Japan 1 - 1 Costa Rica

Date: April 17, 2002 Location: Yokohama Int'l Stadium Japan 1 0 1H 0 1 2H 1 1 Costa Rica Myojin (81') Scoring Parks (77') Cautions Centeno Wallace Seigo Narazaki, Koji Nakata, Naoki Matsuda, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto (Shunsuke Nakamura, 82), Daisuke Ichikawa (Takashi Fukunishi 45), Mitsuo Ogasawara (Hiroaki Morishima 25), Tomokazu Myojin (Yasuhiro Hato 80), Kazuyuki Toda, Alessandro Santos (Toshihiro Hattori 79), Atsushi Yanagisawa (Akinori Nishizawa 28), Takayuki Suzuki (Tatsuhiko Kubo 86) Erick Lonis, Mauricio Wright, Luis Marin (Alexander Madrigal 46), Harold Wallace (Daniel Vallejos 76), Gilberto Martinez, Juan Jose Rodriguez, Mauricio Solis, Wilmer Lopez (Oscar Rojas 66), Walter Centeno (Max Sanchez 76), Rolando Fonseca (Winston Parks 66), Ronald Gomez (Steven Bryce, 84)

Phillippe Troussier dodged a bullet on Wednesday night, as extremely poor strategic decisions very easily could have caused Japan to lose a match to a visibly weaker team. The Ticos had excellent ball movement throughout the match, and created scoring opportunities on the break, so the key to winning this match was to keep them under constant pressure and make the most of scoring opportunities. Yet viewers were left wondering whenther or not the mad Frenchman was deliberately easing up on the opponent at times, or doing his best to disrupt his own team's rhythm.

Japan started out a bit tentatively, but nevertheless had the majority of possession for the first ten minutes. Costa Rica showed speed and good ball movement on the counterattack, but neither team really had any chance to score. As time wore on, though, Mitsuo Ogasawara and Alessandro Santos began to exchange the ball well on the right flank, and created some good runs for strikers Takayuki Suzuki and Atsushi Yanagisawa. On two consecutive plays, Ogasawara managed to find an open shot from a spot inside the box, and though both of his efforts were off target, it looked like the pressure was starting to tell on the Ticos defence.

But just as it seemed like things were swinging Japan's way, Troussier shocked everyone in the stadium by pulling Ogasawara and Yanagisawa, with less than 30 minutes gone in the first half.

Anyone is entitled to guess what possessed Troussier to pull such a ridiculous stunt. Replacing Ogasawara might be defensible, since his replacement, Hiroaki Morishima, performed just as credibly (though it took Japan time to adjust to his different style of play). Substituting Yanagisawa, on the other hand, seems to border on the insane, particularly since his replacement, Akinori Nishizawa, contributed exactly zero to the Japan offence, yet he was left in until the dying seconds of the match. Many would put it down to sheer stupidity.

However, even if we give him the benefit of the doubt, there are really only two possible explanations for this move. One is that he has already decided not to include Ogasawara on his World Cup team, and he didnt want the midfielder to show him up by putting on a fine performance. Yanagisawa happened to get caught by the same move, since Troussier was trying to keep Morishima with his teammate, Nishizawa. Admittedly, this isnt a very good excuse. Nishizawa has had ample opportunities to prove himself in the past, but has yet to perform. Ogasawara, on the other hand, seemed to be on the verge of a good match. Benching him when he did, Troussier just leaves the question of whether he could have made the grade an open one -- and one that people are sure to ask if Japan does not perform well in future matches.

The only other possible explanation would be that Troussier saw enough of Ogasawara and Yanagisawa in the first twenty minutes to confirm that they were in his final cut. He therefore switched to other players who still had to prove themselves. This seems to be a slightly better explanation, though if that were indeed the case, surely Morishima is the last player that needs to prove his worth. It would have been far easier to understand if the replacement had been Shunsuke Nakamura, who Troussier himself has said, needs to prove himself.

At any rate, the loss of Ogasawara and Yanagisawa noticeably disrupted Japan's flow. Morishima and Alex played some nice one-twos on the left wing, which created a few chances, but in general, the pressure that Japan had put on Costa Rica in the early stages of the match eased, and they were given a chance to regroup. The remainder of the first half was sloppy and scoreless

At the break, Troussier further confounded viewers, by pulling off Daisuke Ichikawa, who had a fine first half, and replacing him with Taskashi Fukunishi, who has proven in three consecutive appearances that as hard-working as he might be, he really is not good enough to play at this level. Japan's play became even more disjointed and scoring chances even less frequent. Only a few high balls from Alex to Takayuki Suzuki created danger for Costa Rica. At the other end, the sloppy passing and drop in pressure on their midfielders allowed the Ticos to create more counterattack opportunities, and they nearly got on the board first when a breakaway left Koji Nakata stranded against two Costa Rican strikers and he accidentally fouled Fonseca in the penalty box. Fortunately, Seigo Narazaki bailed Japan out with a fine save of the PK, but clearly things were not going Japan's way

Midway through the second half, Tomokazu Myojin got Japan on the scoreboard, though it was hardly a pretty play. After a few pushes towards the Costa Rican goal, a loose ball was cleared from the box and Myojin tracked it down on the right sideline. With a number of players milling in the box, Myojin cut the ball back sharply, hoping his cross would surprise the defence and create an opportunity for a header. However, he mis-hit the ball, and it sailed into the high, far corner of the goal, leafing even Myojin shaking his head with a sheepish smile on his face.

But the lead would not last. About ten minutes later, Costa Rica got one of their best counterattacks of the match, and Parks raced clear on goal for an easy finish, knotting the score at 1-1. At this point, both teams emptied their benches, and the remainder of the match was a sloppy, inconclusive muddle.

After the match, Troussier himself admitted that "I made some mistakes" in tactics. That comment is just stating the obvious. The real question is what he was hoping to achieve. We knew going into this match that it would be mainly an experiment for Troussier to see what some of his borderline players could do. Unfortunately, it is hard to tell whether he was able to learn anything useful from his failed "experiment".