National Team Match:

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Japan 0 - 0 Chile

Date: January 26 2008 Location: Vietnam Japan 0 0 1H 0 0 2H 0 0 Chile Scoring Kisho Yano Cautions Medera Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Atsuto Uchida (Akira Kaji 71), Yuji Nakazawa, Yuki Abe, Yuichi Komano, Keita Suzuki, Yasuhito Endo, Kengo Nakamura (Koji Yamase 80), Satoru Yamagishi (Naotake Hanyu 57), Naohiro Takahara (Yoshito Okubo 62), Seiichiro Maki (Kisho Yano 80) TBA

I suppose the best thing that could be said about Japan's match against Chile, on Saturday evening, is that it ensures that the team will be able to improve on their performance as time goes on. It would be pretty hard for the team to do any worse. When a new coach takes over a team, usually one allows them a few matches to feel out the situation, get to know the players and decide who fits into their plans and who doesnt. Unfortunately for Takeshi Okada, Japan doesnt have that sort of time. Their first qualification match for the 2010 World Cup is next week, which means that the coach will not have the luxury of two or three matches to get his bearings. If we rated the match against Chile in terms of the usual standard for a coach's first job in charge of the National Team, this probably wasnt too bad. But if we judge it in terms of a warm-up, one week prior to a critical World Cup qualification contest, it probably rates a D-. The only way it could have been any more annoying would have been if Japan had lost.

The thing is, coach Okada really has no excuse for the mistakes he made in this match. Sure, it is his first outing as national team coach, but did he REALLY need to see for himself how useless Satoru Yamagishi and Naotake Hanyu are? He could have asked people at random, walking down a street in Tokyo, and gotten a good enough picture to avoid calling them to the squad. What amazes us is that there might still be a few people in Japan who DONT know how pathetically poor these two players are at the international level. Sure, both have a certain amount of technical skill, which makes them look OK when playing against a Japanese university team, with J.League referees. But put them up against a relentlessly physical opponent such as Chile, with a blithely unsympathetic Korean officiating team, and they look like some nerdy 98-pound salaryman trying to push his way through a crowd of beefy, ravenous obaa-chans at a department store on the day of the "lucky bag sale".

However, while coach Okada's player selections left a bit to be desired, what really concerned us was the apalling performances of players who the mainstream press seems to view as "core members" of the national team. Naohiro Takahara was so isolated and lacking in sharpness that he made Seiichiro Maki look brilliant by comparison. Actually, Maki was a bit of a bright spot, working very hard and throwing his weight around well, in the front line. Of all the so-called "Osim Children", he was the one who almost seemed to justify his selection. Though he missed badly on a wide-open header early in the second half, that was the only real error he made in the contest.

Be that as it may, the second Yoshito Okubo set foot on the pitch (for Takahara), in the 62 minute, he made it seem like the other two had simply been a warm-up act, and the main event was only just getting started. His first touch of the ball nearly created a goal as he poached a looping lead pass right out of the keeper's grasp, and then swiveled about to shoot narrowly over the bar. Okubo's shot total over 28 minutes exceeded the combined total for Maki and Takahara.

Yasuhito Endo was also a huge disappointment. We were astonished that he went the entire 90 minutes, since it was obvious from the opening tap that he was not having a good day. Apart from some modestly useful work on the defensive end, he really was a waste of space, constantly holding the ball up when everyone else on the team was trying to race upfield, and getting caught in possesion time after time. Kengo Nakamura was not that much better, and Koji Yamase wasnt really on the pitch long enough to make an impression. If you throw in the inexpressably useless Yamagishi and Hanyu, Japan's attacking midfield surely had one of its worst performances in 15 years.

On a positive note, young Atsuto Uchida turned in a fine performance in his first national team cap, making excellent plays on both offence and defence. His fine work on the right wing was given an exclamation point when he was replaced by veteran Akira Kaji, midway through the second half. Kaji didnt perform that badly, relative to some of the other players, but it was immediately obvious that Japan stopped making much penetration along the right flank once Uchida left the pitch. The only negative thing we could say about Uchida was that his presence once again consigned Yuichi Komano to the left sideline. He put in a solid performance, but still does not look nearly as smooth or confident as he does when he plays on the right. Komano -- the left wing back -- had more shots on goal (and FAR more dangerous ones) than any other player except Okubo. That statistic alone should give you a pretty clear idea of how awful the attacking midfield and strikers were in this contest.

Uchida and Komano were not the only starters who turned in positive performances. In fact, the entire back line, including keeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, played very well The starting unit of five players -- Yuji Nakazawa and Yuki Abe in the middle, Uchida and Komano on the wings and Kawaguchi between the sticks -- looked very imposing indeed, allowing Chile only one or two real dangerous shots over the course of the match. Keita Suzuki did a workmanlike though certainly not spectacular job as the lone volante. If the defensive half of the team had been supported by a more effective midfield and front line, this might have been a decent first step for Okada Japan. Comparing the performances of some of the substitutes with that of the starters, however, it is hard to avoid the impression that Okada needs to wipe that portion of his roster clean and start looking for other players to take over the offensive roles. It isnt as if there is a shortage of such players in the J.League.

If Takeshi Okada fails to free himself from the negative aspects of the Osim Era (and you all know exactly what we are talking about when we say that), then he will have only himself to blame when disappointment strikes. And make no mistake, there will be disappointment somewhere down the road, so long as coaches continue asking "children" to do a professional job.

On the other hand, Okada has been handed a perfect excuse to make changes that the National Team has badly needed for nearly a year. If he points to the performance against Chile, it will be hard for anyone to argue when he drops the underperforming players from his roster once and for all. The glimmers of effectiveness from the likes of Uchida, Komano, Okubo and . . . yes, even Maki, suggest that there is plenty of potential here. With a solid defensive base to build on, all Okada needs to do is complement it with some slightly more physical and technically skilled offensive players. He can start by selecting some of the players who actually performed well in the J.League last season, rather than those from teams that nearly got relegated (Hint: Who won the J.League title in 2008?!?!?!) If he takes this opportunity to correct the weaknesses of the Osim Era, while maintaining and building on Osim's strong points, Japan has plenty of potential to improve.

But as we said at the top . . . it would be hard for them to get any worse.