9 Apr 2007(Mon)

April 7, 2007: It has not been the smoothest of starts at Omiya Ardjia for Robert Verbeek.

At the time of writing he has seen his team lose all four J1 games but win two and draw one of their three Nabisco Cup group matches.

The draw came at a cold and soggy Kashiwa Hitachi Stadium on Wednesday night, 0-0 against Reysol.

After the game I had an interesting chat with Verbeek about a player who has been around a long time (he is now 29) and who has bags of talent, but who has still not delivered on his potential: Kota Yoshihara.

Against Reysol, Yoshihara played on the right side of midfield in a 4-4-2 formation, and did a good job in providing pace and width to the attack and also tackling back deep inside his own half. With 20 minutes to go he moved up front, alongside Morita, and this time caught the eye with his accomplished back-to-goal technique, controlling the ball and shielding it from the defenders around him.

Verbeek feels that finally he is beginning to see the real Kota -- but it has been a struggle to bring him to this point.

"I had two meetings with him at our training camp in Guam and told him he must train harder otherwise he can forget it," Verbeek said.

"I also told him that I saw some DVDs from last year and every time I thought, 'he can play nicely, he is a good striker', but I had not seen that since I came here. I told him that this is a different Kota, and I want to see the Kota I saw on the DVD."

The message seems to have got home, as Verbeek acknowledged about Wednesday's lively display: "This is a totally different Kota. He is dangerous, he can keep the ball and he can score goals. I am very happy and very proud of him. It was a little bit of a battle, but, okay, that can happen."

When I told Verbeek that Philippe Troussier had once described Yoshihara as the Japanese Romario for his finishing prowess in the box, the Dutchman stated: "He has something -- but he must be 100 per cent. He is still 80 per cent and he misses 20 per cent. In two or three weeks he can be 90-95 per cent, and he can be very dangerous for us."

These must be encouraging words for the Omiya fans, who need a sharp and hungry Yoshihara to put away a few goals in what already is looking like a fight for survival in the top flight.

Yoshihara must also be encouraged by the new coach's philosophy, as he changes the playing style from "waiting, waiting", as he described it, to a more adventurous..."let's challenge, play football, attack."

ends