National Team Match:

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Japan 0 - 0 Colombia

Date: June 5, 2007 Location: Saitama Stadium Japan 0 0 1H 0 0 2H 0 0 Colombia Scoring Keita Suzuki Cautions Vargas Perea Yepes Seigo Narazaki, Yuichi Komano, Yuji Nakazawa, Yuki Abe, Koji Nakata (Yasuyuki Konno 45), Keita Suzuki, Kengo Nakamura, Shunsuke Nakamura (Jungo Fujimoto 88), Yasuhito Endo (Seiichiro Maki 80), Junichi Inamoto (Naotake Hanyu 45), Naohiro Takahara (Ryuji Bando 89) TBA

Forty-five minutes of near perfection. That was the bottom line on Tuesday's match against Colombia. Although they failed to score the deciding goal which would have made this contest an unqualified success, Osim Japan did just about everything else right, in the second half of this contest. And though it might be disappointing from a purely esthetic standpoint, their slack, disorganised and uninspired performance over the first 45 minutes of this contest will certainly not give Ivica Osim any anguish or regret. On the contrary, as the Japan boss turned towards the locker room at half ttime you could see the flicker of satisfaction on his face as he prepared to give his underperforming Europe-based players the boot.

The Rising Sun News took a similarly smug view of Japan's insipid play in the first half. From the very start we were less than thrilled with the idea of trying to squeeze players like Koji Nakata and Junichi Inamoto into the national team just a month before the Asian Cup kicks off. The last thing we need is even more instability in the roster, and a lot of interpersonal stress, on the very eve of the Cup. And such stresses arent even justified on the basis of quality. Anyone who really follows the domestic game is well aware that players like Nakata K and Inamoto have been left behind, and they would have a tough time even cracking a J1 starting lineup at this stage of their careers. Fortunately, the woeful performances that these two put in on Tuesday will make it impossible for even the most clueless of Europhilic fanboys to complain when Osim drops them from the squad. Things could not have worked out better for Osim Japan if the wily Bosmian had planned it this way.

The first 45 minutes of this match were apalling, and if not for the dramatic reversal at half time we would have been extremely pessimistic about Japan's prospects at the Asian Cup. But a careful review of the match tape confirms that almost all of Colombia's most dangerous chances in the first half were the result of errors by one of the Europe-based players who started the match (indeed, two of the worst errors in the first half were by Shunsuke Nakamura, though he redeemed himself somewhat in the second half). We must admit that Koji Nakata was not uniformly awful. He made a few good plays on the defensive end (as well as a few howlers), but the general impression was that he had no clue as to what he was supposed to be doing, and therefore was completely unable to play in harmony with his teammates.

Junichi Inamoto, on the other hand, was a total disaster. One hopes that he can revive his career in Germany, following a recent deal with Eintracht Frankfurt. However, the simple fact is that he didnt put one foot right over the entire 45 minutes he was on the pitch. regular readers of our National Team reports are no doubt aware that we consider Naotake Hanyu to be a moderately talented player, but one who has no business playing at the international level. Well, in this contest Hanyu came on for Inamoto at half time, and following Ina's headless chicken act in the the first half, the bar had been set so low that Hanyu looked like a world-class genius, in comparison.

As we have already alluded to, above, Shunsuke Nakamura's performance wasnt anything to get excited about, either. He did have some decent touches in the first half, though he also came very close to handing Colombia a free goal, fifteen minutes in. When Japan developed a rhythm in the second half he started to play a bit more effectively, and if you consider that he was playing on a sore ankle, he probably deserves passing marks. However, the only Europe-based player who really excelled in this contest was Takahara, who seems to have rediscovered the brilliant promise of his youth, since joining Frankfurt.

But the real credit for Japan's excellent performance in the second half of this contest goes to the J.League players who have formed the core of Osim's squad since he took over, in the summer of last year. This core unit has slowly begun to blossom, and though the Asian Cup may be coming six months too early, we are seeing indications that once this team does reach its peak, it will be a formidable opponent indeed.

If you want to know HOW good Osim Japan can be, when they reach their full potential, just ask the Colombian players. This team is one of South America's top clubs -- not as deep or as star-studded as Brazil or Argentina, perhaps, but a very high-quality unit that obviously wanted to win this contest, and not just use it as a "training exercise". Yet once Hanyu replaced Inamoto, and Yasuyuki Konno came on for Koji Nakata, after the break, Japan quite simply walked all over their opponent. By the hour mark, the Colombians were holding on for dear life, and using brutal physical tactics in the desperate effort to keep Japan's aggressive, flowing, constantly changing offence at bay. Japan came into the match knowing that a draw would give them the Kirin Cup, whereas Colombia needed to score in order to claim the cup title. And yet, as the clock moved into injury time it was Colombia who were stalling, and even receiving yellow cards for time-wasting. There is no better indication of how totally Japan dominated play in the latter 45 minutes of this contest.

Coach Osim clearly recognised what his team had accomplished, and though he maintained a downbeat assessment in the post-match interviews, citing the poor performance in the first half, you could see that he was happy with what he saw (perhaps for the first time in his reign as head coach, he cracked a smile as the final whistle sounded).

Naturally, 45 minutes of quality play is not enough to call this match a "complete success". We do have the sense that if Osim had fielded his regular core players from the outset, Japan could have produced the goal they needed to win the match outright. But the fact is, they did not. We need to maintain a bit of skepticism until this team proves that they are able to play at their top level for a full 90 minutes. Nevertheless, if you describe Japan's match against Peru as a first step towards success, and the Montenegro match as a further improvement, then the second half of the match against Colombia shows that Osim Japan is well on the road towards its ultimate goal -- success in the 2010 World Cup

Since we have already pronounced judgement on the performances of Inamoto, Nakata and Shunsuke, lets make a few comments about the other players as well.

In this match, Yuki Abe joined Yuji Nakazawa in the central defence. Although we initially were disappointed that Keisuke Tsuboi did not get the call, as it turned out we were quite pleased with the outcome. Abe and Tsuboi are two very different players, and depending on which one pairs Nakazawa, the nature of the defence is going to change. Tsuboi's blazing speed allows the back line to push up, while still defending well against the long ball over the top. However, as he demonstrated in this contest, Abe is a much tougher customer, who can rough up opposing strikers much more effectively than Tsuboi. Against an opponent that creates steady pressure around the box, like Colombia did in the first half of this match, Abe makes a very good partner to the tall and mobile Nakazawa.

Yuichi Komano played the entire 90 minutes of this match on the right wing. This probably brought us more satisfaction than any other aspect of the match. Although Komano's forward runs were slightly less impressive than in the Montenegro match, this reflected both the quality of the opponent, and the fact that he had to cover for the defensively mediocre Shunsuke Nakamura. His defensive play was beyond reproach, and he also did get forward to create some dangerous chances. However, his delivery was slightly off, in this contest, perhaps due to nerves, or perhaps due to a lingering lack of harmony with Nakamura and Takahara. We had maintained faint hopes that Koji Nakata would be able to fill the left wing back position effectively, so that Osim would not be tempted to play Komano there. Unfortunately, this was a complete fiasco. But when Yasuyuki Konno came in at left wingback in the second half, he not only did his job on the defensive end; he also got forward in support of the attack better than any other left back, to date. Up to now, Osim has treated Konno as either a defensive midfielder or as a defender in a three-back set. Perhaps his success on the left wing in this match will finally allow Japan to fill this slot effectively.

Osim adopted a new formation in this match -- a 4-5-1 with Takahara as the lone striker. The addition of another midfielder seemed to be intended as a way to move Yasuhito Endo into a more forward position, with Keita Suzuki assuming the primary role of adjusting to keep the formation in balance. Though Suzuki fulfilled his responsibilities quite well, we were not entirely happy with Endo's contributions. Though he was a key part of some of Japan's more dangerous buildup moves, he still seems to be a step slower (not so much physically, but mentally) than his teammates, and when the attack broke down it was often because Endo held the ball a bit too long, or hesitated an instant before making his move into space. In the latter stages of the contest, Osim pulled Endo and replaced him with Seiichiro Maki, shifting back to the more "traditional" Osim formation -- nominally a 4-4-2. When Japan made this shift, Kengo Nakamura took over the balancing role (alongside Suzuki) in deep midfield. Naturally there is a big difference between playing this role for 10 minutes at the end of a match, and filling it for a full 90 minutes. Nevertheless, we have to say that the Nakamura-Nakamura-Suzuki-Hanyu midfield looked more dynamic and well-balanced than anything we have seen to date. It is unfortunate that Japan has no more friendly matches on tap, since we would love to see how the team would perform with a Suzuki-Yamagishi-double Nakamura quartet at the center of the attack.

Nakamura Kengo also had his good moments and his bad moments in this match, though we thought the overall performance was marginally better than that of either Endo or Shunsuke. The biggest disappointment came with 20 minutes left, when a brilliantly flowing attack by Japan swept past the Colombian defences, surged from left to right across the box, and then finished with a rolling pass to a wide-open Kengo, dashing in at the right post. But he rushed his shot and sent it just over the crossbar, when a grass-cutting shot would have almost certainly beaten the keeper. Nevertheless, his tireless running both on attack and defence were very impressive, and his poise and decision-making skills seem to be improving with each successive match.

The best performance of all came from Takahara, who did just about everything you could ask of him, except score. His post play was particularly impressive, constantly managing to not only settle the ball effectively, but also feeding it quickly and precisely to cutting teammates. If Japan adopts a lone-striker formation against Asian opponents -- who will surely be less savvy on defence than the Colombians -- we would not be surprised to see the attacking midfielders get a LOT of open shots on net.

We have to wrap up this match report -- and our preparations for the Asian Cup -- somewhere. But it is hard to decide exactly what to say, given the "unfinished" nature of Osim's squad. In one sense, Japan will have an advantage entering the Asian Cup in this condition, since none of the opponents will know what sort of lineup they are likely to face (Indeed, we doubt that even the Japanese sports press will be able to guess the starting lineup for Japan's first Asian Cup match). At the very least, Japan has shown the underlying POTENTIAL to raise a third straight Asian title. A lot will depend on team coordination (still a work in progress), and the speed at which some of the newer players can develop "poise" and "maturity".

But win or lose, we definitely must give Osim credit for making good progress. As early as last August, when he finally agreed to take the job, we knew that Osim would face serious time pressure in trying to get the team ready for the Asian Cup. It isnt easy to build a championship team from scratch, in less than 12 months. We are not yet entirely satisfied with the result. To their credit, neither is Osim, and neither are the players. Everyone recognizes that there is still a great deal of room for improvement.

And yet . . . . this team still may be good enough to win the Asian title. Better still . . . even if Japan does win it all, there are not very many people in the Japanese football community who will view that as "the pinnacle of success", as they did in 2000 and 2004. We view this as a very good sign. Osim, his players, and the entire football community are setting their sights on far greater achievements than an Asian Cup title. Yes, it would be great to win for the third time in succession, even though the team is still somewhat incomplete. But win or lose, we think that Osim Japan is on track for much greater long-term success than either Troussier Japan or Zico Japan.

And that is what REALLY matters.