25 Mar 2004(Thu)

Now that Japan have qualified for the Olympic Games, the Japan Football Association needs to conduct some hard talking over selection.

The Olympic football tournament starts on August 11, two days before the opening ceremony in Athens.

This is only four days after the final of the Asian Cup, which will be held in Beijing on August 7.

Japan will be defending the Asian Cup they won under Philippe Troussier in Lebanon four years ago, and of course the JFA must plan all the way through to the final.

Will Zico want Okubo, Ishikawa, Moniwa, Tulio, Tanaka or others in his national squad for China?

Which three overage players will Masakuni Yamamoto want to bolster his under-23 team for Athens?

These are the issues to be discussed between Zico, Yamamoto and JFA technical chief Kozo Tashima when the national team returns from Singapore.

Maybe this is the formula to keep everyone happy:

1) Yamamoto has the right to choose all players of Olympic qualifying age. After all, why does Zico need Okubo when he has Takahara, Yanagisawa, Suzuki, Kubo and Motoyama? Why does he need Moniwa when he has Nakazawa, Tsuboi and Miyamoto?

2) Zico has first choice of all players who do not qualify for the Olympics. This allows him to pick all the overseas players, and still leaves plenty of players in the J.League. He does not need to pick Olympic age players and just keep them on the bench.

3) Yamamoto can then select any player over the age of 23 who is not crucial for Zico. For example, Sogahata or Doi as goalkeeper, as Narazaki is first choice, and one of those two will be the back-up keeper in the Asian Cup.

This strategy may seem strange in most countries, where the national team takes clear priority over the Olympic team.

But in Japan the Olympics are special, and Olympic football enjoys a much higher profile here than in virtually every other country.

For the three recent qualifying games in Japan against Bahrain, Lebanon and UAE, some 160,000 fans flocked to Saitama and to the National Stadium.

No other country in the world would have attracted such a huge turnout for Olympic qualifying games.

Clearly players cannot take part in both the Asian Cup and the Olympic Games, as both coaches will be holding training camps and playing warmup games.

But Yamamoto deserves to be given the best available at under-23 level, including Okubo, Moniwa, Ishikawa and the rest.

And if you asked Okubo where he would rather play, in Chongqing, known as "The Furnace," for the Asian Cup, or in Athens, I'm sure he would pick the Olympics.

ends