1 Jun 2006(Thu)

Tokyo, May 31, 2006 -- On Monday evening, Guido Buchwald was the guest speaker at a meeting of the Foreign Sportswriters' Association of Japan in Tokyo.

As a World Cup winner and an ambassador for his hometown Stuttgart, the Reds boss was the ideal choice to give the foreign sports media an insight into last-minute preparations, plus the hopes and expectations of the German people.

But, naturally, as a football man, he also had some interesting things to say on the game itself, in Japan, Brazil and Europe.

One of his observations of the Japanese player was the lack of killer instinct in front of goal. Buchwald, of course, is not the first person to say this, and neither will he be the last.

There is a feeling that the Japanese want to score the perfect goal. They want to pass and pass and eventually walk the ball into the net, something Arsenal fans may feel their team try to do too much instead of just finishing.

Guido's words were still fresh in my mind as I watched Germany against Japan in the early hours of Wednesday morning. It was especially relevant near the end, when Japan had a wonderful chance to score a third goal but squandered it.

A beautiful cross from the right by Shunsuke, who had spotted an astute run to the far post by Hidetoshi Nakata. When the ball came over, I was certain Nakata was going to launch himself at it, like he did against Tunisia in the 2002 World Cup and, more recently, against Bosnia.

But, instead, Nakata tried to direct the ball across goal and into the path of Oguro.

Surely Nakata should have gone for goal himself. The angle was a bit tight, admittedly, but he was so close to the goal that he would have had a good chance of beating Lehmann at his near post, or enough time to aim for the far corner.

I couldn't believe it when he tried to pick out Oguro, who was eventually crowded out and the chance disappeared. The television camera focused on Oguro, but it was Nakata's missed chance, not Oguro's.

A goal for Nakata would have been a just reward for another impressive game, in which his midfield inter-play with Shunsuke enabled Japan to keep creating chances. Yanagisawa, too, was very much involved in the approach play, fully justifying Zico's faith in him as he recovered from injury.

But it was Takahara who scored the two goals, both of them beauties, although the German defenders, notably Ballack, should never have allowed him to wriggle free inside the box for the second one.

Nakata could have won it for Japan right at the death -- but wanted one pass too many.

There is still time to learn, though, and hopefully he will be more single-minded if a similar opportunity comes along against Australia on June 12.

ends