If it's true that Mr. Maidin really did say that he would have preferred not to have refereed the crucial Iran/Japan game (this was reported in the Japanese sports papers, but I still wonder if it was an official quote or what), I can imagine he is more than relieved to be off the hook about refereeing the Japan/North Korea game.

As for Mr. De Bleckere, he has had experience refereeing UEFA Champions League games as well as regular league appointments. The most recent place you may have seen him at work was a the CL game between Liverpool and Juventus at Liverpool. Which, of course, we all know was a prickly game because of the tragedy of '85 looming overhead. Perhaps FIFA liked the job he did at that Liverpool/Juventus game (he made a huge effort to keep things calm and I don't think even handed out one yellow card the entire game) and so they have confidence in him to handle the prickly NK/Japan game. Strangely enough, this was the ONLY game from the CL that I watched...and it turns out to be the one with this referee... cue Twilight Zone music here. Coincidence?? Mr. De Bleckere apparently speaks Dutch, English, German and French (good, since we have players on the Japan NT who are decent at the first three); he will be accompanied by three other Belgian referees to make up the entire ref team for this game. I don't have much more information on him, but if any of you who are reading this do, please feel free to leave your comments. On the FIFA site, he is scheduled to referee the Estonia/Portugal WC qualifier on June 8 but I guess someone else will be taking over there?

As for FIFA's precautionary measures, they will also be sending a security officer, a general coordinator, and a media officer. So to say FIFA is nervous about this game is a bit of an understatement. Well, better to be safe than sorry, I guess. Though all this extra attention is a bit nerve-jangling too.

After-thought: I am also curious about the absence of Chinese referee Jun Lu from these last round World Cup qualifier games so far. Wasn't he awarded Best Referee in Asia last year by the AFC? I guess they are "saving" him for the final round 6 games...? Though I don't see why if the AFC was scheduling referee Maidin to judge two games anyway. But if FIFA is being this careful about these political thingies (it's too early in the morning for me to think of a proper word here, sorry) surrounding these qualifier games, I can only imagine they won't be assigning him any Japan games.

Factor Injuries

2005-05-18T19:00:00.000+09:00

As we saw during the first twelve games of the J-league, injuries have affected the performance of Japanese teams. FC Tokyo was the prominent example from the past few months, and we saw how this type of "bad luck" could affect a team that does not have depth in experienced and viable players. FC Tokyo were doing very well when they started off with all their strong players on board, but they easily crumbled when players started to break off. Antlers on the other hand, remained ahead of the rankings despite some notable injuries to their starting players specifically because the replacement players were able to get results. It also helped that the remaining core players were experienced enough to move around to different positions and still do a proper job of it. Unfortunately, it seemed that the minute a replacement player was showing results, they in turn would get injured. It was a revolving door of new faces for a while.

Now, it seems that Antlers are on their way to succeeding FCTokyo in their injuries situation... They were able to hang in there for a while, but now with 3 of their strongest players also missing due to NT obligations (fw Suzuki, mf Ogasawara and Motoyama) the team is in sore need of bodies. If you take a look at this list, you can see how many X marks (that means these players are pretty much unable to play for a while) there are. In fact, the team is also missing their physiotherapist Ricardo because he is also part of the NT training staff and has gone off to the NT for the next month.

So the situation with Antlers now is that they have barely 13 field players available, and this includes fw Fukai who is still carrying injury. In a team meeting, Coach Cerezo had even decreed "no more injuries" as top priority, and has joked that if worst comes to worst he may even have to get the back-up goalies to play on the field. Antlers have to play Cerezo Osaka in the next Nabisco game. Cerezo Osaka is the only team to have beaten Antlers during the league games, and currently have no injuries.

Meanwhile, back at the NT training camp, Zico started off the camp with a fiery 6 minute speech. One notable portion of his talk was his insistence on the players to speak up the minute they felt a twinge of injury. He said to the team that it's important for them to let the trainers and coaches know if they feel something funny anywhere so that they can attend to it before it becomes a full-blown thing -- that taking a few days to train separately and heal properly is much more important in the long run, and that they needn't worry that they are letting the country down or being too overcareful. It seems that the feeling of solidarity has made players reluctant to speak up in previous training camps, most of them have strained themselves to stay with the group and keep spirits up. The trust that's being put on these players by Zico, the same group being called back time after time, has probably made the players more dedicated to giving their 120% to the team regardless of minor pain, etc. The players understand that they are carrying a great responsibility but perhaps that feeling of loyalty was working against better judgement.

It has been noted by critics in the past that the players seem to come back from the NT sick or with injuries. I can't exactly say that this is a direct result of any poor management on Zico's part. We saw in Marinos alone that one trip to Korea (during the A3) had players falling like sprayed flies -- there was food poisoning, flu, and bone/muscle injuries due to opponent rough play. And the tough schedule that the J1 teams faced recently also resulted in a host of injuries for many teams. The NT basically has to play in these circumstances all the time -- they are expected to first of all, win; they may travel up to 22 hours to get to away games; they play against teams that will pull out any trick in the book, including no end of rough play; qualifiers include playing two games within one week with travel sandwiched in between.

Prior to the next game in Bahrain, the NT will be camping out in the UAE. Here they hope to get used to the climate and ease the travel fatigue. It is also interesting to note that the UAE camp is the very same camp used the U-23 Olympic team last year during the qualifying rounds. The Japanese U-23 was struck with mass food poisoning the day before their games with hosts UAE, and there are still suspicions surrounding this -- especially considering how careful the team was about what they ate and drank. Half the team suffered from diarrhea and such while they played, and were given IV fluids at half time. Luckily they were able to make it to Athens. So why use the same facilities where such questionable things happened before? Well, it seems that JFA people are saying "better the devil you know"... Rather than finding a whole new unfamiliar place to camp in, it is easier for organizers to take the proper precautions when they already have a working knowledge of the camp.

Shifting Gears

2005-05-17T23:00:00.000+09:00

Well, now I am officially going to shift gears now -- I've spent most of my time talking about the J1 for the past couple months, but now I will look toward the National Team games and the J2. With regard to the J2, however, please note that I am really clueless and this will mostly be a learning process for me too.

As for the National Team games, they are right around the corner. Before I even had time to think, the first friendly game is less than a week away. The Japan-based players have rendez-vous-ed in Niigata today (the game will be held at Big Swan...I love that name!). Akira Kaji and Atsu Miura trained separately as they were recovering from injury. Inamoto will join them on the Thursday the 19th. The first game will be against Peru on Sunday the 22nd.

I don't know if it's some kind of fate or hilarious joke, but the referees who will be in charge of the Bahrain game and North Korea game will be none other than the two guys I mentioned (click to see photos) in my previous entry about AFC refs: Malaysia's Mohd Salleh will blow the whistle at the Bahrain game, and Singapore's Maidin will do the North Korea game. Isn't it unusual to have the same ref blow the whistle for the same team during one round of qualifiers? Last year we saw six different referees during the round, no repeats.... I'm not going to speculate.

And the location of the Third-country game between North Korea and Japan has been finalized -- Supachalasai Stadium in Bangkok. For those of you who have been to Bangkok, it's the stadium right behind the gi-normous Mahboonkrong Shopping Center. (see pic above)

Marketing Yana

2005-05-17T22:16:00.000+09:00

There was an article in Yomiuri today about the possibility of Atsushi Yanagisawa joining Juventus as a "special member" during their tour of Japan this summer. No, Yana did not transfer while you weren't looking -- he is still warming the bench at Messina.

Actually, I have always been uncomfortable about how Yana is being handled in Europe -- especially in Messina. I mean, he has barely played this season, but has still managed to keep his contract going. I haven't read any final word on it, but I believe Kashima Antlers and Messina are going to own him "jointly"... And Messina has not been shy about expressing their hopes that Yana will help the tourist industry in Southern Italy. I guess... he is a good-looking guy, and he's played on the Japan NT for a while now (though not much this year), is a really nice guy, even has a Yana-Tour where fans get to go over to Italy and spend some time with him....

And this Juventus thing is another way for Messina to make some money off him. And maybe I'm being timid letting the whole thing give me uncomfortable squirmy feelings. I mean, for Yana fans in Japan, who have not been able to watch him live for a number of years this could be a treat. Imagine him, playing with DelPiero and Nedved... in a Juventus jersey no less. I guess if everyone's okay with it, why not?

But the Juventus games schedule in Japan coincides with the NT games schedule. Which means that though there are a number of slots still open on the NT roster, most of us are assuming Yana won't be called by Zico.

Final Word (for now) on ACL

2005-05-17T22:02:00.000+09:00

Well, I already addressed some of my preliminary reactions after learning about Marinos' defeat last week in China. I had not seen the game, nor had I heard any details about the game at the time aside from player comments, so it was all off a general feeling about the way the ACL has been handled (or ignored) in Japan.

But I did get some more details today about what the team and supporters had to go through while they were there. It was truly an Away battle for everyone, and perhaps a really important experience for Marinos. In fact, I don't understand why the Japanese media did not expand on this loss more....or at all. The only thing mentioned on tv was that Marinos lost, and their chances at going on to the next round were pretty much nil -- that's it. But I think there is so much more to this story than just the fact that Marinos lost. No, if the people in charge of the football portion of the sports news had any love of Japanese football or had any eye for fresh angles, they could have easily found something of value to report after this game... and new questions to ask about the situation of Japanese football.

I found this entry from a Marinos supporter who went to China for last week's ACL game plus read some others. I can't translate everything, but they describe the way the Japanese supporters were treated differently from any of the other spectators (Korean or Chinese) -- the gate check had Japanese supporters giving up everything from water, flags, coins, bread, cigarettes, lighters, and even paper cups (during halftime, water and papercups were made available for the Japanese but that was it) whereas all other supporters/spectators were allowed in without all the checks. Three body checks, a walk through the metal detector. But Marinos supporters did have a few tricks up their sleeves, sneaking in flags/banderas and a pole under their clothing. From the 15,000 security people sent to this game, to the Chinese media, it sounds like the Marinos supporters got a bitter taste of a true Away. Even after the game, with the Chinese team having won, the home crowd still were throwing objects at the Japanese supporters -- those same objects that were confiscated from the Japanese crowd.

As for the game itself, the home supporters gave up cheers for every little thing that happened, whether it was a cleared ball or a throw-in. This wasn't a crowd that was watching merely "football". They were creating the only possible atmosphere to give their team and country even the slightest advantage and will to win. The score was 1-1 by the 90 minute mark, but then they were given a crazy seven minutes of injury time. It was in this injury time that the opponent got their winning goal. Then, ball boys that had somehow disappeared, so the Marinos players had to go themselves. Line refs who made questionable calls and red-carded Marinos benchers for protesting. The stretcher-carriers who would not run but inched slowly on and off the pitch (is it true one of the stretcher-carriers actually got sent out of the game?). The Marinos players did everything they could to offset these events, setting the ball for the opponent's goal kick, aiming for the last-chance goal off the kick off.

After all this, here is the comment made by J-League Chairman Suzuki: "The ACL still is lacking in excitement. Both the J-league and the ACL are important, but the bottom line is that we must protect the status/authority of the J-league first." In other words, we will see a repeat of this year's rough schedule again next year.

Across the sea in China, however, the ACL is given priority. The Chinese league shifts its schedule around the ACL games to give the participating teams time to rest. But again, it's difficult to copy China because the situation is different in Japan. The J-league is a lot more successful than the C-league financially, plus with China out of the World Cup they have an easier job scheduling.

So basically, it's a vicious circle. We here in Japan don't really care about the ACL because it's not particularly exciting. We like stars, and all of Asia's stars are pretty much in Europe anyway. We'd rather watch Barcelona on satellite. We also don't care about the ACL unless we can be the ACL champions. We assume that Japan should be stronger than Vietnam or even China, and thus it is not particularly exciting if we win. And if we lose, well, that's just a downer so who'd want to watch. So, there is almost no broadcast of these games on tv; and if there are ACL digest shows they are broadcast once a month in the middle of the night.

But then while we are saying that the status of the J-league must be "protected", the general reaction to Marinos and Jubilo performances has been "J-league teams are psychologically weak". Not to mention, Marinos had to end up using a roster of mostly inexperienced players in their league game against Sanfrecce last week in order to juggle players' rest for the ACL... and where in that is J-league's "status" being protected?

I don't know what I want to say at the end. Should we shuffle the J-league schedule around even more to accomodate the ACL? Should we drop out of the ACL? What should we demand of the teams that go? Should we ask them to play as if they are representing Japan (as opposed to just going as the club that won the previous season)? Or should we acknowledge that the current heirarchy of National Team > J-league > ACL is a reasonable allocation of our energies?

Round 12 Last Gasp

2005-05-16T01:04:00.000+09:00

First, I'd like to announce that I actually got 5 out of 9 correct on my predictions! I'm particularly proud of my prediction of the Vissel win over Nagoya (I had doubled the stakes on the J's Goal betting card).

Congratulations to the J-League!! This is the anniversary of the first J-League game played.

Vissel 2 - 0 Nagoya: This was Vissel's first win since their first-round win over Cerezo Osaka. And it was the fifth game since the arrival of new coach Leao. In that short period of time, it seems that his first focus was the defense. In the last few weeks, you could tell that Vissel were slowly getting better. They lost 0-2 to Antlers, lost 3-1 to Gamba, lost 0-1 to Reds, then tied 0-0 with Jubilo, and now won 2-0 over Nagoya. Leao has switched the team to man-mark defense instead of zone, keeping the defense concept simple for the players. He also has introduced the option of using Atsu Miura in the offensive and defensive midfield as well as his "original" position on the left side, creating new possibilities for the team. In this game against Nagoya, Vissel were helped by Nagoya's declining confidence and quality of late. But you still have to give Vissel the credit for not allowing Marques to score at least one goal in his last game in the J. Nagoya had returned to their original 4-back system after four games of using the 3-back due to player injuries, etc. They did create a number of chances on a hunkered-back Vissel, but could not find an opening in.

Vissel still had problems creating varied opportunities, but they had a powerful weapon in Atsu Miura's place kicks. "Luck" seemed to finally be on Vissel's side when they were able to get an Own Goal off a corner kick -- although if you saw the video of this goal scene you'd give 99% of the credit to Atsu Miura whose kick had the ball go almost parallel to the goal line and curving back towards the goal. Even if no one touched the ball, I'd say it would have at least hit the far post. Atsu got a proper second goal when a tapped pass from fw Watada gave him the space to swing wide and send the ball in with his left foot. A beatiful and powerful shot from outside the penalty box that had the ball curve in a backwards-C to the left side of the goal.

Jef 2 -1 FCTokyo: If you were looking to watch a beautifully played game this weekend, you should have checked out Jef Chiba in this match-up. I hadn't been able to follow them as much as I'd like to this season so far, but after seeing this game I think I'll just have to squeeze it in somehow. I was rooting for Tokyo, but even I had to admit that Jef was basically doing what FCTokyo should have been doing, and doing it to perfection. Both teams place importance on speed/running, creating numerical advantage when on the attack.

The difference between the two teams may boil down to a few simple things. One, Jef coach Osim is working the players well during training. It shows. Jef players are fast and consistently running, even in the second half. My guess is that if they don't show their discipline in at least running, they will be getting a very harsh word from the dry-witted coach. Even players like Austrian international Haas, who is tall and looks like he shouldn't have speed, was out-running younger FCT defender Moniwa. I can only guess, but I imagine Jef trains in this area harder than any other team. Two, Jef have two amazing kickers/passers, Haas and Abe. These two send up such perfect balls during their speedy attack, that the momentum of the attack is not stubbed out by interception or difficulty in receiving. Tokyo's biggest problem is that even though they want to play speedy football, they just don't have the quality in their passing and crosses. All the balls they send up have been haphazard and off the mark. Jef's second goal, however, was a simple long forward centering from Haas to Maki for a header. The ball flew on-target to Maki's head. Tokyo really needs someone who can do this on their team; or at least their designated kickers need to work a little more at polishing their skills.

In this game, Tokyo also had the frustrating experience of not being able to get the ball in at the biggest opportunities. They did have their share of perfect chances, but the lack of a proper finish, or if you want to blame it on some curse (because if you have been following them like I have, it does feel like some curse has been put on the team), kept them from scoring first. It could be that the absence of a full-form Lucas is screwing up the Tokyo stability up front. Lucas did enter the game in the second half, and was able to get a goal off a pass from Danilo, but it looked like he re-hurt himself (he was whincing after the goal) -- for Tokyo's sake, I hope this break period will allow them all to recover from their various injuries.

Of course, Jef is not without their weaknesses. They are fragile still, as one key absence of the team (like losing Stoyanov, Bulgarian international, from the defense in the Antlers game) can greatly diminish their overall performance. It is possible that some time down the road, Jef may face a period where they lose a number of players to injury or cards -- when that happens, it will be interesting to see how Osim deals. Jef have also given up a large number of goals, about 19, which is not the worst but greatly affects their position in the crowded rankings.

If things get worse for FCTokyo, there may be a change of coach. I like coach Hara, but I feel that he has been a little soft on the team in this past month, not to mentioned a bit weak-willed. It may be that he is excusing the poor performance on injuries, etc. -- which is valid as an argument. But given the fact that the club has made the players take the responsibility of apologizing to the supporters and doing the PR work in that aspect, it is almost mean for the coach to make the players' job more difficult by not doing his job better. He should be getting down to business, stripping away at the main problems and helping the team recognize the main points. And the confusion he produces by forcing his players to play in unaccustomed positions is putting added emotional and psychological pressure. In the last two games alone, we saw the team flipping from 4-3-3, 4-4-2, having Konno play left sideback, etc etc. It makes the coach look unconfident about the team as well, bad for morale. Okay, enough of my diatribe.

Marinos 0 -1 Reds: Yawn. A rather boring game, considering the teams involved. The hard rain did add to any drama, though! Marinos' biggest problem today -- inability to get the ball within the frame of the goal. They depended mostly on long feeds, and had numerous close opportunities, especially memorable were the two shots that hit the frame and a Nakazawa header that went just above the top. Reds were not particularly great either -- individuals tended to dribble too much, which wasn't a great choice given the quality of the Marinos defense. Their goal came when Hasebe (I think) passed back from the top right to the center, allowing dmf Suzuki to run up and take a powerful long-range shot with no defenders on him. The ball bounced off the goalie, and flew back into the path of fw Nagai who sort of arched up for a nice lobbed header to the left side of the goal. Marinos subbed in fw Kubo who is now gradually returning to J1 play -- but Marinos were not able to do much damage. One thing that struck me: Reds df Tsuboi made a number of mistakes today, but I was also reminded of how fast he is. I forgot how fast he was. He's probably one of very few players who has the speed to cover for himself... heh heh. I can't wait to see him playing at his top level again.

Banzai, Le Mans!

2005-05-15T01:01:00.000+09:00

It is official!!!

Le Mans have gotten their ticket to Ligue 1!!!!! I guess my good vibes reached them.. hee hee.

An article in Football365 also included a note about Daisuke Matsui -- saying he and three other players who were recruited into the team this season helped change the direction of the team's destiny. The article singled out new forward Ba who scored seven times in ten games, and also pointed out Daisuke's satisfying performance and "decisive goals". He has signed with Le Mans for the next three seasons. (pic below of Daisuke on the left and Koji Nakata on the right)

In other French News....
It looks like Troussier, coach for French club Marseille, will not be looking forward to another season with the team. According to his former translator Florent (Troussier used to coach the Japan NT, and his translator from those days is currently working as a sports reporter/writer), Troussier asked to leave the club. He sited his current status as a family man is making it hard for him to live a life of a club coach/manager, what with the constant schedule of games and daily trainings. I guess he's too used to the life of a National Team coach -- and the unique characteristics of training an NT. I KNEW this would happen! Troussier is one of those types that is not keen about using what players he has and figuring out how to make it work. He is more the type to have an ideal picture in his head and pick players that fit into that blueprint, otherwise they get kicked out -- and only an NT coach is in a position to pick and toss out from among hundreds of players to create an ideal team.

I guess our biggest concern is Koji Nakata, who had dumped all his hopes on this chance at Marseille under Troussier. But whoever comes after Troussier, I hope they give Koji a chance.

[photo from japanfootball.jp]

42,000@ Osaka Derby

2005-05-15T01:00:00.000+09:00

Last year when Gamba Osaka played Cerezo Osaka, the result was a 7-1 win for Gamba. And the score clearly represented the difference between the quality of the two teams. As I said in a previous entry, there was a lot of hype going into this game. Both teams were equal in points, and a win for one would make things much easier as the league heads into the break period. The stakes were raised when both sides came out with comments about this game deciding "who was the superior team." It was a grudge-match of sorts, but in a fun way that raised the level of play on both sides without deteriorating into a mess of fouls and cards. This was THE talked-about game of the day. Even Yoshito Okubo, who left Cerezo to join Spanish club Mallorca last year, sent a message to Cerezo supporters and team which was aired on the large screen before the game. The pre-game programme included a "kick-off" ceremony by a robot (see pic) -- apparently there is such a thing called a Robo-Cup (like a World Cup, but with robots), and this year the Cup will be held in Osaka. [photo from asahi.com]

Today, Gamba won again, but the 4-2 score is not an accurate representation of the battle between the two teams. It was a truly well-balanced game, with excitement for all 42,000+ spectators (a record for a derby match up) whether they were Gamba fans or Cerezo fans.

The style of each team was very clear from the start of the game. Cerezo aimed to get the ball to open areas into which players would run and catch up to the ball. From there they were able to get past the Gamba defense or throw them off with side passes and crosses. Gamba players passed more directly to teammates, using quick multi-player passing and movement to break down Cerezo's defense. The game started off with Cerezo applying a lot of pressure on Gamba and taking the ball swiftly to the goal. Gamba played rather evenly, not getting too heated up or powered-down.

The first game came from Gamba's fw Oguro (who is currently on top of the goal rankings just ahead of Verdy's Washington). Though he ended up doing all the assisting in Gamba's 3-1 win over Nagoya last weekend, today he was back to his original job of making the shots. This first goal came from a vertical pass from Sidiclei, who had run forward to participate in the offensive organization. The ball he sent timed perfectly with Oguro's dash behind the defender on the right, and Oguro finished with a difficult right foot shot that angled past the goalie's outstretched arms into the left netting.

Cerezo equalized with a lobbed pass from Jose Carlos on the left to Nishizawa who received it with his chest, turned and dribbled a little right just outside of the penalty box top, and then shot the ball into the upper right corner of the goal. The Gamba defenders were a little late catching up to him after he received the pass from J.Carlos, but I think they were expecting a pass instead of a shot. Kudos to Nishizawa who took the gamble and finished with such a great goal.

The second goal for Gamba came from a pass from Fernandinho, who looked like he was going to shoot from the left corner of the penalty box but instead sent a pass vertically for Araujo to quickly chase. The Cerezo defender was on him, and the goalie had cut off most of the angle, but Araujo was able to get the ball just into the narrow space between the goalie and the left post.

In the second half, Kurobe was subbed in, and he was involved in many close chances by Cerezo. Unfortunately, he was unable to get the ball in when he had the chance. This was basically the final verdict of today's game -- they kept missing perfect opportunities, and Kurobe sort of negatively stood out in that department. Though Nishizawa gave Cerezo their second goal after Miyamoto failed to properly clear an awkward ball that had bounded at him, it became clear as time wore on that something was getting screwy on the Cerezo side. Perhaps the fired-up attitude with which they entered the game was working away at their confidence as they kept missing shots. Even in the first half, the nerves factor may have played a role in allowing Gamba to get that second goal -- Cerezo was very slow about raising their defense line as time wore on, and they made the job more difficult for themselves.

Gamba did not have the same problem, however. Though they did have to bear the Cerezo attack for a while, they were able to get the third and fourth goals with great finishing from their offensive players. The third goal came when Oguro sent a fast pass forward on the right to Maeda who was subbed in for Fernandinho (Maeda is the rookie who scored the 10,000th goal last week). He broke through the Cerezo back line and then ran with it quickly toward the goal. Araujo matched Maeda's pace on the left, and when Maeda was just at the top of the goalie box he sent a horizontal pass to Araujo for an open shot on the goal. The Cerezo defense did not make it in time to block the pass or the shot. Good job to Maeda, who was certainly a cool cucumber last week but continued to show his skills and maturity this week; his speed, awareness of what's going around him, and accurate passing are going to be yet another valuable asset to Gamba as the season wears on.

The last goal was from Oguro, of course... It came at the last minute of the game, and was the nail on the coffin for Cerezo. It was a well-controlled reaction-shot to a ball that came at him, but his body responded quickly and he held back swinging his leg allowing the ball to ricochet off him into the ball instead of flying wide.

Two things are evident about Gamba (not just today, but looking at recent games where they have started to regain their footing). One, is that they really really really have a lot of players who can make the shots go in. The lack of players who can think and react quickly in front of the goal and consistently get the ball in is generally the number one problem of most J teams, but Gamba seem to know how to get goals. Today's goals by Gamba were all difficult ones -- they required quick thinking, control, and reflexes. No time to dawdle and think "gee, what should I do next?" Which is probably why Gamba have the most number of goals total in the J1 (26, followed by Antlers with 23). Two, the effective participation of the two defensive midfielders is starting to consistently show results. Today, we saw Sidiclei participating up front numerous times -- he goes up for corner kicks (Sidiclei is tall) but he tends to stay back. But today Endo stayed back and Sidiclei went up when the timing was good. Usually, though, you see Endo going up more, as he has the ability to send quality crosses and take shots from long-range. Last week, Endo actually scored a goal off a header (a very rare thing for him, I'm sure). Anyway, if it isn't hard enough for opponent defenders to keep their eyes on the swiftly circulating forward trio, they have to keep an eye on the quality crosses from Futagawa, AND they have to watch for sudden appearances by Endo or Sidiclei.

The problem for Gamba will be how they are going to address the situation of defense when the league starts up again in July. Will he sacrifice offensive training for more defense care work? They seem to be doing okay now as they are able to outnumber their goals given with their goals gotten; but just barely. Gamba has given up 22 goals, the second worst in the J1.

Cerezo had a nice run of results up until today -- they are currently smack dab in the middle of the rankings -- 4 wins, 4 ties and 4 losses. I haven't looked at Cerezo much yet, so it's hard for me to come out with any educated comment about them -- except that they clearly have been performing with a focused concept in mind, and having the team maintain confidence in that concept will be the coach's main task during this break period. These middle-ranked teams are difficult to read. You don't know when they'll have injuries and suddenly crumble; you don't know when they suddenly find their groove and dash up the rankings. It's difficult for me to figure out what they will look like in July.

Predictions Round 12

2005-05-14T08:02:00.000+09:00

Oops, I had forgotten to put these up!

Ardija draw Sanfrecce
Verdy win / Reysol
Frontale win / S-Pulse
Albirex / Antlers win
Cerezo win / Gamba
Grampus / Vissel win
Jef win / FC Tokyo
Jubilo win / Trinita
Marinos / Reds win

J-League's Challenge Abroad

2005-05-14T00:14:00.000+09:00

I've been looking at some of the comments made by Yokohama Marinos players in the wake of their elimination from the Asian Champions League. A number of them caught my eye.

Ahn
"The reason for this final result lies with our loss in the first game of the group games at Home. The fact that we dropped that first game may be to blame for our elimination from the ACL. It's become very clear that in order to get results in the ACL, we cannot allow ourselves to be physically or mentally overwhelmed by the tight schedule."

Yamase
"All the players were saying that today's opponent was rough and physically strong."

Nakazawa
"This is what happens if you can't finish with a goal when you should have. Everyone has thoughts on this, but we had plenty of chances to win during all our games, including the ones at home. The fact that we couldn't make those chances work for us is the biggest reason for our elimination. Today, the "away" atmosphere was permeating from every inch of the stadium. From the ball boys to all the supporters, the emotion was clear: "We are going to make our team win." I think it's necessary for us in Japan to learn from them, and to be able to create this kind of away atmosphere when foreign teams come to Japan. We need to use the experience of today's game as fodder, and have that kind of mentality (of keeping the "world" within our sights) in the J-league."

In other words, no one mentioned how "technically good" the opponents were or how beautifully they played.... how their opponents played superior football. And perhaps this is the true test of Japan when they go face to face with teams from other countries. In Japan, the football culture is one that prioritizes organization and technique. We KNOW our players are competitive both as individuals and as a team unit. You can say that these ACL games are rough on the players schedule-wise. But the other teams have to play in worse conditions in their own leagues, some in much rougher climates, and also have their own league obligations just like everyone else. So what is the difference? I thought I'd mull things over in this entry and maybe keep some of these points in mind as I keep following football in Japan.

- Japanese clubs need to better prepare their players physically. Not just things like stamina, but a sort of physical presence -- strength, an aura of power, of wearing your absolute dedication to the win on your sleeve through the physical. And supporters need to back the players' motivation (at least when they are at home) by showing up and rooting, or booing when there are bad calls made by refs or when opponents do something unsportsmanlike or dangerous, etc. It seems from the comments above that Marinos were overwhelmed -- by the opponent and the crowds, even the ball boys were sending their message. Not because the Chinese team was better, but just that they wanted it more.

- Japanese on the whole are averse to playing dirty. Well, dirty is a...dirty word...so, I guess what I mean is that we don't take every opportunity to create a home advantage where other countries do. We are very concerned with playing by the book. This is not just true of the J-league, but with the National Team also. In fact, I remember during the last World Cup qualifier game against Bahrain at home when Japan was leading 1-0 and there was some minutes left to the whistle, the ball boys were doing their jobs with great efficiency and honesty. The commentator, who is of Brazilian origin, was saying how he wished the ball boys would get clued in and take a little longer getting the balls back to the pitch. I personally like that Japan shows friendliness and fairness. But there is "fair" and there is "naive". I mean, as long as we are in the J-league bubble it might be okay to be naive, but once you play internationally you have to be ready for all sorts of things. There was a Jubilo ACL game where one of their players who was sitting on the bench got up and retrived a ball that rolled out of bounds near him. He picked it up and tossed it to the opponent for the throw in, but ended up getting sent out of the match because the opponent that he tossed the ball to collapsed on the ground claiming that he had thrown the ball at him maliciously.

- There has to be more concrete and aggressive preparation made by the clubs (and the J-league management) as they go into an ACL type competition. Looking at the dismal crowd turnout during the home games for Jubilo and Marinos and comparing that to what we saw in China or Indonesia, it's obvious that as far as Japan was concerned the ACL took place on Mars. I do remember that Jubilo tried to get more people to attend by launching last-minute PR campaigns (one idea was to give out free pork miso soup "tonjiru" for those who showed up, because they thought it would warm the crowds up in the winter night match). But really, that was too little too late. Assuming that 20,000 supporters wouldn't be able to fly overseas to away games, we have to make the home games actually work in favor of the J-league team. Otherwise, how can we demand that the players play for the pride of not only their clubs but also of the J-league?

- Japanese teams' biggest weakness seems to be reading and controlling the game particularly when other things are working against them. There are so many promising teams in the J-league, with their share of fun players to watch and a disciplined team concept/strategy. But I've seen so many games that are poorly controlled -- in other words, they don't score when they should, or they don't know how to organize their game when in the lead. They lose their focus, then crumble. This is a difficult thing to teach in a classroom setting, and only comes from leadership on the game pitch and repeated experience. It's unreasonable to expect teams to play beautiful football all the time, especially during these ACL games. In fact, with regard to the ACL games, the only thing of value to be gained is becoming champions and playing in the World tournament. It is certainly not a place to exhibit beauty for beauty's sake. Especially now, when the ACL still lacks status and very few of us have much interest in the profiles of other Asian clubs. This is not like watching Chelsea play Barcelona, where everyone knows the players and styles of both teams and look forward to the match-up.

Well, painful as the eliminations to Jubilo and Marinos are I guess in a way it's just an indication that J-league clubs are still not ready to play at the international level. Or maybe it isn't the club itself but the J-league in general that is not ready. And maybe the attitude that I gave above, of these games having no value except as a ticket to the World tournament, is adding to a vicious cycle. Though Reds supporters claim that had their team been in the ACL this year, they certainly would have made sure the stadium was full at home and their team would have performed better -- but looking at Reds' poor start this year in the league, it may be a blessing for them not have been qualifying this year.

The build-up to the ACL was very low. It's hard to make "J-club vs. Some Asian Club" sound exciting when nothing about the match-up motivates us emotionally. There's no history, no information, no stars, no rivalry. The only thing I can think of is if the political aspect in a matchup between, for example, China club vs Japan club could be played up PR-wise as a "grudge match" of sorts, but it's not really our style to play up that type of thing -- at least, after the North Korea vs Japan game I think we had enough of that, plus it goes without saying that it's an insult to the teams.

P.S. The tickets for the friendlies between J-league clubs and the various European superclubs are, however, surprise surprise, Sold Out a month ahead of the games.

Omiya's Jun Marques Davidson

2005-05-13T23:58:00.000+09:00

This week's Weekly Soccer Magazine's Humane Footballer column was an interview with Omiya Ardija's Jun Marques Davidson, defensive midfielder. When he first came to the J-league, I remember people's first reaction was "this guy's got a long name..!", and there was a little buzz of interest as he is the son of an American father and a Japanese mother. Now, though, all that is trivial as he is now getting attention for his performance as a up and comer in the J-league. Prior to the J, he was at the American Global Soccer School. I've heard that he was even being considered for the US National Youth team, but Marques had his heart set on being called to the Japan National team instead so he passed.

OT, I just learned that Omiya was partnered with Feyenoord Rotterdam. Did not know that!

Here's what Marques said in the article:
"Right now I think the biggest difference between what we experienced in J2 and J1 is the ease which one small mistake leads to giving up a goal. But on the other hand, it forces us to play games with a great deal more focus and attention, and that's exciting. As we play more and more, we get to test ourselves against the J1 level, and when I am able to see that something I am good at works on the pitch, that makes me happy. I also see the kind of things I am missing from my plays, and I know that I have to test those out more and challenge myself.

First of all, my main responsibility is defense -- nabbing those balls that come into that dangerous area in midfield, intercepting passes. But I don't want to be a defense-only kind of player, so I'd like to contribute to the offense as well and get the fans more excited about watching me and the team.

That first round game with Gamba Osaka, I think we played reasonably well in both offense and defense. But it's important to keep the quality improving as we play more and more games. The coach has said this to me before: don't be satisfied with where you are, always aim higher. That's why sometimes I am told to "be more like Viera (FranceNT, Arsenal)" -- I am in an environment where the people around me won't let me be satisfied with myself. I am always aware of the need to keep improving one step at a time.

Previously, I just had to contribute to defense and get the ball to teammates for the attack. But now I think I'm getting better about going forward by dribbling up with the ball myself or by running up to the front lines and adding numbers there. If I can increase these kinds of plays, I think I can be a bigger presense on the pitch.

My position requires me to rob the ball back from the opponent. But it's that moment after I get the ball which the coach has told me to be especially careful about. When we get the ball, and then are switching to offense, what I do next is very mportant. Kanazawa pairs up with me in defensive midfield, and we don't have to say much to each other to understand what the other is thinking in different situations. Who goes forward, who stays back, how we balance each other out -- it's very comfortable working with him.

But right now Kanazawa goes forward much more than I do, and if only one of us goes forward most of the time it's easier for the opponent to analyze and mark that player. So if I can participate up front more, where the two of us can add variety, I think it will allow the team to play a football that is one level higher. Our main objective is to avoid relegation, so I believe we should work and think hard to make that happen. I do think everyone on the team has conviction that we can do more, do better. I myself feel that way, and I believe there are more games that we can win. So we don't feel down or depressed -- but we know that there are games that we should have done better, and we regret (awkward translation for "kuyashii") our performance. But if we use that feeling in a positive way, to motivate us the next time, I think it will bring better results for us.

I'm really one of those people who just can't stay satisfied with myself, and in a game, I exist for the team. That's the sort of feeling with which I play football. If fans or supporters can feel that passion from me, then that makes me most happy. I want them to see/understand that part of me. "

The day of the interview for Marques: "The dormitory canteen is open from eight to nine o'clock in the morning, so I woke up at eight thirty. My breakfast was very simple: rice, barley tea, natto (fermented soy beans), and I made bacon and egg. Oh, and a small salad. Every morning is pretty much like this. Then I went to practice (behind closed doors), and lunch was at a nearby place -- had chicken donburi. After that I came here for this interview. I don't have plans for after this interview; I'm not much for making plans ahead of time. I'll just think, 'What shall I do today?' and act on whatever comes to mind."

Weekly Soccer Magazine

2005-05-12T22:25:00.000+09:00

Heh heh, just got home with a copy of this (←pic of mag, click on pic to enlarge). This is the Shukan Sakka- Magajin (or Weekly Soccer Magazine) one of the staples of any football fan looking for a weekly fix of football news in Japan. Most people swing back and forth between the Magazine and the Weekly Soccer Digest, depending on what articles are inside that week.

Since I already introduced the Digest, I thought this time I'd take a look at the Magazine. No, I did not choose it because there happened to be a profile pic of GK Kawaguchi, or because it included posters of FW Suzuki and DF Miyamoto (all in NT uniform). Seriously, I'm not that big of a ditz, and not 16 anymore! (the lady doth protest too much..!) And the posters were a joke anyway -- really horrid shots. But if anyone wants it email me and I'll snailmail it to ya. Just to warn you though, there are several stapler holes in the poster.) A-hem. Anyway, this issue started off with a couple "eh" interviews with Kawaguchi and Junichi Inamoto (West Bromwich, dmf).

Nothing particularly juicy, but the interview with Inamoto was a little interesting. He discussed his situation/position at his club, and at the NT level. At the NT, he admits that this may be a time to be a little patient. While he was recovering from injury, he missed out on a lot of the big battles last year and he can understand why he did not start in the last two NT qualifier games. However, he also added that he hoped that Zico would give him a chance to start in the upcoming friendlies against Peru and/or UAE -- that if he was benched again, he said jokingly, he may have to have a word with the coach. The magazine has been selling this "have to have a word with Zico" comment as some big throw-down by Ina, but I didn't read the interview that way. Of course the mag had that quote chopped up and enlarged on the cover -- giving a lot of people the inaccurate impression about Ina's attitude when he spoke the words. I've seen a number of people on the net commenting about it... whether Ina has the right to say something like that when he barely makes it to the bench in his own club and has not really contributed to the team for a year (not his fault, but other's performed while he was away, and them's the breaks). I don't think we should read too much into it, knowing Ina's personality. Ina also said that he's been working on getting stronger in 1-on-1 matchups and improving the quality of his dribbling.

There's also a "Why Tatsuhiko Kubo is so good" analysis article written by former forward for Nissan and Marinos as well as ex-international Takashi Mizunuma. (He now works in the media, as writer, football news show co-host, and game commentator.) The article about Tatsuhiko Kubo discussed his strengths.
1) His ability to be "play dead", make the defender relax, and then suddenly turn "on".
2) Balance. He doesn't use textbook methods, but is able to change gears to attack very quickly. He also has a natural sense of balance allowing him to take volley shots in the air and on the ground with a unique sense of timing.
3) He doesn't fear taking a nice big healthy kick when he shoots. Most players when they find themselves in a shooting situation shy away from taking a big ole swing for fear that it will screw up the timing of their shot and go wide. It is valuable for forwards to throw in a few big kicks like these, as it gives the opponent the impression of power.
4) His comprehensive style allows for many offensive options for the team. Kubo kind of floats around in the middle lazily, but can change gear and suddenly play post, or can slide to the side and get the ball there, or can invite a vertical pass through the defenders. His ability to not give the defenders any clue as to what he's going to do next is a big part of why he is considered so effective.

For those who are have forgotten how Kubo plays after all this time, here's a video of the two goals he scored against Iceland last year.

[Kubo is actually one of the most hilarious and interesting personalities in the J. League, being rather eccentric and media-unfriendly. But I'll talk about him in another entry at some later point, hopefully when/if he fully recovers (he's been suffering from multiple things and has been out of play for almost a year.) and returns to the NT.]

Weekly Soccer Magazine has a section called the Humane Footballer, an interview with a player in the J. The website posts portions of these interviews after the magazine comes out, so you can check there to see if any of your favorite players are featured.

This issue's Humane Footballer was Omiya Ardija's Jun Marques Davidson (I hear he's called Marques on his team, so I'll refer to him this way from now on). And... sorry! I'll get to it in my next entry.

Moving Football: Sanfrecce Hiroshima

2005-05-12T19:35:00.000+09:00

Two years ago, when Sanfrecce Hiroshima fell to J2, newly signed coach Ono set a target to "become a championship contender within 3 years." 2005 is that third year, and Hiroshima have shown that with a clear understanding of the advantages you have, you can build up a solid team. One of the main problems they have faced is a location-disadvantage when it comes to trying to acquire players who are at the prime of their game. When a player like this considers his offers, inevitably the issue of re-locating or family obligations/wishes or life-style/standard of living play a part in the decision. Hiroshima is a bit of a leap for many, and if a player in his mid to late twenties gets similar offers from teams closer to their current home Sanfrecce doesn't look so inviting. (Note pic of Sanfrecce Taxis, cute huh?)

So for Sanfrecce, their tactics have been to focus on the Argentina World Youth Generation -- a group that Ono coached. This generation refers to players who are about 24 years old this year. This makes sense, as they already have four players from this group -- the Morisaki twins Koji and Kazu (left pic), right sideback Komano, and gk Ueno. By having this base 'brand', it was easier to attract same-generation players who might look at these four and think "I want to play with those guys." (Some of the now more well-known members from the final roster for this 2001 World Youth tournament include FC Tokyo's Ishikawa and Moniwa, Jubilo's Maeda, Antlers' Aoki, and Marinos' Nasu and Yamase.) As a result, Sanfrecce were able to attract three more from this group -- Sato, who was J2 Sendai's ace (check tomorrow's entry for article on Sato), S-Pulse's Ikeda, and Reysol's Shigehara. Two of the now-youth players at Sanfrecce, Takayanagi and Maeda, had been selected for the U-20 roster that played U-20 Cameroon yesterday (Japan won 1-0) in preparation for the World Youth Tournament in the Netherlands this summer. Takayanagi got his first starting position this year in the game against Chiba, and showed that he can ambitiously dribble the ball in as well as take powerful shots.

With new addition Dininho in defense, Beto in mf, and Galvao (right pic) in front, Sanfrecce have lined up a solid trio of dependable foreign players as well. From what I've seen so far, Dininho is very stable as a centerback and Galvao has been responding to the way the midfield uses him with great presence of mind. He has shown that he can go one-on-one, respond by running for long ball feeds from the back, and most of all is strong in the air as post.

Everyone loves twins, and in Sanfrecce it is no different. The Morisaki brothers came out of Sanfrecce Youth and have given the team its "face(s)". Kazu has been given captaining responsibilities and Koji is more the team spirit. Last year, Koji (left pic) was called to the U-23 team for the Athens Olympics. However upon his return it was diagnosed that he had a form of "over-training syndrome" and had a long struggle with insomnia and fatigue. In the pre-season, some trouble in his right leg fed his fear of injury, and as a result his play lost its dynamic quality -- he lost his starting position by the time the season started. But in the game against Albirex, Koji returned to the pitch and showed he was returning to his form - a good thing, as he is has been the top goal-getter for the team for two years running.

I've noted this before during my game recaps, but Komano (pic here with new wife Emiko) has been throwing up some really quality crosses this season -- the fast balls are especially good. He has a strong physical and an air of nose-to-the-grindstone seriousness. It gives him an overall aura of solidity, making him stand out among his peers who tend to give off a more youthful spirited air. But I like Komano the way he is -- sturdy and ready for the battle.

If you like watching a team with a "youth" base but prefer more stability than a team like FC Tokyo, this is probably the best team to watch. Coach Ono's philosophy of Moving Football (where both ball and players constantly move) has found its groove this year. From training camp, the team has shown a solid understanding of the plan and their respective responsibilities. The team play is mostly characterized by active pressing, very stable defense, and simple counter-attack. However, this season being a little weird, with some of the strong teams unable to find their footing, we've seen Sanfrecce play a little more offensively than I had predicted. For instance, the last round game against Champions Yokohama Marinos was a Sanfrecce attack-a-thon; unfortunately, they were unable to find a goal and were instead countered by Marinos for a 0-1 loss. They have put up some good fights though -- the game against FCTokyo in the heavy rain was an exciting matchup (though the score was 0-0) between two youth-ish teams playing 4-back formations but with such different styles; their 5-0 win over Albirex was also their 100th Home win in the J1. Their strength has first been the organization and stability of the defensive responsibilities. The second has been the successful integration of new forward Galvao. The third has been the leadership of the '01 Youth players -- the next step for some of these team leaders is to get a feel for knowing how to control and read the game better.

I don't know if it's some sort of strange coincidence, but this year the 18 J1 teams are split down the middle with regard to formation -- 9 teams use mainly a 4-back, and the other 9 use a 3-back. What's more, I don't know if this is another coincidence, but the top four teams in the rankings right now use a 4-back formation (Antlers, Grampus, Ardija, and Sanfrecce). Sanfrecce are currently in 3rd place.

[taxi photo from daiichi-taxi.com, profile photos from sanfrecce.co.jp, and Komano photo from Nikkan Sports newspaper]

The Fluff for Today: misc bits

2005-05-11T23:55:00.000+09:00

These past couple weeks of so-much-football has left me a bit drained, so today's update is just some random news/gossip/fluff that caught my eye. Tomorrow I shall return with a "serious" entry on this week's spotlighted J1 team, a look at this week's issue of Weekly Soccer Magazine, predictions, and et-oh-cetera...

Okay, let's get the painful part over first...
(like ripping off a band-aid)
↓
ACL Game 5 Results
Marinos 1 -2 letting go of a 1-0 lead at half-time. It's over.
Jubilo 3 - 0 -- too little too late

FIFA locates next Qualifier @ Bangkok
Yay, Thailand! Sawasdee... LOVED it there -- the mangos, the tomyum, the noodle stands, the..(all I can think about is food!) Thank god this whole mess with the North Korea problems got sorted out. Probably the thing everyone is relieved about is that at least we won't have to play on their concrete-like artificial turf. I think I mentioned this before, but the last time the Japan NT played on the NK artificial turf in Pyongyang, one of our players fractured their SKULL. It's still going to be a no-spectator match, but I hear that the JFA will be organizing some sort of public-viewing location nearby. In other words, some large screen tv somewhere so that the supporters can cheer on together. I'd prefer it if they located the public viewing right outside the stadium, so that at least the players might possibly hear distant cheering and get some support from that. You are not alone...! There is a HUGE community of Japanese living in Bangkok (lots of families, a big school), so local people will hopefully add to the numbers.

Nagoya Grampus Returns FW Marques to Brazil
Following Ueslei's departure, and now Marques, I wonder what Grampus plans to do about their players up front. Ueslei has been out all season, and the team was doing well without him, but Marques seems to be greatly relied-upon in the team. His contract is up at the end of May, and he is going to be headed for Brazilian club Atletico Mineiro. The 31 yr old forward's last game will be this Saturday's match against Vissel.

More Star Power
Figo? Wow, these Urawa Reds people are busy aren't they? What happened to Toshiya Fujita? But it makes sense, as many of Europe's superstars are heading into retirement age it is prime pickin' time for some of the wealthier J clubs. Actually the rumour is that they might get him quite cheap. Is it just me, or would Figo in the J-league feel very weird?

Those Darned Kansai Kids
So Gamba coach Nishino and Cerezo coach Kobayashi seem to be raising the stakes for their upcoming Kansai (Osaka) derby this weekend with a little verbal rallying. Nishino takes exception to Kobayashi's confident comment that Cerezo is on a roll and currently riding a nice high. Nishino told him to beware their "high", but Kobayashi countered with "What can I say? We're on a high." Nishino also was reported to have added an extra kick in the pants to the team, telling them this game was all about "showing Cerezo who's really superior". Uh.... not sure what effect this will have on the teams, but as J-league fan it certainly raises my interest level in the match-up! Maybe that's the aim.... I wonder if their PR department is making them trash-talk?

...Speaking of Raising the Stakes at the Osaka Derby
Cerezo has announced the allocation of Away seating for this upcoming match against Gamba at home. Take a look at the nice huge chunk (read w/ sarcasm) they've allotted.

Even Cerezo fans are saying it's embarrassingly small. I guess all that verbal duelling has made Cerezo lose interest in being a gracious host.

....and Mr. Gamba's Transfer?
Gamba forward Yoshihara has been butting heads with the coach, and there is some talk that he may leave the club. Apparently he has taken exception to not being used as a starter in any of the league games up to round 10. During the Vissel game, he was subbed in at 85 minutes and told to contribute to defensive tasks up front (the team was leading 3-0 at that point). However, Yoshihara decided to ignore the coach and go for more goals on his own. Afterwards, there was a meeting between the two but no peace could be made, and Yoshihara then asked to be transferred. There are so many goal-getters on this team that it's a difficult position that Yoshihara is in -- he is by no means a dud (in fact he's a long-time Gamba Man) but compared to Oguro and Fernandinho or Araujo...

NT Suits at Dunhill
Completely fluffy bit of content, I know, but did you know that the National Team suits have been designed and tailored by Dunhill for many years now? This spring, the Dunhill stores across Japan showcase a gigantic panel/poster of the NT wearing the suits, posing elegantly (?!) with Zico in the middle. You can even buy said suit (see pic) if you want, but don't forget the football cufflinks! (grin) But seriously, I looked at the panel and it took me a good second or two to figure out, "oh, this is the national team!" There's something strange about seeing athletes out of uniform on the everyday streets.

Two Equal?
This weekend, the FCTokyo vs. Chiba match will be something to look forward to. Both teams are characterized by lots of running and speed. And both teams have been unable to get a Win for a while (of course, Tokyo are in the worse position ranking-wise and emotionally). So here is some interesting data:

FCTokyo vs Chiba (1st&2nd stage):
2003 1st 0-0, 2nd 2-2
2004 1st 2-2, 2nd 3-3

So does this mean I should bet that this game will end in a draw on the predictions card? Promise me one thing, guys, no tears after this game, ok? (and that goes for me too!) Let's have some fun out there!

Support for Marinos: ACL

2005-05-11T07:00:00.000+09:00

Though I've been trying to avert my eyes from the whole Japan-clubs@ACL mess, I still carry a tiny little flare of hope for the remaining group games. Yokohama F Marinos are in second place in their group and still have a chance at getting through with two remaining games. Tonight, they will play F Shandong in China. Though the team has been assured of proper security measures what with all the anti-Japan demos/riots going on, there has already been the inevitable firecracker-throwing etc incidents greeting the team after their practices. But no big deal.

Okay, so whether we are a Marinos fan or not, let's send them some good vibes. These ACL games are rough. I hear that left side Dutra is suffering from a fever of some kind and dmf Nasu is afflicted with "sports hernia". Not sure exactly what that is, how it's different from "regular" hernia...anyone know? These two have been very solid in play in recent weeks, Nasu having scored a couple goals too. I hope they are okay.

To root these guys on, and to get a sense of the atmosphere of these away games in the ACL, I thought I'd introduce this Marinos supporters page that posts video footage of supporter performances. **PLEASE "Right-click and download" on the links on the page, DO NOT Left-click, as their servers tend to get overwhelmed.

For those who can't read Japanese the video links are the links ending with "WMV#MB". The ACL games footage are the top three links. The first two are from the game in Thailand against BEC Tero and the third is in Indonesia against PSM Makassar. The third link from the Indonesia game is particularly interesting, as the Indonesian crowds were quite heated up (to put it mildly). I mentioned in a previous entry that right sidehalf Hayuma Tanaka posted a note regarding this game on his website thanking the supporters who showed up but had to deal with the hositility of the crowds. You'll see at the end of the clip that supporters had to be herded down into a safe area after the game when the crowds started throwing things at them. All a part of the battle, right?

The fourth link down is from the A3 Champions Cup held in Korea during the pre-season, and the fifth link is from the 2005 Xerox Supercup against Tokyo Verdy. The chant they are singing is called "The Asia Song".

You get a taste of the Marinos supporter flavor (as well as see how supporters from other Asian countries perform) -- I love the Marinos red, white and blue umbrellas. (though I'm not sure how many eyes they've taken out in the past!)

The Missing NT members

2005-05-10T21:52:00.000+09:00

Ah, I get it now.

The three "missing" Japan-based players who have continuously been called to the NT for the past year but have been missing from the National Team selection for the May 22 and 27 friendlies against Peru and UAE -- I was wondering what the deal was. But it makes sense now when you look at which teams they belong to and the schedule for the ACL games.

Jubilo Iwata will be playing Hoan Anh GL on May 25.

Yokohama F Marinos will be playing PSM Makassar on May 25.

The three missing players are:

Naoki Matsuda, Marinos
Takayuki Chano, Jubilo

Toshiya Fujita, still undetermined team

I guess Zico has been getting some pressure from the clubs to give up a few players so that the two teams can have at least one of their defenders back. Jubilo Iwata will be missing Takashi Fukunishi dmf, Makoto Tanaka df, and Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi gk. Marinos will be missing Yuji Nakazawa df. I guess it was a compromise of sorts. And Matsuda and Chano are usually benched on the NT anyway, so I guess it was a reasonable move.

Toshiya Fujita, on the other hand, may have been taken off the roster for the friendlies because he will be making a move to another team after this weekend. Perhaps it was thought that since Fujita is also usually benched, his time would be better spent organizing his move and getting used to his new team, wherever that may be. No word yet on what he's going to decide, but Reds have been almost embarrassingly vocal about their desire to woo him over to their side.

As for the Europe-based players, Inamoto will be the only one who will be making it to the first Peru game on the 22nd. Ono and Takahara will come after that in time for the UAE game. The JFA are currently stalling with regard to the others like the Italian trio (Nakamura, Yanagisawa, and H.Nakata) and K.Nakata, since their current club situation may require them to first fulfill their obligations to the club. Though I can imagine they will be nagging them to let their players go, especially H.Nakata who has not started in the last six games at Fiorentina after playing the Iran and Bahrain games for the NT.

NT members for Kirin Cup Announced

2005-05-09T21:08:00.000+09:00

GK
Seigo Narazaki - Nagoya Grampus 8
Yoichi Doi - FC Tokyo
Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi - Jubilo Iwata

DF
Makoto Tanaka - Jubilo Iwata
Yuji Nakazawa - Yokohama F Marinos
Alessandro Santos - Urawa Red Diamonds
Keisuke Tsuboi - Urawa Red Diamonds
Tsuneyasu Miyamoto - Gamba Osaka
Atsuhiro Miura - Vissel Kobe
Akira Kaji - FC Tokyo

MF
Yasuhito Endo - Gamba Osaka
Mitsuo Ogasawara - Kashima Antlers
Masashi Motoyama - Kashima Antlers
Takashi Fukunishi - Jubilo Iwata
Junichi Inamoto - West Bromwich Albion
Shinji Ono - Feyenoord

FW
Masashi Oguro - Gamba Osaka
Naohiro Takahara - Hamburg SV
Takayuki Suzuki - Kashima Antlers
Keiji Tamada - Kashiwa Reysol

I was most surprised by the omission of df Chano, df Matsuda, and mf Fujita...all of whom have been continuously called to the NT last year... I wonder what that's about. Fujita and Chano I can sort of understand, but perhaps Matsuda because of his volitile play during these past few weeks at Marinos?

Without Nakamura or Nakata, this will probably be Ogasawara and Motoyama's chance to make some noise in offensive midfield. They've been playing well together this year at Antlers -- last year they had problems with their positioning with respect to each other, but it looks like they are getting better at balancing each other out. Inamoto will be able to joing the team early, so he may actually have a chance to start...hmm.

Countdown to 10,000

2005-05-09T12:14:00.000+09:00

This is Japan's first football newspaper, El Golazo (click on pic to enlarge). Though many J-league fans grumble that it tends to be biased towards certain favorite teams (particularly in the beginning of this season), it's still very cool to finally have a paper like this here. This little pink publication comes out Mon/Wed/Fri -- though it isn't as meaty in content as the wealthier sports mags, it's still a good place to go for a "fix" during the week between rounds.

Today's EG featured the 10,000th goal on its front page, with a countdown of the eight goals that led to the historic one.

#9993 at 14:40 - Araujo, Gamba Osaka
#9994 at 14:45 - Endo, Gamba Osaka
#9995 at 15:02 - Magno Alves, Oita Trinita
#9996 at 15:07 - Choi, Shimizu S-Pulse
#9997 at 15:10 - Masuda, Kashima Antlers
#9998 at 15:17 - Tuto, Omiya Ardija
#9999 at 15:32 - Ishikawa, FC Tokyo

#10000 at 15:33 - Maeda, Gamba Osaka
This was the first ever goal in the J-league for rookie Maeda. He was a college student before he signed with Gamba this year. For his first ever goal to also be the coveted 10,000th... pretty heady stuff. In an interview after the game, Maeda said that he was happy, but the reality of it had not set in yet.

All in all, a very good day for Gamba Osaka -- three goals, their rookie gets the historic goal, and they win the game.

The Onus of J-League's Attack Teams

2005-05-09T12:13:00.000+09:00

Urawa Red Diamonds and FC Tokyo

In the J-league these two teams have defined for themselves the exciting but difficult challenge of playing attack-oriented football. Reds got off to a rocky start this season with an inability to find goals or inability to clinch wins. FCTokyo got off to a flying start but stumbled after a few rounds when they started losing players to injuries.

It has been a painful sight to see these two well-loved teams face such challenging times. Reds supporters are not unused to depressing times like these. Five years ago, Reds fell to J2. But they showed dedication to their football -- Shinji Ono, who had been unable to contribute to the team in the previous season decided to stay with Reds instead of going off to Europe though that had been his dream; the Reds supporters never dwindled in numbers and followed their team through the long J2 season. Last season, Reds were able to win the Second Stage and fw Emerson became the number one goal-getter for the year. The Reds supporters are everywhere at every game, and their numbers have continued to attract even more people to their side.

Last season, Tokyo won the Nabisco Cup after one of the most exciting football games of the year against Reds. This season, the six consecutive losses for FC Tokyo this month saw a familiar tragic cloud loom over Tokyo. After the loss to Antlers in Round 10, the supporters refused to boo the team and instead boldly sang their supporter song for the dejected team. The team responded by sending out a message of gratitude to their supporters on their website -- and for the round 11 game against Ardija, all 31 players got together and prepared 20,000 personally signed (not autographs, but actual signatures) messages for distribution to supporters prior to the game. The supporters wanted to do something special for the game, so they decided to resurrect the chant program from the Nabisco championship game of last year. Prior to the game, all the Tokyo players recovering from injury tried to appeal to the coach and staff that they could play -- saying that they were not in pain (though we all suspect they were). The staff, who were at a loss for how else to help the team, were even reported to have prepared a pile of salt -- a little ol' Japanese trick to ward off bad spirits.

Personality-wise, these two teams are quite different. Whereas Reds supporters are somewhat "scary", the Tokyo supporters are "cheerful". Whereas the Reds players like to feed off their ego, the Tokyo players feed off high spirits. Whereas Reds coach Buchwald brings an understandably German flavor to his team, Tokyo coach Hara has aimed for the FC Barcelona liga style. But in both cases, the teams are characterized by a stubbornness to stick to their guns, of not doubting their original plan.

And from a fan's perspective, I'm glad they haven't - otherwise, the J-league would become very boring indeed.

But this presents a difficult challenge to the two teams. In a long one-stage season, part of the battle is figuring out how to calculate the season, how to overcome bad periods without too much damage to your position in the rankings or to the players. Reds sort of ruined it for themselves when their star Emerson was ill-prepared for the season start (he had personal reasons and was unable to join the training for a while). Their frustration manifested itself with a spiral downwards contributed to by successive stupid red cards and injuries. Reds also lost their playmaker Yamase right before the season started -- and you could see that it was difficult for the players to play as a team during the difficult time without some sort of axis directing things from the midfield. (Which is why Reds have been tripping over themselves trying to get Jubilo's Fujita to come to their side.)

FCTokyo trained well in the pre-season, and their new 4-1-4-1 formation seemed to be working despite my initial worries. Dmf Konno performed even better than I had hoped, and the team showed stability in defense and dynamism in offense. But the lack of enough quality back-up players quickly eroded the team's confidence. Their ability to switch back from defense to offense was not as apparent as the rounds continued at breakneck pace. There was no time to regroup or deal with the mental aspects. In Tokyo's case also there is a lack of a true leader -- someone who can read the flow of the game and demand things of teammates. Though Doi is a presence, his position as goalie makes it difficult for him to affect things up front quickly. If anything, I felt that Konno may have to step up and become a bigger presence leader-wise for the team -- he was already doing some of that in this last game against Ardija through his play. Last year, Kelly and Lucas were able to control games better for Tokyo by reading the game and affecting their team's play. This year, the lack of a full roster has left huge gaps in maturity.

But as the two teams were getting whipped down with their continued lack of results, the teams did not adopt different strategies. Both teams have stated that they do not doubt their own unique styles, that it was not an option to change their ideal -- which is a good thing for the J to have different types of teams. Reds has a more victimized reaction to their position in the J-league though -- coach Buchwald continuously complains how other teams play boring defense-oriented football (which makes things difficult for the Reds players to get goals), but really this whining is unappealing and the reality is that there are many other clubs who have fewer quality players and less money than Reds and are desperate just to hang on in J1. It is not their job to make Reds feel better about themselves.

But on the flipside, the expectations we place on the two teams may be the umbilical cord that is strangling the baby. I'm not sure. And if it's more valuable for these two teams to keep to their own styles at the expense of winning, it will be up to the supporters to hang in loyally regardless of results.... if the supporters dwindle, the clubs will have more leverage to demand better results while putting the ideal style on the back burner. Though who's to say that getting results without the attractive style will attract supporters back? Undoubtedly, the fact that these teams have kept up the challenge for an ideal style has been exactly the reason why supporters have been so loyal -- though if they continue to show the same weaknesses or repeat the same mistakes, supporters may start to grumble at the lack of growth within the team.

It's a party when these two teams have a full and healthy roster, their games being full of energy, fluidity. But there is something frustrating in their single-minded naivete as well. This atmosphere is sometimes influenced by supporters, or by the media, and particularly defined by the coach. Buchwald is still green as a coach, and this year's lack of results has brought to the surface his rather unpretty side. I wonder what a coach like Ardija's Miura or Marinos' Okada would have done with this season's Reds team... Tokyo coach Hara has experience both as a player and coach prior to his joining Tokyo. In fact, Hara was part of Urawa Reds from 1996 to 99 -- first as a youth coach, and then as head coach. But the biggest problem that Tokyo supporters point to with regard to Hara's coaching philosophy and plan from the beginning of his tenure has been his disregard for game-reading strategy.

A while ago, I can't remember where, Jef Chiba's coach Osim was quoted as saying something like "You can't expect a team to do something in a game that they haven't been doing in training." It's important for coaches to recognize what the team is doing wrong and address it during training. Despite the convinction they have that 'the football they have chosen to play is not a mistake'. It's good for players to have something to "fix" -- gives a short-term goal and sense of accomplishment when the results of their training show in a game.

I can't remember who said this (it may have been Marinos coach Okada or Verdy coach Aldires), but I once heard someone say that 'offensive plays rely heavily on unpredictable actions. But defensive plays can be prepared beforehand, and a coach can calculate and be assured of its success to a certain degree.' "Defense" is not a dirty word -- especially if you look at dynamic defense like aggressive pressure, speedy interception, power and strength in the air, and intelligent positioning. Possession is nine-tenths of the law, as they say, and nothing gets started if you can't get the ball -- and that's what defense should first be about.

I'm in no way advocating that these two teams change their styles. I love that they are part of the J1, and look to these two teams to provide many future national team members. The issue is mostly about psychology and education -- attack-oriented football can't work when the team isn't focused in its thinking. It's great when things are going fine, but when trouble starts these teams are quick to fall apart if they aren't taught the mental aspects of the game. But there are still soooooo many rounds left in the league that it's too early to call it quits for any team -- and there is still opportunity for both teams to get back into the race and show us just why we love them so much.

Round 11: Quick Round-up

2005-05-08T23:57:00.000+09:00

Congrats to Gamba rookie Maeda for nabbing the 10,000th goal!! I knew it was going to be someone unexpected, but it almost makes sense that it was a rookie or young player. With the schedule being so rough and injuries climbing in many of the J teams, coaches have been actively using rookie and young players. We've already seen Jubilo's Cullen, Verdy's Morimoto, Sanfrecce's Maeda, Grampus's Honda, Antlers' Koroki, FC Tokyo's Kurisawa, and a host of others making an impact on the league this year so far. With all the bad news about injuries and teams unable to play consistently, this is definitely a good side-effect coming out of bad times. Hopefully these guys will be able to grow considerably this year and become spotlight players in the years to come.

Gamba 3 - 1 Grampus: As I said in my Grampus review, the defense line has been hard hit by key player absences. And today, Gamba had too many players able to score quality goals for the Grampus team to handle. The most interesting thing was the performance of Gamba forward Oguro (NT). He is obviously the first player any opponent will make sure to keep an eye on. And Nagoya made sure that he did not take any shots on goal today; however, they were unable to keep him from sending in perfect passes to teammates for the finish. Though Oguro was unable to make any goals of his own (especially on an historic day like today, when any top forward wants to be the 10,000th goal getter), he assisted in all three of Gamba's goals. First was a controlled vertical flick to Araujo through the defense line for a goal. Second was a light and perfect cross to the left side post for an Endo header. The third was a nice long pass to the right side that dropped right in front of a running Maeda -- who adjusted the ball a few times and took a nice big kick for the historic goal. Actually, these last two passes reminded me a lot of Shinji Ono's accurate and gentle touch. It's important for feared players like Oguro to still be able to contribute to goals even when his own attempts at goal are thwarted by constant pressure.

Antlers 2 - 1 Verdy: From the overall comments posted about this game, it sounds like Verdy was in control of the game today. Even Antlers coach Cerezo had harsh words about his own team's play. I haven't seen the full game yet, so I can't comment at this point.

The first goal came from Antlers though -- Suzuki received the ball, held it on the left sidelines, and passed to Motoyama who was starting as a forward today (usually he is omf along side Ogasawara). Motoyama was surrounded by two Verdy players near the left corner, but his ability to tap the ball around made it difficult for Verdy to jump in and try and get it at the risk of letting him by. Motoyama then slid the ball through the legs of the Verdy player standing between him and the goal, re-took the ball as it came out the legs, and sent in a quick cross that curled around another Verdy player to the near-post where Masuda jumped in for a header goal. But in the last ten minutes of the second half, Verdy made a great play. The ball was passed wide to the left, where Kobayashi sent a cross to the far side post. Yamada was there, barely, but he was able to deflect the ball back center where Washington was nicely positioned. Washington did not have time to do anything pretty, but he was able to throw his leg out and get the ball in with the outside of his right foot. After this, it was an all out Verdy attack with numerous perfect moments that were somehow missed by the kickers/headers or thwarted by the defense.

If that wasn't enough excitement, the real tasty bit of this game came at the very last minute. Forward Suzuki found himself with the ball on the right side. Antlers were almost all congregated near their own goal area at the time getting beaten up by Verdy attacks, but Ogasawara was right up near the very high Verdy defense line positioned at the center line. Suzuki saw him, sent a great long cross exactly where Ogasawara needed it, and Oga dribbled up with surprising speed for a counter. As he entered the penalty area and moved to manouveur around, Verdy keeper Takagi dove to intercept the ball but caught Ogasawara's legs -- a red card for Takagi and a penalty for Antlers. But with Takagi out and all substitution cards used up, fw Washington volunteered to be the goalie. It was certainly a treat to see such a rare sight. And strangely advantageous to Verdy -- the pressure was on Ogasawara more than Washington. (And considering the last pk Antlers got in the last game against FC Tokyo was missed by fw Suzuki) Ogasawara actually missed the shot -- the ball bounced off the right side post. But again, the Antlers team knew this was their chance and all players waiting behind Ogasawara were already preparing for the possible bounce-back. As the ball ricocheted back, six Antlers players had rushed in all beating the Verdy players into the box. This time, the "hero" for Antlers was subbed-in fw Tashiro, another rookie who had gotten his chance during this time of multi-player injuries. Antlers got their win at the last minute.

Reds 0 - 0 Chiba: This no-goal result was a bit of a surprise, considering the two teams are both good at getting and giving up goals. From what I saw of the highlights, there were a number of very close shots. Unfortunately the ball did not seem to want to go in today. Emerson had a perfect opportunity from the the right side, but the angled shot went just wide of the far post. Another chance had him in front of the goal open for an easy shot but his kick went over the bar. In the second half, Chiba also had great opportunities -- two coming from captain Abe, whose shots twice hit the bar. Overall the impression was that Chiba played a better game, playing effectively as a team -- Reds relied too heavily on individual play and were not able to create opportunities as a team.

Marinos 1 - 0 Sanfrecce: The crazy thing about Marinos in this game was that 9, yes NINE, players were changed from the last league game. Nine. NINE. As in, eleven minus the goalie, minus def Kurihara, and nine of the other starters from the last round game were missing. For two of the Marinos starters, today was their very first ever J-league league game. This was no sign of disrespect for Sanfrecce -- Marinos were exhausted as it was, but they also have an ACL game coming up in China on Wednesday. As could be expected, Sanfrecce, who had Gauvao and Beto back starting, had the lion's share of the chances. Unfortunately, it was not their day as they were unable to get that elusive goal. Instead, Marinos were able to take the lead -- a pass to fw Sakata took him to the right where he awaited the back-up of his teammates from the midfield. He passed back the ball to Kumabayashi (Kumabayashi-who?) who sent a curving cross to the far side post. Shiokawa, who had been running up at the far side, out of the line of Sanfrecce signt, snuck in and headed the ball for Marinos' winning goal.

....will continue if I get to see any more video rebroadcasts!