3 Jan 2009(Sat)

January 3, 2009: Think of Japan's team at the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship in Nigeria and who comes to mind?

Takahara and Nagai up front...Motoyama flying down the left wing...Ono, Inamoto and Ogasawara in midfield...Koji Nakata on the left side of Philippe Troussier's fledgling "flat three" defence.

That was a talented squad, finishing runners-up to Spain and laying the foundations for Japan's World Cup challenge on home soil three years later.

Several of those players would go on to play in Europe, but others would take longer to develop and make their mark on the domestic game, such as the current Gamba trio of Kaji, Endo and Bando.

There is no doubt that Endo is now at his peak, and his influence on the national team is growing game by game. Who's to say that Endo, rather than Nakamura (32 on June 24, 2010), will not have taken over as Japan's most creative force at the next World Cup?

Two things about Endo's performance in the Emperor's Cup final on New Year's Day really stick in the memory.

In the last minute of normal time, as Reysol surged forward towards the mass of yellow shirts behind the goal, Endo tracked back to deny Franca with a superbly-timed sliding tackle. The effort and the challenge left him on the ground, injured and exhausted, as the whistle blew, but still Gamba's season was not over; 30 more minutes of extra time.

Twelve minutes into the first period, Endo had his coach, Akira Nishino, standing and applauding from the side of the pitch. Endo had just played a magnificent pass up the right flank, demonstrating his composure, vision and his technique as he caressed the ball on the half-volley up the line; a position from which Gamba won a free kick to calm things down and catch their breath.

Although Franca produced gasps and shrieks from the crowd with his full array of circus tricks, even when he gave the ball away, this one particular pass from Endo just dripped with quality and class.

Looking back on Japan's so-called golden generation in Nigeria in 1999, and who's come and gone already, Endo's time is most definitely still to come.. Troussier once described him to me as "the Japanese Redondo" due to his range of passing and long-distance shooting, and said he thought Endo would be a late developer compared to the likes of Ono, Inamoto and Takahara.

The Frenchman has been proved right.

ends