National Team Match:
Japan 3 - 1 Slovakia

Date: 10 July, 2004 Location: Oita Stadium, Japan Japan 3 1 1H 0 2 2H 1 1 Slovakia Fukunishi (44') Suzuki (66') Yanagisawa (78') Scoring P. Babanic (65") Suzuki Cautions I Shovcak Yoshikatsu Kawaguschi, Keisuke Tsuboi (Makoto Tanaka 48'), Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Yuji Nakazawa, Yasuhito Endo, Takashi Fukunishi, Akira Kaji, Shunsuke Nakamura (Mitsuo Ogasawara 87), Alessandro Santos (Atsuhiro Miura 81), Takayuki Suzuki (Atsushi Yanagisawa 78), Keiji Tamada (Masashi Motoyama 78) Kamir Chotvarsky, Martin Polyaboca, Tushan Sninsky, Baras Porbery, Jan Schlitz, Martin Skurtel, Malek Cev, Igor Shovcak, Lubosch Letel, Peter Pavnic, Peter Kisca

After the crushing defeat that Japan administered to India, last month, many fans may have become a bit complacent about the team's current condition, though anyone who has been following the situation closely will realise that Japan face a very difficult test in the upcoming Asia Cup. A long list of key players are already out of the picture, including Junichi Inamoto, Shinji Ono and Hidetoshi Nakata, and things may get even worse if an apparent hamstring injury to Keisuke Tsuboi turns out to be serious. Certainly, Japan cannot be feeling entirely optimistic about their prospects as the Asian Cup kickoff approaches

Considering the fact that his "top stars" are out of action anyway, and the fact that the opponent was a less-than formidable one, in Slovakia, it may not be entirely surprising that Zico fielded what seemed to be his "second string" roster. We certainly would hope that this is the case, since the performance of the starters left a great deal to be desired. In fact, Japan played perhaps the most pusillanimous 44 minutes of football that we have seen in years, during the first half, prompting whistles from the crowd as simple mistakes, a lack of any real creative vision from anyone except playmaker Shunsuke Nakamura, and an almost complete lack of effort and determination. Make no mistake, Japan dominated play throughout the first half -- if we exclude goal kicks, keeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi only touched the ball twice during the entire first half. Nevertheless, Japan's utter lack of offensive creativity and effort had the crowd whislting and Zico frowning angrily.

But in the final minute of play, Japan pulled a goal out of thin air, as Nakamura took a corner kick from the left side and placed it squarely on the forehead of Takashi Fukunishi. The Jubilo midfielder, who had done little else right all evening, showed that he at least knows how to head the ball, sending a hard, low drive underneath the keeper before he could get to the ground and cover it. Despite an almost total lack of offence over the opening 45 minutes, Japan went in at half time with a 1-0 lead.

Naturally, it is always good to be lucky, but it is even luckier to be good. That was not the case for the starting 11 on this particular day, however. After the match resumed, Japan demonstrated very much the same lack of energy, initiative and imagination that they displayed in the first half. The front two were a major source of the problem. Takayuki Suzuki can occasionally cause opponents difficulty with his power and ball-control abilities in the high post, but he is only a mediocre scorer and an even worse creator. Though Keiji Tamada may have performed well in his first match with the National Team, since then he has proven to be even more hapless than Suzuki. He does seem to possess good finishing instincts, but even the best finisher cant score goals unless they can get possession the ball somewhere in the vicinity of the penalty box. Tamada lacks both the ability to move off the ball and the ability to read his teammates" intentions. As a result, he spent almost 75 minutes on the pitch and seemed invisible throughout that entire period.

Midfield play was not much better. Nakamura was the best player on the pitch, doing his best to orchestrate play. On a few occasions, Alex Santos and Akira Kaji provides him with some support on the wings, but the other two midfielders -- Fukunishi and Yasuhito Endo -- contributed virtually nothing apart from Fukunishi's headed goal at the close of the first half. The saddest comment on the midfielders' play was the fact that the most dangerous offensive opportunities of the first hour of play were created by Nakamura and defender Yuji Nakazawa, whos occasional dashes forward produced about the only really dangerous penetration plays that Japan had. You could see the team growing more and more sluggish as the second half wore on, and things got worse when Keisuke Tsuboi had to be stretchered off, following a blatant and inexcusable push from behind that the referee somehow failed to notice. Slovakia's equaliser on a corner kick from the right side, in the 65 minute, was so predictable that we were already preparing to mark it up on the scoresheet before the kick was taken.

Slovakia's goal FINALLY seemed to shake Japan up a bit, and the players suddenly started chasing the ball with enthusiasm and energy. The result was an almost immediate response. Just 60 seconds after Babanic had equalised, Alex Santos was fouled, producing a free kick just across the midfield stripe, and he quickly jumped to his feet to resume the attack. He slipped the ball to Nakamura in the exact centre of the pitch, about 35 meters from goal, and Nakamura made a lovely pirouette before making a surgical incision through the Slovakia back line. Suzuki read the pass well, dashed into the clear at the right post, and then pulled the ball back to beat the outrushing keeper with a gentle shot into the opposite side of the net.

This woke up the previously comatose crowd at Hiroshima "Big Arch" Stadium, but did not do much to improve the quality of play from Japan. It was only whe Zico finally started bringing in substitutes that the team started generating dangerous offence. In the 78 minute, Zico brought on Atsushi Yanagisawa and Masashi Motoyama for Suzuki and Tamada, and the two very nearly produced a goal on their first touches of the ball. Unfortunately, Yanagisawa was narrowly offside, but this was a harginger of things to come, as the two substitutes did a far more impressive job of breaking down the Slovakia defence over the final 15 minutes than Suzuki and Tamada had managed in the first 75.

Three minutes after coming on, a brilliant bit of individual hustle by Yanagisawa produced the only play in the entire match that belongs on a highlight reel. Japan made an effort to create a quick break with Nakamura sending the ball long for the two strikers, but a Slovakian defender managed to collect the long ball and pull it back to his sweeper. But Motoyama agressively pursued the pass, forcing the defender to drop the ball further back, to his keeper. Yanagisawa feigned disinterest long enough to convince the keeper to relaxe, then put on a sudden burst of speed, cutting off the potential passing lanes for an outlet pass, and then making a thunderous sliding tackle worthy of a top defensive midfielder. In one move he corralled the keeper, ripped the ball loose, and then fought through a desperate last-ditch foul by the dispossessed goaltender to collect the ball and tap it into an empty net.

Unfortunately, play became increasingly ragged over the final ten minutes, as the heat and humidity took its toll on both teams. Even so, the duo of Yanagisawa and Motoyama very nearly teamed up for an insurance goal on two or three occasions. The disparity in intensity and off-the-ball movement could not have been more dramatic, and one certainly hopes that this will convince Zico to start the two in place of Tamada and Suzuki for the second Kirin Cup match, against Serbia & Montenegro, on Tuesday night.

Below is the full roster for the match against Slovakia: