23 Mar 2006(Thu)

Tokyo, March 22, 2006: Just when a coach thinks he's got it exactly right, it can all go horribly wrong!

This was the case at Todoroki Stadium on Tuesday afternoon, when Kawasaki Frontale and FC Tokyo played out an extremely entertaining 2-2 draw.

A draw was a fair result, but FC Tokyo had looked certain to win after coming back in the second half thanks to some smart changes from their first-year coach, Alexandre Gallo.

Frontale were leading 1-0 at half-time, so Gallo decided action was needed.

He put Inoha, his impressive young midfielder, on the dangerous Juninho in a man-marking job, and left just Moniwa and Jean at the back.

Then he pushed his two full-backs, Tokunaga on the right and Suzuki on the left, further forward, and asked them to attack, which they did in some style.

Konno, one of my favourite players who, sadly and, in my opinion, inexplicably, is nowhere near Japan's World Cup squad for Germany, dropped a bit deeper to shield his defence.

Jean equalised with a flying header, and the ex-Jubilo raider Kawaguchi put Tokyo in front 2-1 with a lovely finish after sterling work on the right flank by Tokunaga (what a good player this guy is!)

Absolutely full marks to Gallo at this point for his tactical changes, and FC Tokyo, playing toward a jumping mass of their fans behind the goal in the second half, looked on course for three welcome points.

But Gallo, I'm afraid, then got it all wrong. He replaced the tiring midfielder Miyazawa with the defender Masushima, and moved Inoha back into central midfield. There was only five minutes or so left at this point, and clearly Gallo thought Masushima could look after Juninho for the rest of the contest.

This was where FC Tokyo came unstuck. Inoha had done a fine marking job on Juninho, easing the pressure on Moniwa and Jean, but it's not easy for a late substitute to pick up the pace of the game, especially when we're talking about the pace of Juninho! The speedy Brazilian saw his chance, and linked twice with Nakamura to enable the midfielder to equalise with another excellent goal.

Looking back, I'm sure Gallo would have done things differently, perhaps asking Masushima just to sit in midfield, alongside Konno, and leave Inoha on Juninho.

All in all, then, a very tactical battle, and Juninho showed his quality by taking advantage of the tiny bit of space afforded to him late in the game.

At 38, Gallo is still young for a head coach, and is still learning about his players.

I am sure he will have learned from his experience at Todoroki, where he looked to have got it so right until that late switch.

ends