22 Jun 2009(Mon)

June 20, 2009: Switching sports for a moment, from football to tennis, Andy Roddick once provided a sobering response to a TV reporter's question about his rivalry with Roger Federer after another defeat.

"Rivalry?" Roddick replied, puzzled. "I don't think you can call it a rivalry when the same player wins every time."

Looking back on the Australia-Japan game at the MCG on Wednesday, I am wondering if Roddick's words apply to this rivalry, too.

Certainly the Aussie fans feel that way, and let Japan know it with their "Nippon: Forever in our shadow" banner on display at the famous cricket ground.

After all, it was a familiar story on Wednesday, as the ubiquitous Tim Cahill led his team's fightback with two goals to secure victory, just like he had done at Kaiserslautern in the World Cup summer of 2006.

Although Japan beat Australia on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the Asian Cup quarter-finals the following year, Australia picked up four points from the two qualifying matches for South Africa and finished five points clear in the group -- a big gap over eight games.

Clearly the Aussies are ahead in the rivalry at the moment, even though they did not particularly impress in either game against Japan.

At Yokohama, in the 0-0 draw, they lived dangerously with their short passes deep in their own half and showed Japan too much respect, playing Cahill on his own up front in Pim Verbeek's 4-3-2-1 Christmas tree formation.

At Melbourne, the giant Kennedy came in, occupying the defenders at set-pieces and allowing Cahill to operate in his shadow, but Australia -- Culina in particular -- were too casual and lethargic for long periods.

They only stepped it up for 25 minutes or so in the second half, but still this was enough to do what they had to do and score the goals to win the match.

In the absence of Nakazawa, Tulio fought gamely, and soared above a startled Cahill to head home Kengo Nakamura's left-wing corner on 40 minutes.

When the Aussies found some urgency after the break, Abe -- playing in the centre of defence alongside Tulio -- found Cahill too elusive. He lost him on Grella's deep free kick into the box, leaving Cahill to run in behind Tulio, who was marking Kennedy, and score with a looping header; and Cahill was one step ahead of Abe again in gobbling up the loose ball from Carle's curling corner from the right.

I really hope Kennedy signs for Grampus, as it will be good practice for Japanese defenders to come up against a player of his height (1.94 metres) and physicality on a weekly basis.

ends