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National Team Match: |
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Japan put on another Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde performance on Saturday, in Riga, Latvia, playing brilliant football for 45 minutes and staking a fully-deserved 2-0 lead shortly after the break, but then falling apart defensively (and mentally) in the second half and allowing Latvia to come back with a last-minute equaliser and spoil the result completely.
Those who prefer looking at things through rose-coloured glasses will find plenty of valid and self-satisfying excuses. The defensive weakness stemmed largely from the use of an all-substitute back line, and the complete absence of any player capable of JUMPING as high as the 196-cm Koresnishenko when he was standing flat-footed. Furthermore, the COMPLETE collapse did not occur until after key players like Shunsuke Nakamura, Atsushi Yanagisawa, Hide Nakata and Daisuke Matsui had been substituted.
If you add the usual canards about Japan having just arrived in Latvia after a long plane journey (though it isnt applicable to most of the European players), and fielding a "B" squad especially in the defence, you have a pretty good compilation of excuses to explain away the weak second-half performance, if that is what you prefer to do.
For those who prefer to analyse the areas where Japan still needs to make a great deal of improvement, however, the result in Latvia confirm a lot of the concerns that have been festering for a long, long time. We can begin with the problem that has headlined some of our recent match reports, but which has drawn some dismay and disagreement from those who prefer to focus relentlessly on the positive,even at the expense of addressing weaknesses. The first and most glaring of these problems involves the word "Nakata", and although we have addressed our views about Hidetoshi several times, in recent months, in this particular match the "other" Nakata was just as much of an obstacleto smooth play as his nakesake. In the second half against Latvia (and even in the first half, if the truth be told), the inability of either Nakata to get into the flow of Japan's offence was so obvious that even the traditionally fawning sports tabloids were unable to avoid making negative comments about the Bolton playmaker.
The problem is that Hidetoshi simply does not exhibit the energy level needed to fill the role that Zico has chosen for him -- linking defence with attack in central midfield. Furthermore, his passing has become very erratic. Certainly, there are times when his vision and ability to read the flow of a game allows him to pull off a bit of sublime play, and this is usually seized upon by his apologists as evidence that Nakata himself is not the problem.
One of the most annoying excuses we have ever heard (and one which has been used relentlessly by a few sportswriters who have a particularly brown nose for Nakata) claims that the reason why Nakata often releases passes into the middle of nowhere, or sends balls into dangerous areas of the pitch is that "he is so much better than his teammates" that they cannot read his intentions, and do not react the way they "should". This is an extraordinarily "clever" excuse, since it cannot be refuted by normal logic. If you accept the premise that Nakata is far superior to his teammates in skill, then any errant passes or mistaken reads must be the fault of the teammates, and not of Hide himself. But anyone with a decent grasp of team sports in general can see the glaring error in this excuse. If Nakata were so much better than his teammates, then he should be capable of recognising what they can and cannot do, and adjusting his performance to ensure that they can keep up. In other words, even if we were to accept the premise that Nakata is "too good" for his teammates, it would still be his responsibility to "play down to their level" in order to ensure a solid team performance. You cant ask 10 other players to raise themselves to a level above what they are capable of achieving, in order to suit the needs of the one "star" player, nor can you fire the other ten ballerinas for failing to "keep up" with the prima donna. Team sports are called "team" sports because it is the performance ofthe team, and not the performance of any one individual, which decides the outcome.
Although we have been pointing out the poor chemistry betwen Nakata and the rest of the Japan national team for almost two years now, in the match against Latvia (and indeed, after several recent contests) there have been indications that the sports press in general has begun to discard this old excuse, as well. For one thing, it is now clearly apparent to anyone but the most starstruck fan that Nakata -- though still a decent player -- is by no means "head and shoulders" above teammates such as Shunsuke Nakamura, Shinji Ono and for that matter, even Daisuke Matsui. If those three players can adapt their game to the needs of the team, why is Nakata unable to do so. Furthermore, the statistics are beginning to drag down the Nakata legend by their own sheer weight. The Opta stats for the match against Latvia show tht Hide Nakata's pass completion rate was an appalling 48%. Putting that it plain language, that means that more than HALF of the times he touched the ball, Nakata either sent a wild long ball into the middle of nowhere, lost the ball out of bounds, was dispossessed, or passed the ball to an opponent. Is it any wonder then, that his contributions often disrupted the offensive flow?
In the first half, most of the other players did a good job of picking up the slack (and to be fair, on the 48% of occasions when Nakata's passes were NOT errant, they often created good opportunities for teammates). Japan played an extremely good short-passing game which had Latvia totally out of their depth. In fact, after just 30 minutes the Latvia coach pulled off a midfielder and brought in a fifth defender, in order to address the clear advantage that Japan had in their offensive zone. Two playe in particular deserve to be singled out for excellent contributions -- Daisuke Matsui and Yuichi Komano. Both players were getting only their second or third opportunities to take the pitch in a national team uniform, but both performed admirably, expecially in the first half (though both seemed to run out of energy in the second half). Matsui's silky dribbling on the left flank had the Latvian players tied up in knots, while Komano not only played remarkably solid defence (single-handedly snuffing out THREE dangerous scoring chances by Latvia in the first half), but also overlapping again and again on the right sideline, and putting his crosses into dangerous spots. If not for the huge advantage in height which the Latvian defenders enjoyed, Japan might well have built an even bigger lead.
Naohiro Takahara demonstrated the sort of positive contributions he is capable of making, shortly after the start of the match, with a stunning shot to give Japan the earluy lead. Just five minutes in, while both teams were still finding their rhythm, Takahara received a lateral pass from Nakamura nad found himself in space, about 35 meters out from goal. Seeing that the Latvian keeper was cheating off the line, Takahara ripped off a quick shot which curled away from the retreating goalkeeper and slipped just under the bar, shocking the crowd to silence. This put Latvia on the back foot and Japan did not let them recover for the remainder of the first half. However, once they were appraised of Japan's offensive capabilities, the Latvians tightened up their marking considerably, and they used their superior physical gifts of height and bulk to keep the rampant Japan attack at bay. Unfortunately for Takahara, this sort of play exposed the weaknesses that he brings, along with his quick release and accuracy. For the remainder of the first half he had very little opportunity to touch the ball, as the bigger, rougher Latvian defenders had little difficulty containing him when playing a traditional centre forward role
Though Japan's first-half play was fairly impressive, the inability to score seems to provide a good indication of the problems Japan will face if they continue trying to play a "traditional" two-top formation. For all the clever passing around the perimeter by Japan's deft midfielders, and the lovely overlaps by Komano on th wing, Japan could not get the ball in to Takahara, nor could they fully break down the defensive line with short passing through the middle. There was one nice bit of give-and-go passing around the 30 minute mark which sent Yanagisawa through on goal, but even though he was clearly hauled down from behind, the referee decided to wave play on (perhaps trying to spare the home crowd further embarassment). The only other really dangerous chance Japan had came on another quick-release shot from midfield,. by Nakamura, which the keeper just barely tipped around his post.
Japan was at its most dangerous when Nakamura, Matsui an Yanagisawa were using quick movement and short passing to open up seams in the defence, and though they were never able to fully exploit these openings, we had the sense that if one more passing midfielder was available to support the attack, the Latvian lines would have been breached. With this in mind, we cannot help but feel that Zico is erring badly by abandoning the 4-3-3 (or 4-3-2-1, if you prefer) which he employed breifly in the World Cup qualifier matches. Takahara's play in Japan's last two internationals indicates that he is probably the best option Zico has (barring a remarkable recovery in form by Tatsuhiko Kubo) as a pure centre forward. It also shows that even this "best option" is not a very good option. Atsushi Yanagisawa is even less effective in a "pure" centre forward position, and leaves a bit to be desired as a finisher, as well.
On the other hand, when playing the pivot position in a 4-3-3, Yanagisawa's ability to find space, his quick movement off the ball, and his excellent passing skills allow him to function very effectively in the centre, collecting the ball in a dangerous position and feeding it off to his teammates. Japan was at its best, in this match, when Matsui and Nakamura used Yanagisawa as a foil for their clever dribbling and passing. Shortly after the restart, a combination play with Nakamura once again demonstrated how effectively this combination can be. Yanagisawa took a ball to the edge of the Latvian box, passed back to Nakamura and immediately began to "roll" into the box in what basketball fans will recognise as a classic "pick & roll" move. Nakamura threaded the needle to get the ball back to Yanagiwasa, and this time when he was hauled off his feet, the referee apparently decided that he had seen too many instances of Latvian defenders "bending the rules" to wave this one off. He pointed to the spot, and Nakamura fired Japan into a 2-0 lead.
But less than ten minutes after taking the two-goal advantage, and for reasons that Zico will need to examine very carefully, Japan suddenly fell apart. The most obvious problems -- noted even by the two match commentators -- were a lack of movement by the Japanese midfield (particularly Nakata and Inamoto in deep midfield), and the inability of Japan's back line to contain the three tall and speedy attacking players that Latvia brought in once they saw that they needed to play catch-up. The latter problem, one would hope, could have been addressed if Japan's starting back line were available. Certainly, the presence of Yuji Nakazawa would have helped reduce the advantage tht Latvia enjoyed in the air. But the pathetic work rate of the Japanese back line and defensive midfield was a problem that cannot be dismissed as casually. We have already noted that Hide Nakata's energy level dropped badly in the second half. However, Koji Nakata and Junichi Inamoto were even worse. Both have been out of action at their respective clubs, and have not played competitive first-team football in nearly a year. It showed.
Inamoto, at least, was effective in the first half. He did run out of gas, and will need to get much more match-fit if he hopes to contribute to the team in Germany. But Koji Nakata was a weak link for Japan from the very outset. One reason why we have not said much about him earlier in this report is that he was largely invisible in the first half. He did a slightly-better-than-mediocre job on defence, but rarely got forward. As much as we have criticised Alex Santos in recent reports for his poor defending, at least he provides some spark on the attacking wing. Koji was lethargic on offence, lethargic on defence, and even more lethargic when Zico brought in Santos at wing, and moved Koji to a holding midfield role.
Latvia got their first goal midway through the second half, just as Japan's midfield reached its most lethargic point of the match. Zico certainly deserves a good share of the blame for this breakdown, since the rules allowed six substitutions and Latvia had already made four. It is understandable, then, that the energy level was swinging heavily in Latvia's favour by this time. The goal came on a corner kick, with Latvia using their superior height and power to force the ball into the Japan net. Even so, the lead-up to that corner kick was largely attributable to the fact that Japan was being out-hustled in the middle of the pitch.
After the first Latvia goal, Zico finally did go to his bench. But his changes were a bit hard to understand. The first man off the bench was Yoshito Okubo, who might have helped inject some energy into the Japan attack. but rather than bring him in for the largely ineffective Takahara, Zico substituted Yanagisawa, whose off-the-ball movement had been at the heart of most of Japan's effective attacks throughout the contest. This demonstrates once again Zico's inability to overcome his "classical" understanding of the game. Okubo is not very big, and in a "classical" sense, is even less suited to a centre forward position than Yanagisawa. But if the two of them had been used togather, their quick movement and passing skills combined with the dribbling and passing abilities of Nakamura, Matsui and (to a lesser extent) Hide Nakata might have opened up the Latvian defence. As it was, Okubo did have a few runs into the defence, but his play and that of Takahara was largely ineffective down the stretch.
With 15 minutes to go, Zico made the coaching equivalent of a suicide attempt. He pulled Matsui and Nakamura from the attacking midfield, pushed the rapidly-tiring Hide Nakata into attacking midfield, and brought in the duo of Alex Santos and Keisuke Tsuboi. Not only have these two been playing below par for the past few months, in the J.League, but both were clearly jet-lagged having arrived from Japan just 18 hours earlier!
Nevertheless, Japan managed to hang on and despite some dangerous opportunities by Latvia, Japan still held their lead as the clock wound down to the end of regulation play. But with just three minutes of injury time to kill, Koji Nakata snatched defeat fromm the mouth of victory, with an aneamic back pass towards that was snatched by Latvian midfielder Loovins just five meters outside the Japan box, and with only Tsuboi to beat. Loovins made a nice cutback move to turn Tsuboi around, and then chipped the ball over the outrushing Yoichi Doi to claim the late equaliser and send the home crowd into the first outburst of enthusiasm they had shown all day.
There really is not much more that we can asy about this contest. Japan did show some good form in the first half, and as we noted at the top, there are plenty of good "excuses" available for those who want to find one. Be that as it may, this was a match that Japan definitely SHOULD have won, and it was the usual suspects (Zico most of all, with his awful choice and timing of substitutions) who cost Japan the win. Since this was "only a friendly", we certainly hope that Zico uses it effectively, as an example of what NOT to do, and an indication of which players are not doing a good job in the starting lineup. The defensive problems that Japan faced should be only a temporary concern, while the lack of match fitness for some of the players (Inamoto in particular) is something that can be addressed in a number of possible ways. But the issue that Japan needs to resolve right here and now is how to overcome the blind idol-worship that has infected both the media and the JFA establishment, and begin appraising players on the basis of their actual PERFORMANCE, rather than their supposed reputations.
When Mitsuo Ogasawara and Shinji Ono are both available once again, Zico will have no further excuses for using Hide Nakata. That should have been apparent at least a year ago, but even if the realisation has come late, it is now becoming apparent to even the domestic tabloids that Hide has outlived his usefulness to the Japan national team. You can argue all day about Nakata's abilities, skills, charisma, understanding of the game, and so on, but at the end of the day, there is one fact that you will never be able to refute: Japan is far more effective AS A TEAM when Nakata is NOT in the lineup.
National Team
Overseas Players
Japan 2 - 2 Latvia 