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National Team Match: |
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Of all the criticisms that have been leveled against Zico over the course of his stint as Japan head coach, the one which has the most validity in our eyes is that he lacks flexibility and vision in selecting players for the starting lineup. Though he hass given playing opportunities to a fairly large number of players over the course of his three-year stint, but this is mainly a reflection of availability -- when Europe-based players are available, he has one "standard lineup"; when they are not available, he has a second. But apart from these alterations, Zico hardly ever makes significant personnel changes from match to match, and there has been abundant opportunity for critics to complain that he stics with his "favourites" long after they have provided abundant reasons to be replaced. Some might try to put a positive spin on this situation by describing it as "loyalty" to the top players. But even if you view this as a merit, surely there are drawbacks as well
One of the biggest drawbacks, at least at the moment, is that it has produced a mix of exhaustion and complacency among the J.League-based starters, which was at least a contributing factor in their loss to North Korea. Though neither Zico nor his players would accept the easy excuse when it was offered to them, following the match, but despoite their comments immediately in the wake of the loss, a post-mortem by the JFA's advisory committee had little difficulty identifying exhaustion as a problem. The regular national team players have been playing an average of over two competitive matches a week for nearly six months, and have travelled the equivalent of two circuits of the globe in their pursuit of a World Cup spot from the AFC zone, coupled with their participation in the Confederations Cup. In addition, all of these players have been starting nearly every match for their J.League clubs, taking part in ACL events, and even participating in exhibitions against top European competition just days before they joined the national team in Korea for this tournament. Of course they are tired!
And to make matters worse, the fact that Zico has never indicated that their starting spots on the NT might be at risk, these same players are likely to approach matches with a slightly jaded attitude, and a lack of any real emotional pressure to excel. It is not necessary to look for excuses for Japan's loss to North Korea. This was just a case of the opponent having a very good match, and Japan not being able to overcome their energy and enthusiasm. Such things happen in football. But it became clear, this week, that if Zico wants to address the weaknesses that were exploited by North Korea in that match, he would have to make some changes to his lineup.
Never let it be said that Zico is a man who adopts half-measures. Once he made up his mind to ring in the changes, he did so in dramatic fashion. When the Japan national team took the field against China, on Wednesday evening, not a single one of the players who started the match against North Korea was in the lineup. AT LAST we had a chance to see how promising young players such as Yuichi Komano, Tatsuya Tanaka, Seiichiro Maki, Yasuyuki Komano, Yuki Abe and Shinji Murai might be able to contribute to the national team
As it turned out, this might have been an inspired decision if only Zicoo had used a little bit of common sense and not gone overboard with his replacements. Most of the field players demonstrated exactly the sort of energy and attacking flair that was absent in the North Korea match, and they turned in a very exciting and reasonably impressive performance. But with no tall central defenders to cover China's big men, Japan conceded two soft goals on high balls to the middle, in the first half, and this came back to haunt them.
In the second half, Japan dominated and scored two goals to equalise, but were unable to come back all the way for the victory. It certainly helped that Chinese players were allowed to kill 10 minutes or more, feigning injury, but just 2 minutes and 47 seconds of added time were permitted. Teruaki Moniwa scored early in the half, after a Yuki Abe free kick was blocked but not held onto by the keeper. With time running down, Tatsuya Tanaka made a nice move to collect a loose ball just oustide the penalty area, sidestep a defender and then drive home the equaliser. A slightly more measured approach to player substitution m,ight have given Japan the win in this match.
Then again, one wonders whether Zico has simply reached the same level of exasperation with the officiating standards that the Rising Sun News has, and no longer cares about meaningless matters such as winning and losing. After an opening ten minutes in which Seiichiro Maki was kicked in the head in the penatly area, without comment by the referee (if youre wondering, no he was not bending down when he was kicked, but was actually jumping for a ball), then was deliberately body-checked out of the play by a defender while chasing a lead pass (also in the penalty area), and then called offside when he had a one-on-one with the keeper (need we even mention that the replay showed him onside?), it is a bit hard to blame Zico for giving up on any illusions about actually winning this tournament.
It was nice to see some of the youngsters get playing time, and hopefully Zico will give them another run-out against Korea. As for the "outcome" of this tournament, does it even matter? When the AFC starts adopting measures to ensure that match results are a reflection of which team plays better on the pitch, rather than which team gets the benefit of more officiating calls, PERHAPS (and that is a big perhaps) we can begin taking their tournaments seriously.
Until that day arrives, the Rising Sun News is half tempted to stop even reporting on the matches. It does no one any good to keep writing these exasperated comments, time after time. The Rising Sun News DOES intend, however, to compile a videotape of the "highlights" of this tournament and send it to the FIFA officiating standards committee in Switzerland, just to see what they think. Who knows, maybe they will finally step in and ban a few of these rent-a-refs who continue to bring the entire confederation into disrepute. At least it is worth a try.
National Team
Overseas Players
Japan 2 - 2 China 