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.
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.
