Australia’s scoreless draw with Japan in last week’s World Cup qualifier prompted a round of soul-searching from both media and fans alike. The debate centred on coach Pim Verbeek’s decidedly conservative tactics and whether they were useful to the development of the Australian game.
My own impression was that Verbeek should be applauded for picking up the point in Yokohama that he clearly set out to gain.
However, I don’t dismiss those who suggest that Australia’s lack of attacking ambition could ultimately spell doom for the Socceroos in South Africa.
No one summed up the confusion better than Sun-Herald columnist Matthew Hall, who wrote of dreaming that Verbeek was set to call Milan shot-stopper Zeljko Kalac out of retirement.
“Verbeek, in my dream, had selected Kalac to play against Japan. But not in goal. He had recalled the now internationally-retired Kalac to play alone up front as a striker,” wrote Hall.
“In my dream, Verbeek’s reasoning was sound. Kalac stands at over two metres tall. He knows what a ball is. He knows where a goal is (most of the time).”
Ultimately Verbeek chose to employ Everton midfielder Tim Cahill as a lone striker, but Hall’s witty rejoinder hits the mark.
But if Australian fans thought Pim Verbeek’s tactics were ugly, the result could have been much worse.
It wasn’t, because Japan coach Takeshi Okada was just as conservative as Verbeek.
In his squad, Okada possessed two men who were entitled to feel on top of the world. They were Yoshito Okubo and Shinji Okazaki.
After a failed two-year stint at Spanish outfit Real Mallorca, Okubo returned to his former J. League club Cerezo Osaka in 2006. Cerezo were promptly relegated.
Things soon picked up for the wild-child of Japanese football when he made the switch to local rivals Vissel Kobe. Suddenly Okubo couldn’t stop scoring or creating goals for the newly promoted outfit, and the enigmatic front man managed to muscle his way back into national reckoning.
Okubo’s renaissance as one of Japan’s brightest attacking talents was completed when VfL Wolfsburg lured him to Germany in January for a stint in the Bundesliga.
Nevertheless, Okubo was surprisingly left out of the run-on side in Yokohama as St. Etienne midfielder Daisuke Matsui took his place.
Few expected Shimizu S-Pulse youngster Shinji Okazaki to start the match in Yokohama. Yet he too had plenty of cause for celebration in the build-up to the game.
Forget the fact that Okazaki became a father for the first time. More important is that leading into the clash, Okazaki looked Japan’s most capable striker.
Yet scoring the opening two goals in 5-1 friendly thrashing of Finland was only enough to guarantee Okazaki a seven-minute cameo as a late substitute.
But then, if scoring goals was all that it took to get you into the national team, surely Kyoto Sanga striker Atsushi Yanagisawa should be a shoe-in?
Not so according to those at the Japan Football Association, who seem to hold a pathological grudge against the class of 2006.
Yanagisawa was the top Japanese goal-scorer in the J. League last season – hitting the net 14 times in 32 games for promoted Kyoto.
However, in 2006, Yanagisawa was at Kashima Antlers – the club Zico helped turn into the mightiest in Japanese football.
The JFA wanted Zico to do for Japan what he had done for Kashima, but when Japan were knocked out in the first round in Germany, the Brazilian-born coach swiftly became a scapegoat.
So too did Yanagisawa, mercurial midfielder Mitsuo Ogasawara and anyone else connected to Kashima.
That includes Daiki Iwamasa – arguably the stand-out central defender in the J. League last season – and young striker Shinzo Koroki.
Only dynamic full-back Atsuto Uchida escaped the vendetta, but that’s partly because the pedestrian Akira Kaji has announced his international retirement.
It’s a strange selection policy when players linked to the most successful club side in J. League history are so consistently overlooked.
Australia were no doubt fortunate to take a point in Yokohama.
But in a match they were desperate to win, Japan did themselves no favours with their conservative selection policies.
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Even though St.Pauli ultimately lost a high-scoring affair, Jackson Irvine was a standout, as well as scoring a late goal.
What if we celebrated all of the achievements big and small, and weeded out those hell-bent on bringing down a game that is doing a hell of a lot right?
A good performance from Michael Ruhs, scoring twice to beat Macarthur and doubling his season goal tally in the process.
