16 Dec 2004(Thu)

December 14--A year too late, justice was done at the J.League awards night.

I was not alone in feeling that Yuji Nakazawa should have been voted J.League MVP in 2003.

After all, his team, Yokohama F Marinos, had won both stages of the J.League season.

Surely the top individual award must go to a Marinos player, but no, it went to Urawa Reds striker Emerson.

There was no mistake this time around, though, and Nakazawa won the award after helping Marinos defend their championship. They always say it is more difficult to defend a title than win it in the first place, as everyone is trying to shoot you down.

But Marinos stood firm, thanks in no small part to Nakazawa, who has emerged as a natural leader in a well-organised, disciplined and well-prepared team.

While Nakazawa was winning his first season MVP--a rare honour for a defender, who are often overlooked at the expense of the more flashy and creative players--Marinos manager Takeshi Okada defended his Coach of the Year title.

Guido Buchwald must have come a close second, after guiding his team to the final of the Nabisco Cup and to the Championship play-off, but the cold facts are that Reds did not win either.

The words of Okada, in the build-up to the two matches against Reds, turned out to be spot-on.

With injury problems for his strikers, Okada said it didn't matter that much at this stage of the season, as there were only two games to play, and Marinos would need only one or two goals.

This set the scene for the two games, and in the end Marinos needed only Kawai's first-leg header to take the title after a penalty shootout.

While some observers say the level of the J.League is in decline, I have to disagree.

I feel that the game in Japan has matured rapidly, and the tactics of the coaches and technique and understanding of the players reflects this.

I feel next season will be even better, with a single stage involving 18 teams.

Once again Marinos will be the team to be beat.

But for now they can bask in their success, especially Nakazawa, who thoroughly deserved his award.

ends