National Team Match:
Japan 4 - 0 Malaysia

Date: 7 Feb, 2004 Location: Kashima Stadium Japan 3 1H 0 1 2H 0 Malaysia Ogasawara (9') Miyamoto (36') Yamada (44') Endo (46') Scoring Cautions Yoichi Doi (Ryota Tsuzuki 75), Nobuhisa Yamada (Akira Kaji 64), Keisuke Tsuboi (Teruaki Moniwa 64), Tsuneyasu Miyamoto (Yuji Nakazawa 64), Alessandro Santos (Atsuhiro Miura 64), Yasuhito Endo, Takuya Yamada (Daisuke Oku 75), Toshiya Fujita (Naohiro Ishikawa 75) Mitsuo Ogasawara, Masashi Motoyama, Tatsuhiko Kubo (Teruaki Kurobe 75) Azuyon Azlam, Chang Win-Hong, Yuzaiman, Muhammed Cairo Nisam, Supri Sulong, Tunwa Hazman, Chao Chi-Wong, Nanta Kumar, Eddie Hermi, Hairuddin Omar, Nizardin Yusuf

Zico Japan kicked off their 2004 campaign with a pedestrian victory over a completely outmatched Malaysian side. Though the performance was not particularly impressive as a whole, the success of the basic game plan and the performance of players who may play at least a bit role in Japan's drive to the 2006 World Cup should be a source of some optimism for fans of the national team.

Japan entered the contest with a thoroughly "second string" lineup. The four midfielders who are often referred to as the "golden quartet" were all absent, as were starting strikers Naohiro Takahara and Atsushi Yanagisawa, while Yoshito Okubo was sitting out a one-match suspension. With this in mind, the number of scoring chances squandered is not as much of a concern as it might be otherwise. The team as a whole looked slightly out of shape, and though that may not be too surprising following a two-month vacation, they will have to shape up quickly considering the heavy national team schedule this year. On the positive side, though, Japan played mistake-free defence, generated a lot of shots, and two players in particular who may fill the role of midfield substitute -- Mitsuo Ogasawara and Yasuhito Endo -- demonstrated that they have the talent to step in if any of the "golden quartet" should be unavailable once the actual qualification matches begin.

Japan started with a series of very effective thrusts into the box, orchestrated mainly by Ogasawara and Toshiya Fujita, but despite several good opportunities, each time the final shot went astray. Tatsuhiko Kubo set a pattern of lackluster play that would persist throughout the match, sending one point-blank shot wide to the left, and then blasting another over the bar. But nine minutes in, Ogasawara took a pass with his back to goal, spun around, and saw both of Malaysia's central defenders turn and run away from him, presumably to follow Motoyama and Kubo on their slants towards the box. He apparently concluded that if nobody was going to mark him, he might as well just put the ball in the net. And he did exactly that with a swerving drive off the outside of his right foot, which zipped just inside the left post.

Once the pressure of getting their first goal was gone, Japan seemed to turn it down a notch, and for the next 20 minutes or so the intensity of their play faded just enough for Malaysia to stay competitive. Japan dominated possession, and never conceded even a hint of a shot, but in the period from minute 15 to minute 30, their scoring chances declined and they seemed content to just pass the ball around the perimeter and look for occasional breaks. On such opportunity very nearly produced a goal, as Ogasawara provided a perfect lob pass for Fujita, dashing forward from midfield to beat the offside trap. But Fujita's first touch was too long, and the keeper scooped up the loose ball.

In the 35 minute, Japan won a corner kick on the right side, and Ogasawara's cross for the far post was headed back in front of goal by Motoyama. Tsuneyasu Miyamoto headed a nice shot on net, but the keeper made a fine reaction save and pushed the ball around the post. The second CK attempt was played short, and Ogasawara drifted out to a point level with the top of the box to take the return pass. Lining up his cross carefully, Oga chose to give Miyamoto a second chance at finding the net, and his low, line-drive cross was rewarded as Miyamoto dove in front of his defender to head a bullet into the nylon.

This goal seemed to revive the intensity, and Japan put together a sequence of good scoring opportunities over the final 10 minutes of the half. After a few close calls, the third goal finally came just before the break, when Santos found space on the left wing, sent a long cross to Motoyama at the opposite edge of the penalty box, and Motoyama laid a gentle back pass to Nobuhisa Yamada for a wide-open shot from 20 meters,. The ball rocketed in just below the crossbar and Japan had a 3-0 lead at the break.

Just after play resumed, Another cross from the left wing by Santos was cleared by the defence to the edge of the box, but Endo pounced on the rebound and drove it low into the left corner, giving Japan their fourth goal. But following this strike, Zico began bringing in the reserves, and the fluidity of Japan's play began to deteriorate. Eight substitutes followed, with only Ogasawara, Endo and Motoyama remaining on the pitch for the full 90 minutes. It is hard to make any real judgements about this stage of the contest, since there was really no pressure to get another goal, and the players involved were all from the lower end of the NT bench. However, one can at least conclude that none of the reserves will have made a favourable impression on Zico. Play was rather ragged, with a lot of individualistic effort and not much coordination. The biggest problem for the offence seemed to be the fact that Ogasawara moved from his playmaker position into a defensive midfield spot alongside Endo. His play orchestration was the main thing that kept the offence clicking in the first half, and once he retreated into more of a support position, the attacks lost their fluidity.

In such a lop-sided contest, it is hard to analyse the performances of the players in realistic terms. However, we can make some fairly clear observations of a negative sort. First, Takuya Yamada, who started at a defensive midfield position, is completely out of his depth in international play. His only contrigutions to the match involved interfering with the smooth pass work of his teammates, and causing attacks to bog down. He never made a single pass without hesitating, looking around and radiating uncertainty. The contrast to the one-touch exchanges of Ogasawara, Endo, Motoyama and Fujita could not have been any clearer. Second, Tatsuhiko Kubo is still (and probably always will be) an inconsistent, unpredictable enigma. He looked awful in this particular match, which now makes his record three utterly worthless performances, one mediocre contribution and one brilliant outing, in five matches. It is this sort of inconsistency that eventually prompted Troussier to drop him, and there seems to be little doubt that Zico will do so as well, if the trend continues.

Fujita, meanwhile, seems to have passed the point where he can make a useful contribution to the NT. He made some decent plays, and would have recorded a goal if Kubo had not run directly into the path of his shot and deflected it wide. However, he lacked the pace to keep up with his teammates, and his poor touch of the ball caused at least three golden scoring opportunities to go by the boards.

Motoyama also seems to fall a bit short of what one expects from national team members. He also had a few good plays, and his passing work was slightly superior to Fujita's. But his apparent lack of a "goal sense", and the ability to finish off plays when he gets the ball in the penalty box, limit his value to the team. The two standouts in midfield were Ogasawara and Endo. Oga looked brilliant in the first half, particularly with his ability to find teammates as they moved into space. When he moved into a more defensive position, however, he looked less useful, and he also seemed to run out of energy soon after the half (though this may just be a sign that he is not yet fully recovered from the injuries that plagued him at the end of last year). Endo, meanwhile, had a solid performance on both offence and defence, though against an opponent of this quality (Malaysia), one wishes he would impose himself more on the game. He often seemed to be content just to hang back in deep midfield and watch plays develop, when a dash forward in support of the attack might have produced a goal.

The only regular starters who took part in this match were the back four, and given the nature of their opponent, they didnt really have much to do. Santos made some useful runs down the left wing, but also displayed his lingering tendency to get beaten on the counter. No one ever claimed he was a good, one-on-one defender, but he will have to wrk on this aspect of his game if he wants to continue playing a wing back position. Miyamoto and Yamada both found the net, which was more than the putative lone striker, Kubo, managed. But neither one was involved in play, sufficiently, to make a strong impression. Keisuke Tsuboi, meanwhile, turned away the Malaysian attacks so effortlessly that you could almost forget that he was on the pitch. But on one play in the late first half, he did display an element of his game that we have been waiting a long time to see. Making steal in his own end, Tsuboi moved forward looking for the outlet pass, but when nobody came to cover him, he suddenly decided to make a drive into the attack, by himself. With a burst of speed, he left the Malaysian midfielders in a cloud of dust, then made two clever dribbling moves to beat defenders. Unfortunately, he wasnt able to find a teammate quickly enough to turn the surge forward into a shot on net. But the blazing speed and ball control he demonstrated, on the attack, is something that we certainly would like to see more of in the future.

Japan's next opponent will be Iraq, which should be a slightly tougher opponent, though still one that Japan should beat handily., We will be watching to see if the second string midfielders can scrape off the rust and produce a few more goals in that contest.

Below is the full roster for Japan's match against Malaysia: