25 Aug 2005(Thu)

TOKYO (August 24, 2005): Yuki Abe produced one of the best midfield performances I have seen this season at Kashiwa Hitachi Stadium on Sunday night.

The JEF United captain was everywhere.

One minute he's putting in a crunching tackle on Satsukawa, the next he's breaking forward to join his attack.

With the excellent Stoyanov at the back, Abe holding down the midfield and Hanyu as elusive and bright as ever, JEF controlled the game for long periods and should have won more convincingly than the 2-1 scoreline.

After the game I waited for the "Osim Show" to see what JEF's always interesting, always amusing head coach would say.

In the past he's always tried to play down his own players and their chances, preferring to keep his feet on the ground and to err on the side of caution and realism.

So when I said Abe had played a fine match, I was expecting Osim to shoot me down!

But no, he smiled and commented: "I am always happy with Abe."

And then he even said that Abe could go to Germany next year with the national team, if he does more.

More what, I asked?

"More everything. More running, more tackling, more shooting."

Osim said Abe's defensive game was already good enough, especially his tackling, his physical strength, his reading of the play and his heading, but he needed to improve his attacking game.

"He needs to become a more dangerous player," said Osim.

"He times his runs well from midfield, he can shoot from 20, 25 metres with either foot...but he needs to do more. For the next three months he needs to give 10 percent more in everything."

Osim acknowledged that the competition for places in defensive midfield is strong, with the likes of Ono, Inamoto, Koji Nakata, Fukunishi, Endo and Konno, but he feels Abe has a chance if he steps it up around the pitch.

With encouraging words like these from his experienced coach, Abe knows exactly what he has to do in the coming weeks.

And if Osim says he has a chance, he has.

ends