22 Mar 2004(Mon)

Friday began and ended in very different moods.

On Friday morning I was full of life, a spring in my step on the way to the station, and singing "O-ku-bo Yo-shi-to, na na na na na" along the way.

This was, of course, the day after Japan's epic 3-0 win against the ＵＡＥ to book a ticket to the Olympic Games.

It was a great night for Japanese football at Kokuritsu, a proud night, as Masakuni Yamamoto's young lions, after a long journey, smashed down the city gates and finally entered Athens.

Okubo, of course, was at the centre of it, scoring two goals on the night, three in all, and giving Japan a new dimension from the first leg in the ＵＡＥ.

At first I thought Yamamoto was wrong not to take Yoshito to Abu Dhabi, especially after the 0-0 draw with Bahrain in Japan's first match.

But Japan's head coach proved to be as cunning and tactical as a master card player, holding his ace until just the right time, and then playing it perfectly to collect the jackpot.

But that was Thursday night, and Friday morning.

Friday afternoon was a totally different story.

Zico was even more sombre than usual at his news conference to announce the squad for the Singapore match on March 31.

The "Kabakura Seven" were all missing, including the aforementioned Yoshito, as well as Zico's saviour against Oman, Kubo. Even Ogasawara, a Zico favourite, was not spared punishment.

But the "Kabakura Seven" was, in fact, "Eight" as Nobuhisa Yamada was also punished, even though he spent only a few minutes in the bar before realising his mistake and heading for the hotel.

Zico is always very serious at his official news conferences, unlike Troussier, who loved the spotlight and provided non-stop amusement as well as his football philosophy.

This time it was understandable, as Zico felt let down by the players, and said he didn't know if he could trust them again.

Rumour has it that one of the reasons why the players broke the curfew was because they were disillusioned with Zico's selection policy, namely picking the Europe-based players no matter how well the J.Leaguers performed in their absence.

This may or may not be true, but clearly there are problems within Zico's squad.

All the doubts and uncertainty over the direction of the national team under Zico came flooding back, taking some of the shine off the Olympic team's heroics.

That's a great shame, as Yamamoto's Young Blues had put the smile back on the face of Japanese football.

ends