National Team Match:

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Japan 0 - 1 Saudi Arabia

Date: September 9, 2005 Location: Saudi Arabia Japan 0 0 1H 0 0 2H 1 1 Saudi Arabia Scoring Saleh Bashir (73') Cautions Al-Dosari Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Yuichi Komano, Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Keisuke Tsuboi, Akira Kaji, Keita Suzuki (Naotake Hanyu 82), Yuki Abe, Alessandro Santos, Yasuhito Endo, Seiichiro Maki (Kazuki Ganaha 74), Tatsuya Tanaka (Hisato Sato 67) TBA

It would be pretty easy to find excuses for this result, if that is your intention. Those who followed our coverage prior to the World Cup will recall that the AFC broke its own tournament rules in order to let Saudi play this match after the World Cup (Japan wanted to play it on the originally scheduled date, which would have allowed them to field a full-strength side that was in the final stages of polishing up for the World Cup, rather than a half-strength side that has been together for less than six weeks. But there is no reason to try to downplay this loss. Japan looked unimpressive, and though they probably played well enough to deserve a draw (Saudi Arabia scored on their only scoring chance of the second half, while the keeper bailed out his team on half a dozen occasions with fine saves), even a draw would have been disappointing based on the content of play.

Obviously, the biggest problem that the team had is that the players still do not have enough coordination and understanding of the strategic concept that Osim is trying to introduce. This is sure to improve over time, so there is no need to get overly upset about the many examples of "miscommunication" that cost Japan goals. What does deserve criticism, however, is the many examples of blatant individual errors in concentration and execution. What is most distressing is the fact that the biggest blunders came from those players who are holdovers from Zico Japan. Yasuhito Endo was invisible for most of the contest, until he gave away the ball deep in his own territory to create the Saudi goal (and not due to opposition pressure, but due to his own failure to maintain focus on the situation). Alex Santos repeatedly snuffed out Japan attacks by hogging the ball, misplacing his passes or trying to dribble past a defender (and failing, every time). Yuichi Komano was lethargic, and made only a minimal contribution (one might defend his effectiveness on the overlap by noting that he was forced to play out of position, but that doesnt excuse a lack of energy). The only players from the Zico Era that get passing marks were in the back line: Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Keisuke Tsuboi and Akira Kaji.

The one bright spot for Japan was the defence, which looked solid until Endo's mistake at midfield put them under the gun of a 4-on-3 break. Apart from one looping pass over the top in the first half (which actually looked to be offside), the Saudi goal came on only the second real scoring chance that Japan conceded in the match. The attack was a bit disorganised, as we have already noted, but when Seiichiro Maki and Tatsuya Tanaka did receive service, they produced some dangerous chances. Both players had shots in the first half that were only kept out of the net by some fantastic work by the Saudi keeper.

Unfortunately, the midfield did not do a very good job of creating the chances for Tanaka and Maki. Whereas the midfield was Japan's greatest strength, under Zico, in this match it failed to do much of anything that could be described as "effective". The right wingback, Kaji, was the most effective player on the pitch in terms of creating chances on the buildup, and even his contributions were only passable. There were many cases where we thought that he could have found space in the corner if he had been a bit more aggressive. As we noted, Santos (in the role of playmaker/penetrator) was almost useless. It is true that he was involved in most of Japan's scoring chances, but in terms of efficiency, he wasted five chances for every one in which he managed to get the ball through to the strikers. On two separate occasions he took the ball away from a teammate with a better angle on goal, and ended up flubbing his shot.

Endo, meanwhile, was nearly invisible. It was hard to say what his role in the team was supposed to be. Yuki Abe and Keita Suzuki were playing the defensive roles in midfield, so you would think that Endo should have been involved in the buildup. But in fact, he rarely touched the ball in the final third of the pitch. We often heard the voice of assistant coach Hiroshi Okuma screaming out the name "Endo! Endo!", and though we could not hear the instructions clearly enough to understand what he was being told, it was pretty clear that he wasnt doing what Osim expected of him. If Santos and Endo had been replaced by -- for example -- Shunsuke Nakamura and Mitsuo Ogasawara (or for that matter, any of a dozen J.league attacking midfielders), the result of this contest might have been very different.

Of the younger players who make up Osim Japan, Tulio Tanaka and Keita Suzuki probably had the best showings. Tatsuya Tanaka was busy up front, but really didnt get involved enough in the play. This was largely due to the failure of the midfielders to get him the ball. However, a more experienced player would have responded to the situation by dropping deeper into the formation and helping out with the buildup. Seiichiro Maki also was not involved enough in the game, though again, this was more a failure of the midfield rather than a failure on Maki's part. The one newcomer who disappointed us was Yuki Abe. As in the case ofEndo, we had a hard time figuring out exactly what role he was supposed to be playing. Most of the time he was playing deep in the formation, as the outlet for balls that Suzuki pried free from opposition players (the "sword" to Keita's "shield", to offer a figurative description). However, Abe was neither a busy ball-winner in defence, nor an effective link to the attack. It almost seemed that he and Endo were "stuck in between", not managing to get forward enough to be effective, but not hanging deep enough to really provide "bite" to the defensive press.

Once again, we should keep in mind that Osim has had less than six weeks to instill his brand of football on the players, and perhaps Endo and Abe will look more effective as they become comfortable with the team concept. But at least in this match, neither one looked like they deserved to be on the pitch. Yet when it came time to bring on substitutes, Osim showed the sort of inflexible dedication to "his formation" that we used to see in Phillippe Troussier. Rather than pull Endo or Abe for a more attacking option, he replaced his two strikers with two other strikers. That was never going to have much impact, when the midfield was failing to provide service to begin with. Only in the late stages of the contest did Osim bring on Naotake Hanyu for the deep midfielder, Suzuki. While this turned the final ten minutes into a one-way dash towards the Saudi goal, by then it was too late. We can only speculate on what might have happened if Hanyu had come on sooner, or if Osim had replaced Abe, Endo or Santos with a more dynamic and effective midfield general.

It is still early days, in the Osim Era, and the coach deserves some time to try out different options. Nevertheless, if we continue to see maudlin performances like this one, particularly from the midfield, you can be sure that fans will start screaming to see some of the more experienced players, especially those playing in Europe (Nakamura, Ono, Ogasawara, Inamoto . . . and lets not forget Daisuke Matsui) back in the mix at midfield. We were happy to see coach Osim sweep the bench clean after Zico's departure, to provide both a mental and emotional break from the past. But his honeymoon will not last long unless he can get better performances out of his team than he did on Sunday night. It might be wise for him to remain behind after the team returns to Japan on Thursday (following the match against Yemen), and pay some visits to the European clubs. We get the sense that he is going to have to start calling on some of Japan's more established midfielders, in the near future.