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The Socceroos’ upcoming World Cup qualifying blockbuster with Japan in Yokohama needs no further build-up. It’s already shaping up as one of the biggest competitive fixtures Australia has ever played away from home.
Yet, as the clock ticks down towards the February 11 showdown, the tension is threatening to boil over.
Fuel to the simmering fire is the Japanese perception that the Socceroos are arrogant.
It’s a belief forged in the heat of that famous afternoon in Kaiserslautern in 2006.
Cajoled by a vociferous domestic media – who were happy to overlook a tough draw in favour of declaring the Blue Samurai a real chance at the World Cup – Japan instead found itself on the receiving end of a Tim Cahill-inspired comeback.
It helped spell the end of coach Zico’s spell in charge, as the Brazilian quickly found his position untenable.
The real turning point came a year later at the Asian Cup, however, with Lucas Neill’s declaration that Australia would win the tournament undefeated seriously irking defending champions Japan.
History will show that Japan knocked the Socceroos out on penalties in the quarter-finals, with defender Yuji Nakazawa making good on his promise to avenge his side’s costly World Cup defeat.
And in the build-up to a much anticipated rematch in Yokohama, Japan are once again talking tough.
This time it’s Japan’s usually mild-mannered coach Takeshi Okada doing most of the talking, and he didn’t mince his words in the wake of Japan’s most recent World Cup qualifying win over Qatar.
“We definitely want to beat Australia and I think it is possible. I want to shut them up,” Okada told reporters.
Wily Australia coach Pim Verbeek has been quick to downplay his counterpart’s fiery rhetoric.
The Dutchman knows Okada well, after the po-faced tactician won the J. League with Yokohama F. Marinos in the same year that Verbeek was coach of Kyoto Sanga.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Sydney Morning Herald’s Mike Cockerill last weekend, Verbeek claimed that “sometimes the translation can make a difference.”
Yet closer analysis reveals that Okada has been doing much of his talking to The Daily Yomiuri’s resident English-language reporter Shintaro Kano.
Something tells me that Kano-san’s translations are pretty spot on!
Verbeek, of course, is right to play down the rivalry as he looks to turn the pressure back on the home team.
However there’s no doubt that the sheer parochialism of both Australian players and fans can sometimes rub opponents the wrong way.
With Mark Rudan and Ufuk Talay struggling to adapt to life at J2 outfit Avispa Fukuoka last season, I wrote an article for a global football website about the perception that A-League players might not be good enough to play in Japan.
The piece was intended to highlight a Japanese point of view – not my own – yet the reaction was as partisan as it was predictable.
Some irate fans stopped just short of labelling me “un-Australian.” I half expected “Today Tonight” to start banging on my front door!
It’s that kind of parochialism that can so fiercely clash with the more reticent Japanese.
Certainly several of the Japanese players rate themselves highly – that’s always going to be the case with hot-heads like Nakazawa and Marcus Tulio Tanaka in the team – but it’s only recently that we’ve heard them spout public disdain for the Socceroos.
Should Lucas Neill opt to make another of his public predictions about a possible outcome in Yokohama, the animosity between the two sides will be off the charts.
Although the fate of both country’s World Cup ambitions won’t be decided in Yokohama, Japan need no further motivation to fire up for the visit of Australia.
With that in mind, this may be one case where the Socceroos should let their football do all the talking.