By Eamonn Flanagan

If they do it won’t be the same Japan that played Australia in the World Cup. Only Jubilo Iwata keeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi and Celtic’s Shunsuke Nakamura are guaranteed a start from that miserable day in Kaiserslautern. Expectations around the Japanese national side are always high and the fans will pour into Vietnam hoping for a fourth Asian Cup in five tournaments.

Japan have played in the last three World Cups and won the last two Asian Cups. They have been the best Asian side by some margin. Now that Australia has joined the Asia Confederation, that World Cup game remains important – the manner with which they lost will not easily be forgotten.

But this Japan team is a different team. Miyamoto, Ono, Yanagisawa, Ogasawara, Fukunishi, Narasaki, Tamada and Inamoto are all gone. Brazilian coach Zico has gone, and most importantly Hidetoshi Nakata, the golden boy of Japanese football, has retired at the age of 29. In comes Bosnian coach Ivica Osim who has had success with Japanese JEF United Ichihara Chiba in winning two J-League cups in 2005 and 2006.

Osim is playing down expectations of the national side. “We have a young side. If you look at the physical characteristics of Japanese players, running ability is a very important factor. We have to beat our opponents by running or we will suffer in a one-on-one situation,” he said after the 3-0 win over India in Asian Cup qualifying “Our players ran more today than they do in the J-League. Perhaps they now understand what it means to play for the national team.”

Osim has bought back overseas star men Nakamura and Eintracht Frankfurt’s Takahara for just one game since he’s been in charge. How quickly fits them into the side is key. Nakamura made both goals in the recent 2-0 win over Peru in a friendly. His free kicks and forward play will surely be crucial if Japan is to lift the Asian Cup.

Nakamura is pleased with the changes in the national team. “I have (only) played together with these young guys once, so I don’t really know, but if the players are 21 or 22-years-old they are probably strong, and have what the coach is looking for.”

But Nakamura may not be so pleased with Osim’s comments about him: “He (Nakamura) is no marathon runner but he does run more than he used to. As everyone knows, he is a player full of creativity. But he is human, and he does tire. And when you tire, it becomes difficult to be creative.

“So what Nakamura must learn to do is play faster, make decisions faster.”
Osim is trying to build beyond the Asian Cup. “There are some strong players in the younger generation, but who to use is a hard thing to decide.”
Osim bought in Gamba Osaka’s Akihiro Ienaga, and Nagoya Grampus’s Keisuke Honda, both 20, and JEF United pair Koki Mizuno and Hiroki Mizumoto, for the recent Peru friendly.

While it seems Osim’s Japan will be doing a lot of running in the heat of South East Asia, they will have plenty of fans with high expectations sitting in the stands. A huge following of Japanese fans is assured. And these are the sorts of supporters you want! In France for World Cup 98, Japanese fans took their rubbish home with them. Organisers were amazed that the stadium was cleaner after they left than when
they arrived!

With tickets to games in Hanoi just over $10 and the Japanese holiday season in full swing the blue-shirted Samurai army will pour into Vietnam. When tickets went on sale in Vietnam more Japanese had bought tickets than Vietnamese in the first few weeks.

And don’t be surprised to see lucky mascot Rommel in Hanoi. Rommel, is a 10-year-old male Miniature Dachshund. Sports dailies and television networks have come to portray him as a symbol of invincibility or sorts. “But I have no part in it,” says the ageing dog’s owner Hideto Teshima. If the dog makes a pre-game appearance at the national side’s training ground, Japan are supposed never to lose. In 18 games the legend held, until they met Australia in the World Cup, but talk is Rommel will be back.

Japan will need more than lucky mascots. Asian football is changing and Japan may not find winning so easy this time. With Australia added to the list of likely winners Japan will be severely tested to hold on to their trophy.
“I played under Phillipe Troussier in Asia Cup 2000 on the left side of midfield,” says Nakamura. “Four years later I had a different impression of the teams as I could see that West Asian teams like Oman had improved vastly.
“In fact, the standards of some of the emerging West Asian teams were higher than those of the traditional powerhouses like Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia and China. It was in the last edition (Asian Cup 2004 in China) that the quality of football really improved.”

Perhaps the omens are not good. Osim Japan as the national team is now called is sometimes translated as “Oshimu Nippon” which under some translations can mean “Regret, Japan”. Time will tell.

FourFourTwo verdict
No winner’s medal this time. Japan should get a final four birth, but with Osim’s wholesale changes since 2006 World Cup this team won’t yet be at their best.