Confederations Cup Final:
Japan 0 - 1 France

Date: 8 June, 2003 Location: Yokohama International Stadium Japan 0 0 1H 1 0 2H 0 1 France Scoring Vieira (30') Matsuda Morishima Cautions Lisarazu Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Naoki Matsuda, Ryuzo Morioka, Koji Nakata, Junichi Inamoto (Atsuhiro Miura 45'), Yasuhiro Hato, Teruyoshi Ito,Hiroaki Morishima, Shinji Ono (Tatsuhiko Kubo 60'), Akiniri Nishizawa (Masashi Nakayama 74') Ulrich Rame, Christian Karembeu, Bixemte Lizarazu, Franck Leboeuf, Marcel Desailly, Patrick Vieira, Steve Marlet (Laurent Robert 58'), Youri Djorkaeff (Eric Carriere 65'), Robert Pires, Sylvain Wiltord, Nicolas Anelka

After a highly successful campaign in the Confederations Cup, Japan went into the final on home ground, at Yokohama International Stadium, against World and European champions France. Though the French team is not quite as formidable as the one that demolished Japan 5-0 at the Stade de France in March, they are the heavy favourites to add the Confederations Cup to their collection of silverware.

Nevertheless, Japan were probably in an enviable position, in that nobody expects them to even have a chance. Thus, all of the pressure was on France, and that pressure is sure to build the longer that the 72,000 fans in Yokohama see even a chance of victory. Japan took on the World Champions with an undermanned squad, since Hidetoshi Nakata returned to Roma for the match against Napoli, and Takayuki Suzuki was ineligible as a result of a (spurious) red card received agaist Australia. Certainly, France was also missing several players to commitments in Europe, but Japan probably had as many scratches as Les Bleus if you consider that they entered the tournament without Asian Cup MVP Hiroshi Nanami and golden boot Naohiro Takahara, as well as players like Shunsuke Nakamura, Atsushi Yanagisawa and Yuji Nakazawa.

Most pundits expected Japan to play very conservative and hope to frustrate the French with a defensive wall, allowing the pressure and fan support to build and hope for a lucky goal in the second half. Thus, it probably is no surprise that Japan threw caution to the wind, and came out with guns blazing in the first 20 minutes, hoping for an early score before France has a chance to get settled. Over the course of the 90 minutes, I dont think anyone could argue that France was the better team. Still, the better team doesnt always win, and Japan was certainly in a position to get the first goal on two or three occasions, and even after France scored, Japan had more than a few chances for the equaliser.

The lone goal of the match came midway through the first half on a long ball over the defence that Patrick Viera just barely managed to get to ahead of Japan's keeper, Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi. It glanced off his head and arched into the goal. Until that point, Japan were really playing France close to even, and one has to feel that, even if they were the second best team on the pitch this night, Japan might have created a real scare if not for the lucky bounce off Viera's head.

As seems to happen so often in key matches, Troussier's player selection was ridiculous. He pulled both Shinji Ono and Junichi Inamoto, who were having stellar performances, yet left Teruyoshi Ito, who was invisible for 75 of the 90- minutes, in for the full match. However, such criticism will probably be moot, because Troussier will surely get accolades just for bringing Japan this far.

One has to wonder what might have been, if Japan had been able to field Nanami, Nakata, Takahara, Yanagisawa, Nakazawa and Suzuki in the final. I suppose France would say the same thing about all of the players that they were unable to call. Still, Japan was neck and neck with France for 90 minutes, even without 4 or 5 of their top players. The final result doesnt matter nearly as much as the fact that Japan was playing the top team in the world, and they were in the match with a chance to win right to the very end. The confederations Cup has been quite useful, but at the end of the day, this is just practice. The real test comes in exactly one year from now.

Below is the full roster for the Confederations Cup: