May 21, 2002
The Final Countdown Begins:
Ten
Pre-World Cup warmup matches are generally a time for teams to fine tune their performances and get a look at their team coordination. However, several visiting national teams have received an unpleasant surprise when the J.League teams that they were hoping to dominate and dazzle with their superior skill turned out to be truly competitive opponents. Already, several national teams have gone down to defeat against J.League opponents, while others have survived close calls. And the schedule of warmups is just beginning.Naturally, these practice matches are not representative of a national team's "true" ability in a match that actually has meaning. Nevertheless, the performance of J.League sides is prompting many in Europe and South America to sit up and take notice. For those of us who have been forced to listen, as the J.League has been blithely dismissed by Eurocentric commentators, the recent upsets comes as satisfying revenge. Hopefully the J.League clubs can keep up this string of fine performances over the next week, and gain a measure of respect from overseas players and reporters alike.
Here is a list of pre-World Cup friendlies between Japanese club teams and World Cup participants:
| Date | Natl Team | J.League Team | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5/18 | Costa Rica | 2-1 | Honda Giken |
| 5/19 | Tunisia | 1-2 | Oita Trinita |
| 5/19 | Senegal | 0-0 | Kashiwa Reysol |
| 5/21 | Paraguay | 3-1 | Jubilo Iwata |
| 5/21 | Costa Rica | 0-2 | Nagoya Grampus |
| 5/22 | Nigeria | 2-2 | Yokohama Marinos |
| 5/23 | Tunisia | 0-3 | Gamba Osaka |
| 5/23 | Argentina | 5-1 | Kashima Antlers |
| 5/24 | Costa Rica | 1-0 | Mito Hollyhock |
| 5/24 | Belgium | 3-0 | Kyushu All Stars |
| 5/24 | Cameroon | 1-0 | Sagan Tosu |
| 5/25 | Uruguay | 1-1 | Yokohama Marinos |
| 5/25 | Ireland | 2-1 | Sanfrecce Hiroshima |
| 5/26 | Paraguay | 2-0 | Urawa Reds |
| 5/26 | Nigeria | 2-0 | Shonan Bellmare |
| 5/26 | Ecuador | 1-1 | Kyoto Purple Sanga |
| 5/26 | Croatia | 4-0 | Toyama All Stars |
| 5/26 | Mexico | 2-0 | Tokyo Verdy |
| 5/26 | Italy | 2-1 | Kashima Antlers |
| 5/28 | Argentina | vs | FC Tokyo |
Nine
Cameroon's Late Arrival
Cameroon finally left for Japan today, after a delay of about 48 hours. Although initial reports offered a variety of excuses for the delay, it has now emerged that the players were "on strike" after their national FA went back on initial pledges to pay the players large bonuses for appearing in the world cup. Initially, it was reported that each player would receive a bonus of around 460,000 euros. Although specific details on what happened are not clear, it appears that the Cameroon football association was unwilling to pay the bonuses, and the players refused to board their plane until they received an assurance that the initially indicated amount would be paid. However, the dispute was eventually settled, at least to the point that the players agreed to board a flight for Japan on Tuesday evening.
Troussier Snubs Press
Meanwhile, at Japan's training camp in Shizuoka, Phillippe Troussier brushed off the press, refusing to answer any questions at all during his first "press conference" since returning to Japan from a recent tour of Europe. In this particular case, it is hard to feel any sympathy for the press, who have been writing scathing articles critical of Troussier's selections which, when viewed with a critical eye by anyone who understands the game, appear to be baseless and misguided.
The biggest issue for most of the sports tabloid crowd appears to be the question of why Shunsuke Nakamura was left off the team. The answer, however, is self-apparent, and certainly doens not require a direct reiteration from Troussier. Simply put, Nakamura was not good enough to make the team. There were 23 players who deserved a spot more than he did. Though he may indeed be a talented free kick specialist, his defensive skills are too shaky to make him a dependable choice, either as a starter, or as a late-match substitute. The fact that he is wildly popular with young girls, and this allows the tabloids to sell lots of papers, clearly did not enter into Troussier's considerations when selecting the team (and rightly so).
However, it would do nobody any good -- not the Japan national team, not Troussier, not the fans, and certainly not Nakamura himself -- for the coach to get up on national television and tell the press "Nakamura isnt on the team because he isnt good enough!" Yet even in the face of these facts, the press has been baying like hungry hounds, "demanding" that Troussier answer their questions about his squad selection. Mad Phillippe gave them exactly the sort of answer they deserved: at his official press conference on Tuesday, he stepped up to the microphone, delivered a six-minute speech, then turned on his heel and walked out of the building.
Eight
Nigeria Draw With Marinos
J.League clubs continued their run of encouraging performances against World Cup opposition, as Yokohama Marinos drew 2-2 with Nigeria. Yokohama got off to a solid start, and took the lead on a pretty blast by Daisuke Sakata from the edge of the box. Nigeria didnt take long to equalize, on a drive by young Bartholomew Ogbeche, but just before half time, Daisuke Oku unleashed a powerfull free kick that screamed past the keeper, who was too far off his caught flat-footed. That goal took the wind out of Nigeria for the rest of the first half.
Nigeria stuck with their starting line-up in the second half, perhaps feeling that it was more important to avoid a loss to a J.League club than to try out second-string players. The Nigerians had the better play in the second half, as their speed and power began to wear down Yokohama, but despite getting the equalizer on another drive by Ogbeche, they couldnt penetrate the Marinos defence enough to get a win.
Uruguay Cancel Friendly
Meanwhile, Uruguay annoyed their hosts in Niigata by cancelling a friendly match scheduled to take place on Thursday, against Albirex Niigata. Uruguay officials said that the team would not have time to play the match, but the sudden timing of the announcement caught local officials short, since they have already sold nearly 10,000 tickets to the match.
Ticket Troubles Linger
Japanese organizing committee officials were forced to implement emergency procedures to handle the distribution of some 150,000 tickets that were not shipped from the Manchester (England)-based printing company until Wednesday -- over a month late. The tickets were supposed to be delivered to purchasers by mid-April, but about 150,000 were not dispatched for Japan until Wednesday morning, Japan time. JAWOC is putting into place special distribution arrangements that will allow people to collect their tickets at the venue itself. However, this glitch has caused many in the press to question why a printing company in England was chosen to print tickets that were to be distributed in Japan (not to mention, why their delivery was delayed by over a month). THis is sure to add fuel to the fire of accusations against FIFA, regarding influence-peddling, corruption and general incompetence.
Seven
Irish Temper Earns Keane a Ticket Home
Roy Keane, the putative captain of the Ireland national team, has been sent home from the World Cup following a very publick bust-up with coach Mick McCarthy. Keane has complained about many aspects of the Irish training camp in Saipan, including the rock-hard pitch, the heat, the inconvenience, the late-night drinking sessions by teammates, and what he saw as a general lack of focus. Whether he had a point or not, his public comments and severe criticism threatened to become a bigger story than the team's chances in the World Cup, and it appears that McCarthy took that as the hint to send him packing.
Gamba Osaka 3-0 Tunisia
This result was even more surprising than some of the other upsets in recent days, as Tunisia fielded what looked to be a nearly complete lineup, yet never even looked close to scoring. J.League sides have continued their impressive results against World CUp opponents, and are now 3-2-3 against the world (if we exclude a 3-0 drubbing of Saudi Arabia by Tokyo Verdy, played behind closed doors on Monday). Surely Tunisia wont be this pathetic in the actual World Cup (surely?), but the rest of the Group H teams are probably feeling relaxed about the prospects of facing Tunisia after a 2-1 loss to Oita Trinita and a 3-0 loss to Gamba.
Batty Batters Kashima
Meanwhile, a heavily depleted Kashima Antlers team (six players on the NT) managed to give Argentina a good run for about 55 minutes,in a game of two 40-minute halves. Argentina played a second string, for the most part, and were up 1-0 at the break before the Antlers got an equalizer -- Nozawa, on a nice through pass from Motoyama -- in about the 45 minute. Then Batistuta came on and single-handedly took over the match, scoring four goals including two in the final 90 seconds of play.
Six
Marinos Stymie Uruguay
Yokohama Marinos had their second convincing performance against World Cup competition on Saturday, as they held Uruguay to a 1-1 draw. Daisuke Oku, left out of the National Team at the last minute, got a measure of satisfaction by scoring the Marinos equalizer in the 70 minute, after Alvaro Recoba gave Uruguay an early lead, finishing off a nice through pass from Dario Silva. The Marinos played a solid match, though they were on the defensive for much of the time against a Uruguayan team who were clearly taking the match seriously. However, Oku got free for a nice shot late in the second half to equalize, and the Marinos defence were solid the rest of the way, keeping Uruguay at bay and claiming the draw.
Ireland Comeback Topples Hiroshima
Ireland needed two second-half goals from Robbie Keane to overcome a feisty Sanfrecce Hiroshima squad at a match in Izumo, Tottori Prefecture. Sanfrecce got off to a first-half lead on a powerful header by Tatsuhiko Kubo in the 40 minute, but Keane equalized just before half time, and added the winning goal in the 78 minute after Niall Quinn won a jump ball in the penalty box, and headed it down to Keane for an open shot from 10 meters.
Five
Aggressive Antlers Challenge Italy
Kashima Antlers put on a very impressive show in the second half of their friendly against Italy, and even in the early stages of the match, they looked quite competitive. Playing without six starting members, who are away on National Team duty, Kashima's makeshift lineup was very brittle on defence. However, aggressive ball pressure and some surprisingly good midfield work by youngsters such as Takuya Nozawa, Takeshi Aoki and Tatsuya Ishikawa, made the midfield game a tossup even when the Italian first string was in the match.
The absence of key defensive players like Yutaka Akita, Koji Nakata and Mitsuo Ogawawara was evident as Italy gathered a two goal lead in the first half. However, as Trappatoni went to his bench in the second half, the Antlers turned up the pressure, and suddenly Italy realized that it had a game on its hands. Kashima got one goal back early in the second half, and then nearly equalized before Trap rushed in Del Piero to add punch up frong, and shifted to a more defensive lineup. Nevertheless, the Antlers showed excellent poise, and played the Assuri all even for the remainder of the match, even creating a few close calls for an equalizer. When Italy really turned up the pressure, they seemed to be a superior team, but every time they began to relax, the Antlers were right back on the attack, making sure that the visitors would not be able to coast to an easy win. Masashi Motoyama, Aoki and Akira Narahashi seemed to impress the Italians the most. Motoyama, in particular, was congratulated after the final whistle by a visibly awed Del Pieiro. One certainly hopes that this experience will win a few of the Antlers youngsters a look by an Italian club or two.
Purple Sanga Stymie Ecuador
Kyoto Purple Sanga also had a solid outing, holding Ecuador to a 1-1 draw. Ecuador had the upper hand for most of the first half, and went into the intermission with a 1-0 lead, but once again, the visitors seemed overly complacent in the second half, and Shinya Tomita put Purple Sanga back level in the 60 minute. The remaining half hour was quite interesting, as Ecuador crated the more dangerous chances, but Kyoto actually controlled the ball better at midfield, though their ability to break the Ecuador defence was lacking.
Elsewhere, Urawa Reds came out with a strong first 30 minutes against Paraguay, and narrowly missed taking an early lead when young Tatsuya Tanaka's blast from the left side found the post, and a cross just minutes later trickled in front of the open Paraguayan net, agonizingly out of reach of the onrushing Yuichiro Nagai. Paraguay apparently took the hint, and rushed in their first string lineup, which was able to retake control of the match and emerge with a 2-0 victory.Mexico defeated Tokyo Verdy, also by a 2-0 scoreline, and Nigeria overcame division two minnows Shonan Bellmare 2-0, while South Africa had the best score line of all, with a 3-0 victory over J.League cellar-dwellers Vissel Kobe.
Four
The Mysterious Case of the Rewritten Match Report
A certain England-based football news site (which shall remain nameless, in the usual soccer way) has become semi-famous in Japan for the generally derisory tone of the articles it prints about Japanese players in England, and the perfornamce of the Japan National Team. Several regular visitors to The Rising Sun News have asked me, in the past, if I know why this site seems to have an axe to grind against Japan. My own view is that, while the derisory tone may not be deliberately offensive, the match reports are written on the basis of wire service news flashes by someone didnt even see the match, but who has a low opinion of Japanese football in general. Headlines and comments seem calculated to leave a negative impression. For example, after Germany trounced a high-school team from Miyazaki prefecture this week, the site ran an article headlined "Germany Crush Japan U-21 Squad 10-0" (leaving the clear impression that this was Japan's national U-21 side, and not just a bunch of young kids getting a soccer lesson from the German masters).
It remains an open question whether or not these "mistakes" are actually calculated snubs or put-downs. However, a very mysterious occurrence happened on this web site recently.
Roughly an hour after the end of Japan's recent friendly match against Sweden, an article appeared on said web site under the title "Sweden Draw With Japan in World Cup Warmup". After reading the article the first time, I was baffled, to say the least. My own impression was that Japan controlled the match for long stretches, and only good Swedish defending and a lack of finishing ability by Japan prevented them from achieving a better result. However, to read the article, one would have thought that Sweden was the clearly dominant team.
Yet six hours later, inexplicably, an entirely different article had suddenly appeared on the same site, under the same title and with the same byline. Did the writers/editors view the video tape of the match, some time after they had written their article, and suddenly realize that their comments would appear ludicrous to anyone who had seen the actual match? It is impossible to say for sure, but as for whether the "revised" article presents a very different picture from the original, judge for yourself:
Original
Sweden had only themselves to blame as they watched their one goal advantage tumble into a 1-1 draw with Japan through an own goal on Saturday in their last warm-up match for the World Cup finals.
The equalizer came in the 63rd minute when second-half substitute Alessandro Santos, better known as "Alex," lofted a long ball from the left midfield towards the Swedish goal mouth. The pass missed its target, but defender Johan Mjallby, coming back to save it, flubbed the clearance, and the ball landed in the net.
The Swedes, who suffered their first loss in almost two years when they lost to Paraguay 1-0 a week ago, took the lead in the 20th minute. Henrik Larsson provided the last pass from the left to the Japanese goal mouth, and Heerenveen forward Marcus Allback drilled it past hapless keeper Seigo Narazaki.
The visitors had another chance in the 59th minute when Arsenal midfielder Fredrik Ljungberg dribbled through to the Japanese area and unleashed a sizzling shot from the edge, only to see Narazaki dive to punch out the shot.
The Japanese, though cheered on by a sell-out crowd at National Stadium, were never able to create a clear scoring chance.
Revised
Japan held Sweden to a 1-1 draw in Tokyo today in the two teams' final warm-up match before the tournament kicks-off.
Sweden took the lead against the run of play, midway through the first half, with Markus Allback narrowly beating the Japan defender to tip home strike partner Henrik Larsson's low cross from the left.
In a game of few clear-cut chances, Japan levelled the scores early in the second half. An early ball found substitute winger Alex free on the left for the home side and, although midfielder Hidetoshi Nakata was unable to reach the Brazil-born Shimizu S-Pulse player's hanging cross, the ball bounced off a Swedish leg into the net .
Japan team boss Philippe Troussier did not start either defender Yutaka Akita or Masashi Nakayama, who were surprise late call-ups to his squad, but introduced both veterans in the second half as he gave playing time to all of his available field players.
Centre-back Ryuzo Morioka, who has been out for most of the year with hamstring trouble, played for the first 70 minutes on his return to the Japan national team. Although the S-Pulse defender may have been partly to blame for the Sweden goal, Troussier will be happy that his backline generally looked more secure than during recent outings against Honduras and Norway.
Three
Ono Gets A Break
Shinji Ono appears to be OK, following a brief scare when the midfielder experienced severe abdominal pain following Japan's match with Sweden. Just a few weeks ago, striker Akinori Nishizawa had to have an appendix operation, and when Ono went to the hospital for a checkup, it was unclear what the problem might be.
However, doctors determined that Ono was simply the victim of abdominal cramps, most likely caused by overexertion, dehydration and stress. To give him some tiem to recuperate, Ono was given the day off on Tuesday, and he probably will do only some light work on Wednesday before the team starts its serious preparation for the Belgium match, on Thursday.
Ouch! THAT Wasnt Supposed to Happen
On the broad green expanse of J-Village's training facility, in Fukushima prefecture, Argentina players milled around aimlessly in what looked like near-catatonic shock on Wednesday afternoon, following the second of two 60-minute warm-up matches against Tokyo Verdy and Vegalta Sendai. The South American giants had just finished playing to a scoreless draw against Verdy, and then tumbling to a stunning 1-0 loss against Vegalta, in what even the most generous observer would have to call "a very unconvincing performance". Yes, for those of you who are wondering, the top players all spent time on the pitch. Batistuta played for long periods, particularly in the Vegalta match, and the Verdy match started with almost the full first string, including Veron, Batty and Ortega.
Argentina were offering no comments to the press after their flat performance, but the shell-shocked look in their faces said all that needed to be said.
Jet lag?????
Two
Japan's Defensive Midfield Adopts FIFA Colour Coordination
Belgium's strikers will get an eyeful when they take the field against Japan, next week. Japan's twin volantes Kazuyuki Toda and Junichi Inamoto, have colour-coordinated their hair to match the colouts of the new FIFA ball. Toda, who is widely renowned for changing his hairstyle almost as often as he changes his underwear, has dyed his thick mohawk hairdo in a chromium red shade that could be almost blinding if the light hits it at the right angle. Meanwhile, Inamoto seems to have agreed to go along with his defensive midfield partner's colour scheme, and dyed his hair a shiny silver.
If you also consider the abbreviated dreadlocks worn by Alex Santos, Takayuki Suzuki's flowing blonde mane, and the shaven stubble preferred by Shinji Ono and Yutaka Akita, even if Japan dont do particularly well on the pitch, they can definitely make a strong bid for first place in the World Cup's "best hairstyle" category.
Film clips courtesy of Internet Soccer Program J-Ole. Visit their web site at http://www.j-ole.com/ for results and highlights of all J.League matches.
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