All our Saturdays: J-Soccer'04

Soccerphile.com’s Sanborn Brown on the latest action in J-soccer

2004 is an important year for soccer in Japan. For both the under-23 (Olympic) team and the national side, key matches will soon be upon us. On March 1st, the Olympic team begins the final round of Asian Qualifiers for this summer’s Games in Athens. For the national side, the road to the 2006 World Cup begins this month.

This August, the Olympic Games return to Athens after a 108-year hiatus. The Japanese men’s under-23 soccer team was drawn into Group B along with Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Lebanon in the final round of Asian qualifiers.

On March 1st, against Bahrain, Japan kicks off its campaign for a spot in Greece. Two days later, Japan faces Lebanon; then, on March 5th, the team will play the UAE. These matches comprise the away, or UAE, round of matches. In the Japan Round, Japan plays at home against Bahrain on March 14th, Lebanon on the 16th, and the UAE on the 18th. The winner of the group qualifies for Athens.

Unlike Philippe Troussier, the previous national team coach, Coach Zico has left under-23 coaching duties to former Jubilo Iwata head coach Masakuni Yamamoto so that the former can concentrate on the A team.

Japanese Olympians to watch include Daisuke Nasu, Yokohama Marinos defender and recipient of the 2003 J.League Newcomer Award; Urawa defenders Keita Suzuki and Brazil-born Marcus Tulio Tanaka (aka, Tulio), who was naturalized in October; forwards Takuya Tanaka (Urawa Reds) and Cerezo Osaka’s own Yoshito Okubo, who also plays for the national side.
Compared to the class of 2000, which represented Japan at the Sydney Olympics, this group of players is not nearly as flashy or individually talented.

In Australia, Shinji Ono, Shunsuke Nakamura, Atsushi Yanagisawa, Naohiro Takahara, and Junichi Inamoto were among the best of a very strong team that ultimately lost to the United States in the Quarterfinals. The Asahi Shinbun recently noted that, “The current team cannot be compared to the Sydney squad.” However, the national daily continued that, in spite of the absence due to injury of JEF United’s creative midfielder Yuki Abe, “if Japan plays to its potential, it should make it to Athens—and its third consecutive Olympic appearance.”

The great unknown in this equation is Okubo, on whose stocky shoulders the hopes of Japanese football rest. If he can control his temper, his tongue, and his tendency to dive—Japan should sail through this round. To optimists, the larger question might be, in Athens, will Japan match its 3rd place finish in the 1968 Mexico Olympiad? Or even its two quarterfinal losses (1964, 2000)?

This month, Hidetoshi Nakata et al begin their long journey to book a spot for the 2006 World Cup, which will be held in Germany. Japan has been drawn into Group 3 with Singapore, India, and Oman for the first round of the Asian World Cup qualifiers. The first match will be at home on February 18th versus Oman.

Thirty-six Asian countries have been placed into eight groups. Group winners go on to a final round of matches. These eight countries are divided into two groups of four, from which the top two teams of each group automatically qualify to play in Germany. The number three teams from both groups must play a final match, the winner of which earns the right to play against the fourth place finisher from CONCACAF (North American, Central American + Caribbean Zone). The winner of this match earns a spot in the World Cup.

For Japan, World Cup qualifiers last until a November 17th fixture against Singapore. Then, in December, the official drawing for the German World Cup will be held. After the Korea/Japan 2002 World Cup, in which Japan progressed to the second round before losing to semi-finalist Turkey, it is more or less assumed that Japan will travel to Germany in the summer of 2006.

Those with a slightly longer memory, though, will recall the “Doha Tragedy.” In 1993, in the final qualifier for the 1994 World Cup, playing in Doha, Qatar, against an Iraq that had already been eliminated, Japan needed to win to qualify for the US tournament. Leading by a goal with literally seconds to go in injury time, Iraq scored to tie—and thus send Korea and not Japan to the American tournament.

That said, though, Japan has been drawn into a relatively light group, and should easily go on to the next and final hurdle prior to Germany.

Players to watch in the qualifiers include the group referred to in the Japanese media as the “European Quartet”: Bologna’s Hidetoshi Nakata, Reggina’s Shunsuke Nakamura, Fulham’s Junichi Inamoto, and Feyenoord’s Shinji Ono. To that I would add Hamburger’s Naohiro Takahara, and, from the J.League, two defenders: Urawa’s Keisuke Tsuboi and the Marinos Yuji Nakazawa.

Text: Sanborn Brown www.soccerphile.com