World Cup Prediction Overshadows Every Move of Japan’s Head Coach

BEST FOUR

It has been impossible to watch a Japan national team game lately without hearing these immortal words. So greedily has Takeshi Okada’s goal for the World Cup Finals been seized upon – and, let’s be frank, ridiculed – by the media, that the quiet, intelligent Osakan must be wishing he had never said it in the first place.

However, he’s not necessarily wrong to have set his sights so high, just that he should have kept the target within the camp.

Japan, of course, will not make it to the semifinals of this year’s tournament. Although there is often one joker in the pack, the chances of it being the “Samurai Blue” this time around is too much for even an Englishman to believe – and Englishmen specialize in unwarranted optimism at international football tournaments.

There is nothing wrong with setting difficult goals though, and Japan needs individuals like Okada – not just in sports, but in every field – if the nation is to truly compete internationally again.

The 53-year-old seems frustrated at the apathy of his nation to aspire to anything above average and, in a country renowned for its hordes of salarymen who settle for lives of mediocrity, Okada – who, with his simple suit and glasses could be mistaken as an archetypal salaryman – himself, should be commended for putting himself in the firing line.

Risks have to be taken to change this mindset, and this was a common theme during Okada’s articulate and insightful press conference at the FCCJ at the tail end of last year.

Whether in relation to the darling of the Japanese media, Shunsuke Nakamura, and his ultimately fruitless attempts to succeed in Spain (“certainly there was an element of risk involved in that decision”), or Okada’s own activities as a child (“I remember that sometimes I would walk on steel girders or on very, very high places and there was always a risk that I might fall”), it was clear that he does not fear failure.

A CURIOUS TACTIC

His actions strike me as oddly similar to those of Roy Keane. The former Manchester United and Republic of Ireland captain drew attention to the below-par preparations and ambitions of his team at the 2002 World Cup Finals in Korea and Japan by storming out of their Saipan training camp shortly before the tournament began.

Keane’s gripe was that the officials and coaches of his team had no belief they could progress in the tournament and were purely in Asia for a jolly. Although I doubt whether Okada will be telling anybody to “stick it up yer bollocks” (as Keane famously did to then-coach Mick McCarthy), he, too, is willing to offer himself up as a scapegoat to force a bigger change.

However, quite why he decided to announce the goal so early – and so publicly – is bewildering.

Okada should know exactly how the media work after his unsuccessful first stint at the helm of the national team, and must have realized the intense scrutiny such a claim would bring about. Indeed, this was another subject touched upon in December when he was asked if he thought a foreigner may be better suited to the position of Japan head coach.

“Before I was offered the post as coach of the national team I had many conversations with the media, and this question actually came up, and my response was always the same,” he replied. “I said that for the foreseeable future, for some time to come, I think it would be better if we had a foreign head coach rather than a Japanese head coach.

“The reason being that, regardless of the outcome of, for example, the World Cup, it might be very, very difficult for a Japanese person to have to stay on in Japan and be subjected to continuous pressure, or perhaps even blame, depending on the outcome. It might be that a foreign coach would have the option of saying goodbye, sayonara, to Japan and going back home.”

Okada will not have that option and, for the time being, it is the “Best Four” target from which there is no escape. A press conference does not go by without him being asked if he still thinks it is attainable.

While the media reaction was always disbelieving, Okada and his team did have a short period of grace during which a few good results would have built some confidence – not just among themselves but also for those scrutinizing them.

MEDIA SCORN

Unfortunately they were not able to make the most of this, and disappointing results and, more importantly, performances in friendly matches and the East Asian Championship in Tokyo have enabled the media to scoff freely. The risk taken by the head coach has seemingly not sparked any combative spirit from his players.

Despite the fact that the coaches don’t read the newspapers and they instruct the players to do likewise – according to assistant national team coach Tsutomu Ogura – it is highly unlikely that the bad press has not infiltrated the camp.

Which again begs the question: Why did Okada tell the media? Why not use the best four target as motivation for his players, to give them something to aim for and encourage them to take risks, but feed the press the standard “We’ll do our best” spiel?

At the FCCJ, Okada spoke of teams as “living organisms,” adding that “they sometimes are doing well, they sometimes are not doing well. You have to constantly monitor them and you have to be able to formulate responses for each situation the team finds itself in.”

On this occasion he seems to have come up with the wrong formula, and while the players would certainly have had their doubts about reaching the semi-finals anyway, they would surely have been better equipped without the excessive external pressure.

As a result, it is highly likely that Okada has suffered the worst thing a coach can experience – he may have “lost” the dressing room, something he also alluded to in December.

“… regardless of how skilled a person might be individually, unless he has some kind of an image or an aura behind him … people are not really going to pay that much attention to him. And if the players will not accept them, it takes a while before a coach and a team begin to develop enough rapport that they can start winning games.”

Perhaps, though, in possession of the knowledge that he will not be getting a new contract regardless of the team’s performance in South Africa, he has a bigger picture in mind. Perhaps even he accepts that this set of players are unable to achieve a best four finish, but he wants to take the first step to changing the Japanese mentality.

The clearest indication of Okada’s personality came while he spoke of his penchant for playing in perilous locations as a child. Instead of dwelling on the dangers, he instead chose to focus on the positives.

“That kind of risk is also very, very stimulating. It made you value life more, it made you think about trying not to fall.

“However, today we live in a world where everything is flat, at least in Japanese society, there is no risk of falling, there are no dangers.

“In other words we live in a very flat world; there are no mountains, there are no valleys.”

He has created his own mountain – and is starting out from a self-made valley – and although he will almost certainly fail in his attempts to scale it, he should be applauded for having set off in the first place.

While he is clearly a man who understands football and the way it works, he perhaps did not fully understand the way the media work. Or perhaps the media needs to change a little and get behind risk-takers like Okada.

By taking no risks of their own, though, and trying to keep Okada in his place by deriding his grandiose ambitions, the media cannot lose. If Okada does return with his tail between his legs they can declare that they were right and usher in his replacement.

And if he achieves the impossible? In that case, any pre-tournament scorn will be swept under the carpet and they will have the ultimate copy. Perhaps accompanied by a shot of Okada alighting at Narita with the World Cup trophy in one hand and the middle finger of the other raised defiantly in the sky.

“Stick it up yer bollocks,” he might say. ❶

Sean Carroll is a freelance writer currently researching a book on Japanese soccer and its supporters. He is part of The Guardian’s fan network for the 2010 World Cup and has written for Metropolis, Tokyo Weekender, Football Punk and When Saturday Comes.