24 Sep 2009(Thu)

September 22, 2009: There was something missing from Kashima Antlers on Saturday at Nissan Stadium – and I’m not just talking about the impish creativity of Motoyama.

In general they looked tired, mentally rather than physically, as if the strain and pressure of striving for a third consecutive league title was beginning to take its toll.

The ruthless professionalism and confident swagger normally associated with Antlers had been replaced by doubt and uncertainty, and they looked a very vulnerable team in going down 2-1 to Marinos.

Still, I was surprised when the Antlers players were booed and jeered by a few of their own supporters after the game, because there was no questioning their effort on the day or the fact that they were still top of the table. How many other J1 teams would be satisfied with that situation? It’s a rhetorical question, of course, because the answer is 17, all of them.

After all these years in Japan, I still cannot work out what will happen when the players go to greet their supporters after the game. Sometimes I expect them to be criticised after a bad performance or a lack of effort, but they are applauded; other times I expect the fans, especially away from home where the bond is much stronger, to be proud and fiercely loyal in defeat, but they are on their backs!

I could sense all was not right on Saturday when the Antlers manager, Oswaldo Oliveira, accompanied his players for the ritual post-match bow in front of the fans. The finger-pointing and angry exchanges began when they walked down the steps in the corner to the dressing room, at which point Oswaldo came to the defence of his players.

Later, when everything had cooled down inside the corridors, I asked Oswaldo what was going wrong, what was missing from his magic formula.

He admitted that some of the players were feeling the pressure, and that the spark of self-belief was just not there at the moment.

“But this is common; it happens,” he continued.

“When you don’t score, when you miss the chance, when you commit some mistake you lose confidence – but it is not forever. You can reverse the situation and we are going to do that for sure.”

Reds, of course, did Antlers a massive favour by beating Frontale later in the day, meaning Antlers still held a four-point lead, even after writing off the “Watergate” affair – or maybe “Floodgate” would be more appropriate in football parlance – with Frontale on October 7.

Four points clear at the top, eight matches to go, a third consecutive league title drawing closer – that’s a time for unity, for closed ranks, rather than abuse.

ends