National Team Match:
Japan 3 - 0 Nigeria

Date: 20 Aug, 2003 Location: National Stadium Japan 3 2 1H 0 1 2H 0 0 Nigeria Takahara (2') Takahara (38') Endo (70') Scoring Cautions Hitoshi Sogahata, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Keisuke Tsuboi, Nobuhisa Yamada, Alessandro Santos, Juniichi Inamoto, Yasuhito Endo, Shunsuke Nakamura, Hidetoshi Nakata, Naohiro Takahara (Yoshito Okubo 67), Atsushi Yanagisawa Greg Etafia, Efetobore Sodje, Emmanuel Izuagha, Joseph Enakahire, Patrick Ovie (Kola Adams 74), Haruna Babangida, Seyi Olofinjana, Benedict Akwuegbu (Capt.), Ikpe Ekong, Ifeany Ekwueme (Samuel Ayorinde 44), Ike Kalu (Femi Opabunmi 78)

Zico Japan finaly showed signs of evolving into a dangerous opponent, spanking an under-strength Nigeria team badly in Tokyo. Indeed, if not for some of the most comical officiating in history, the score would have been at least 4-0, and perhaps higher. But by the time the erroneous calls began to pile up, Japan was already comfortably on their way to a win, and nobody really minded having a laugh at the referees' expense. Though the Nigeria squad that took the pitch at National Stadium was missing several key players, it was solid enough ,and Japan's dominance clear enough, to suggest that the team may finally be on the right track, following an encouraging though disappointing performance at the Confederations Cup in France.

In Japan's first match since the Confederations Cup, in June, Zico called up several of his Europe-based players, hoping to lay to rest doubts about his strategy and coaching abilities. Though this was just one match, the result surely will quiet the griping from the back rows of the peanut gallery, at least for the time being.

Japan came out looking for results from the very first whistle, and it did not take long for them to materialise. Just 90 seconds into the match, Junichi Inamoto stole a pass at midfield, laid the ball of to Alex santos on the left wing, and Santos cross Naohiro Takahara at the top of the box. Takahara chested the ball down, and before the defence could react, pulled a hooking drive into the top right corner to put Japan in the lead, and ensure that the capacity crowd would be a thunderous chorus of support for the remainder of the match. Less than a minute later, Atsushi Yanagisawa very nearly made it 2-0 as he made a breakaway dash for a Shunsuke Nakamura through pass, but a shoestring tackle by the keeper stripped him of the ball at the last second.

After the initial surge had brought a lead, Japan began to play a bit cautiously, allowing Nigeria to have the lion's share of possession for the next fifteen minutes or so. But good midfield pressure and a remarkably solid performance by the back line prevented any real danger. By the 25 minute, Japan began to regain the upper hand with short, crisp passes through midfield and occasional attempts to slip a ball through the Nigerian back line. This created four or five chances over the next ten minutes, including one lovely one-two between Nakamura and Santos that sent the naturalised Japanese left wing back curling towards the box with Yanagisawa wide open at the far post. Unfortunately, Santos played his cross a bit too low, and the keeper was able to block it. A half-meter higher and it would have been a sure goal from point-blank range.

But Japan's creative midfield passing eventually did pay off. In the 38 minute, an overlap pass down the left side founnd Hidetoshi Nakata open in the corner. Though Nakata's path to goal was cut off, he pulled the ball back to Nakamura, who was completely unmarked about four meters beyond the top left corner of the penalty box. Nakamura had time to measure his cross, and laid a perfect ball onto the head of Takahara, directly out from the left post. The Nigerian keeper was also cheating towards the left side of his net, and clearly expected Takahara to choose the wider, right side. But Takahara chose the near post, and caught the keeper leaning the wrong way. The header was not particularly powerful, but it slipped inside the post before the keeper could recover, and the score was 2-0.

In the second half, Nigeria came out eager to try to reclaim a goal or two, and applied much of the pressure. Japan had their counterattacking opportunities, but with a two-goal lead they seemed content to bottle up Nigeria's speedy wings and forwards, and only attack when the opportunity arose. Nigeria's physical play offered them something of an advantage, as the referee turned a blind eye to some pretty obvious hacking, but the back line held up very well. Keisuke Tsuboi, in particular, showed that he could outpace even the speedy Nigerians when chasing back to collect long balls. Tsuneyasu Miyamoto was steady in central midfield, and although he did flub a few passes in the back line, none were glaring errors that could have produced a Nigerian goal. Both wings, meanwhile, played good coverage, and the defensive midfielders, Junichi Inamoto and Yasuhito Endo, made some brilliant one-on-one steals to nip budding Nigerian attacks.

Though it seemed that the team had been advised at half time to maintain caution on devence, Japan did attack when the opportunity arose, and on one such play, in the 70 minute, they extended their lead further. Junichi Inamoto collected an outled pass and lofted a 50-meter blast that caught the Nigerian back line moving the wrong way, Both Endo and Yoshito Okubo beat the offsides, and were off on a 2-on-zero break for goal. Endo collected the ball and beat the stranded keeper with a blast into the low right side of the net.

Then came the most baffling play of the match. For much of the second half, the Korean officiating team had been noticably avoiding any calls that might favour Japan. Indeed, there were two potential PK calls that the referee managed to ignore, and apart from the Endo goal, the linesman was calling almost every Japanese counterattack offside, whether it appeared so or not. But in the 81 minute the bias became a bit too glaring to shrug off. Hide Nakata made a nice pivot move at midfield and sent a through pass that Atsushi Yanagisawa was able to tip away from a defender, taking off on a dash towards goal. The keeper rushed out of his net, and as he approached, Yanagisawa pushed the ball to the left, where he had no chance to clear. But despite the fact that he was ten meters outside his box, the keeper flung out his arms and blocked the ball off Yanagisawa's boots.

Incredibly, though all 22 players on the pitch and at least 54,000 people in the stadium stopped in dead silence, waiting for a hand ball violation to be called, the referee allowed play to continue! To make matters even more farcical, neither linesman saw fit to raise a flag and encourage the referee to make what was perhaps the most obvious call of the entire match. One wonders how the officiating team will explain themselves to the Confederation, in their match report. Whatever the case, none of them should ever be permitted to officiate an international "A" match again. A mistake of that magnitude goes beyond the definition of a "bad call", and suggests either corruption or serious incompetence.

But with the match already locked up, Japan's players could take this with the humour that good farce deserves. On the next trip up the field, Yanagisawa could be seen congratulating the Nigerian keeper with an ironic grin and a "nice catch" gesture. After this incident, both teams seemed to abandon any effort to change the score line, and the match petered out in a see-saw exchange of time-wasting passes. With the win, Zico picks up his first home victory since taking over as the national team head coach, and hopefully sets the tone for a string of matches against other African opponents in September, October and November.

Below is the full roster for the match against Nigeria: