25 Feb 2008(Mon)

February 23, 2008: Japan were winners on two counts against China in the East Asian Championship on Wednesday night.

First the result, a 1-0 victory away from home; second, the way Japan conducted themselves in a provocative, occasionally violent, environment.

The worst incident, of course, was the terrible foul by keeper Zong Lei on Michihiro Yasuda early in the second half. Immediately it happened my thoughts went back to 1982, and the brutal assault by West Germany keeper Schumacher on Frenchman Battiston in that epic World Cup semi-final.

The situation was very similar, as the player raced down the middle and flicked the ball past the onrushing keeper before being flattened.

Schumacher's was much worse, as it involved his whole body crashing into the player, and his reaction did not help as he waited, hands on hips, to take the goal kick, showing no concern for the stricken Battiston.

At least Zong was shown the yellow card, but surely if the referee deemed it a foul it must have been a red card. The Chinese keeper clearly aimed a mid-air kick at Yasuda with his right foot, the ball having already gone past him. It was deliberate and dangerous, and the Japanese camp had every right to be furious.

There were others, too, notably on Narazaki, who showed admirable restraint and sportsmanship to get up and get on with it when he could have reacted angrily or stayed down for several minutes after clumsy challenges by the Chinese.

Again I thought of Schumacher in that 1982 World Cup semi-final, when French winger Didier Six had the audacity to challenge him for a loose ball and felt the wrath of the arrogant German keeper. (On the subject of Harald 'Toni' Schumacher, his autobiography "Anpfiff", or "Starting Whistle", is an entertaining read, and highly recommended to Japanese fans and football historians).

Under the trying circumstances, with the Chinese players losing the match and losing their cool, the Japanese players emerged with credit for continuing to play the game, although they were guilty of the occasional theatrics.

All in all, though, it was a poor advertisement for football in general, and for football in this part of the world in particular.

Fortunately, a few hours later, our faith in the game was restored when switching on TV for the Celtic-Barcelona Champions League game. Now wasn't that a treat after the nonsense of Chongqing.

ends