3 Nov 2005(Thu)

MACAU: November 2, 2005 – It was a strange feeling watching Japan against Chinese Taipei on Saturday afternoon here in Macau at the East Asian Games. (Chinese Taipei, of course, means Taiwan, but, for political reasons, they are referred to as the former by sports bodies so as not to upset the motherland China).

Anyway, when I entered the main stand of the sports field at Macau University of Science and Technology, there was the usual loyal band of supporters in blue, one banging a drum and the other leading the singing.

To my surprise, though, they were from Chinese Taipei, waving blue scarves adorned with the word “Taiwan” and with a slogan on the back of their blue T-shirts reading “Soul? Just.”

Like many slogans I read in Japan, I’m not quite sure what it meant, but this culture clash is always amusing.

Japan played very well and won 6-1, scoring four times in the second half.

But the Taiwanese players were not strong, especially at the back, and the big centre forward, Komatsu, took advantage of this to score twice. At 1.87 metres, he looks like the new Hirayama, and plays for Kwansei Gakuin University.

Hyodo, Japan’s captain at the World Youth Championship in the Netherlands but not here (Tokunaga is the leader of this team), scored a goal with a fine long-range drive, and he even has his own personal fan club.

After the game I managed to track down a few Japanese, who were attracting the attention of the players by waving plastic branches of cherry blossom over the fence. One of the banners read “Hyodo – Pride of WMW.” The initials stand for Waseda, Maroon and White, which was quite clever, and, to be frank, I was amazed to see such loyal support for a 20-year-old student.

Regarding the team, I really liked the central midfielder Inoha, from Miyazaki and a student at Hannan University.

He reminded me of Kumagai when I first saw him play for Japan’s youth team in Indonesia in 1994, alongside the likes of Hidetoshi Nakata and under the captaincy of Suguru Ito. Positioned just in front of the defence, he was like a midfield sweeper, collecting the loose balls, and doing the simple things right, like tackling and passing.

I know this sounds basic stuff, but it takes a lot of discipline and maturity to play the right pass all the time, the safe pass to a teammate, rather than looking for the glorious through-ball on every occasion.

Tonight (Wednesday), Japan will play Korea at the main Macau Stadium, but are in the semi-finals already.

Japan against Korea in Macau. Followed by dinner and red wine in a Portuguese restaurant, and then maybe a visit to a swish new casino so I can win lots of money and buy Vissel Kobe.

Yes, it’s tough being a football writer – but someone has to do it!

ends