National Team Match:
Japan 0 - 0 Iran

Date: 27 July, 2004 Location: Chengdu Stadium, China Japan 0 0 1H 0 0 2H 0 0 Iran Scoring Keiji Tamada Kawaguchi Cautions Ali Karimi E. Taghipour H. Kaebi Sayed Mahdi Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Makoto Tanaka, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Yuji Nakazawa, Yasuhito Endo, Takashi Fukunishi, Akira Kaji, Shunsuke Nakamura, Alessandro Santos, Takayuki Suzuki (Masashi Motoyama 65), Keiji Tamada E. Mizrapour, Y. Golmanhammadi, H. Kaebi, E. Taghipour, J. Kaunei, S. Zare, J. Nekounam, Ali Karimi, S.M. Alevil, M. Mahadavikia, Ali Daei

Japan's performance in the Asian Cup has been well short of "impressive", and they plumbed new depths of dullness on Wednesday night in their pool round against Iran. OK, I dont need to be reminded that Japan were leading their group, and needed only a draw to progress. And I also understand that sometimes the best way to win a title is to conserve your energies in the matches that are not so important and save them for the more crucial contests. But if Japan has decided that they are going to start using a strategy lifted from the most conservative Italian club in Serie B, then somebody will just have to wake me up when it is all over. Playing for the scoreless draw has never been a part of the Japanese playbook, and this is not the time to start. Not only is it an insult to the beautiful game itself, but it is guaranteed to turn off the fans. By the end of this contest, the handful of Japanese supporters in the crowd were booing louder than anyone else in the stadium (but then, most of the Chinese fans were probably semi-comatose by that time).

The conditions in China have been oppressive, to be sure. Zico must have felt that against a physically powerful and emotionally volatile team like Iran, Japan were better off avoiding a severe test of wills. When one considers the implications over the long run, this is a hard contention to argue against. But that does not lessen our dismay at the display of dull, dreary, deadening, dissolute defensive drudgery that Japan displayed in this contest. Regardless of how effective the final outcome might have been, Japan has never resorted to this sort of anti-football in the past, and now is not the time to start.

About the only positive thing that can be said about this contest was that it demonstrated the solidity of Japan's defence. Iran are one of the most explosive offensive clubs competing in China. Yet apart from a few drives from long range, and one or two scary moments created by howlingly bad decisions in deep midfield by Takashi Fukunishi, Japan managed to keep them at bay throughout the contest. What was most disappointing, though, was the lack of any effort whatsoever on the offensive end. There were a few occasions where Japan demonstrated the ability to break down Iran's defence, if they had only been willing to run a bit, and expend the energy required to exploit the cracks in a makeshift Iranian defence. But Japan seemed to *prefer* to keep the match scoreless, perhaps worrying that if Iran fell behind, they might get fired up, and play with abandon, increasing the risk of someone getting hurt.

After the match, Zico and some of the key players tried to act as if they were satisfied with such a soporific display. Im sorry, but the sight of Tsuneyasu Miyamoto and YujiNakazawa passing the ball back and forth for the final six minutes of the contest, while Iran stood in their own half and watched, was something I hope never to see repeated. The reason that football is called "the beautiful game" is that there is far more to the sport than merely winning or losing. Perhaps more than any other major sport, in football, what matters most is how you play the game. People who only care about whether or not Japan makes it to the final can console themselves with the "preciousssss" one point they claimed from the scoreless draw. As for THIS fan of the beautiful game, it simply is too painful to watch . . . somebody please turn out the lights when it is all over.

Below is the full roster for the match against Iran: