Cleaning out my Closet

For those who are wondering, yes, the title does derive from the Marshal Mathers song of the same name. Dont worry though; I promise not to subject you to any Oedipean introspection, mommy issues or other childhood emotional scars. On the other hand, after a month of enforced inactivity, a great deal of clutter has accumulated. And over the past few days it has reached critical mass. As Sylvester Stallone explained, in the last of the Rocky movies, "I got a lot stuff down in the basement", and sooner or later it has to be let out, and cleared away, or it will eat you up. With just over a month to go before the Xerox Cup kicks off, its high time to clear the rubbish out, and try to get mentally ready for the start of the 2010 J.League season. So chase the kiddies away from the computer, set your bookmarks to NC-17, and put on your radiation suits. Cause today, Im cleaning out my closet.

Naturally, the most difficult thing is figuring out where to start. But since the National Team is currently catching most of the headlines, that seems like as good a place to start as any. As most of you know by now, Coach Takeshi Okada has declared that his objective is to reach the semifinal round of this year's World Cup, in Africa. In typical Japanese journalistic fashion, the press has responded with scathing articles that range from snide comments about his sanity to haughty lectures about the supposed merits of "being realistic". Naturally, the overseas press has responded like a pack of salivating hyenas, watching as the herd stampedes towards a cliff. I suppose some folks might say that Okada has only himself to blame for the public relations mess. But I was interested to see one small, largely ignored article in Weelky Soccer Digest a few weeks ago, which seemed to capture my own feelings about the big brouhaha remarkably well.

The most remarkable thing about the comments is that they were made by Hidetoshi Nakata. As long-time readers are surely aware, this writer has never put too much stock in the things that Nakata says to the press, so it was rather surprising to discover that he views the issue much as I do. But more remarkable is the fact that his comments have been roundly ignored - perhaps because they dont fit very well with the story line that the press is peddling these days.

Nakata's comments were fairly brief, and can be summed up in just one or two sentences. When asked what he thought of Okada's goal of reaching the semifinals, Hide replied in typically deadpan fashion that he thought it was a silly comment . . . . because obviously, Japan should be aiming to win the whole thing. The reporter, a bit surprised and suspecting that Nakata was being facetious, asked what he really thought Japan would do in South Africa. The reply was simultaneously sharp and blunt: Look - if you go to the World Cup, you go to win. Thats what sports is all about: winning! If you dont intend to win, then you should just stay at home.

Exactly.

And for those of you who are sitting there thinking to yourself "come on now . . . thats a nice sentiment, but you have to be realistic", I wont even bother to waste high-priced vocabulary words on knocking you down a peg, because youve obviously never won anything in your life. The only people who ever end up as winners are the ones who say "to hell with the odds" and set out to MAKE themselves winners. Of course, the task is not going to be an easy one. Japan has some very strong opponents to overcome just to make it out of the pool group. But recognising the difficulty of the goal is one thing; making fun of people who insist that they intend to accomplish the goal is stupid, not to mention downright sleazy.

Of course, the journalists who bash Okada for setting an ambitious goal are merely expressing attitudes that are deeply ingrained in Japanese society, and which many in Japan recognize as one of the most disturbing aspects of their national character. This trait has its positive side as well - Japan is a very "egalitarian" society, in which people are reluctant to advance their own interests at the expense of others, lest they be viewed as selfish or conceited. On the negative side, however, there seems to be a perverse desire to tear down those who achieve success, and snub people who are "too good." There is even an old joke that expresses this "character flaw" with uncanny accuracy:

A correctional officer from Europe comes to Asia to see how prisons are run in the Far East. When he arrives he sees that the "prison" is just a bunch of holes in the ground, with prisoners inside. The prisoners have been segregated by nationality, with each group assigned to their own hole. At the first hole the European sees a soldier with a rifle, guarding the hole.

"This is where we keep the Koreans", his guide tells him. "Is one soldier enough to control them all?" the guy asks.  "Sure. Koreans respect force. They see the rifle, so they stay in the hole"

They move along to the next hole where all the Chinese are kept. Next to that hole is a guard, but he doesnt have a rifle. "Why doesnt the guard at this hole have a rifle", he asks. "Well, the Chinese respect authority, so he doesnt need a rifle. As long as he is there, they respect his authority and stay in the hole."

The European looks over and sees a third hole, but it is completely unguarded. "Whats that hole over there?" he asks. "Oh thats where we keep the Japanese."

"But there's no guard. Arent you worried that they will try to escape?"

"Naaaahhh", his guide responds. "Theres nothing to worry about. If any one of them climbs up too high, the rest will pull him back down."

This joke does not necessarily reflect on all parts of Japanese society. There are certainly some areas in which the desire to excel is celebrated, and it would be wrong to suggest that Japan, as a whole, tends to discourage success. But it does seem to encapsulate perfectly the attitude of the Japanese sports press. You can see it in the way that the tabloids build up young players with overblown praise and extravagant idol-worshipping articles, only to tear the same player down with snide comments and predictions of doom as soon as the player fails to become the next Christiano Ronaldo.

An even better example of this attitude comes during the High School Championship Tournament, which takes place in early January. Though the tournament is always a very entertaining competition, and a great chance to see some of the new players who will go on to J.League success in the next few years, TV coverage of the event seems to dwell almost exclusively on the "heartbreak of defeat". Cameras linger in the dressing rooms of the losing team after every match, as if the most important aspect of the tournament is how heartbroken the players feel after all their dreams and aspirations have been shattered. What sort of morbid fascination do these reporters have with failure? Is it really necessary to record every sob and every anguished moan, as a bunch of teenaged boys struggle to come to terms with a loss?  Im sorry, but for this writer, the TV coverage of the HS Championships receives an F-minus. Two thumbs down. I dont know if they are hoping to somehow recapture the ratings success that was generated by the "Agony at Doha", but as far as the Rising Sun News is concerned, this incessant celebration of heroic failure in sports poses a serious psychological barrier to athletes trying to actually WIN something.

Getting back to the Japan National Team, the aforementioned love of tragic failure is not the only unhealthy obsession that mainstream sports journalists have been cultivating. The press also has an odd tendency to find problems and conflicts in the most innocuous of events. The most recent example arose two weeks ago, when coach Okada called up Kashima Antlers' captain Mitsuo Ogasawara to take part in Japan's matches against Venezuela, China, Hong Kong and Korea, in February. Though most fans of the NT reacted with the comment "well . . .its about time!" for some reason many sportswriters somehow managed to construe this as evidence that the National Team is in complete disarray, and Okada is wildly grasping at straws in an effort to avoid catastrophe.

Huh?

Obviously I must have missed something. For three years football fans in Japan have been shaking their heads in bemusement at Okada's decision to leave Ogasawara out of the mix. For those of you who are not well acquainted with the situation, it is not hard to find compelling reasons why the Baby-Faced Assassin SHOULD be called up. In fact, an itemization of the reasons to give him a cap is so extensive that it starts to sound a bit like a comedy routine:  In his eleven-year career, Ogasawara has won twelve major titles. Thats an average of more than one per season. A championship ring for every one of his fingers and two of his toes. And thats not counting his titles with the Japan National Team. By the time he retires theyll be measuring him for a nose ring! He and teammate Masashi Motoyama are the only players EVER to have won the triple crown one season and then three-peated as League champions. No -- I didnt say "the only players in Japan...." I said "the only players". Anywhere. Ever.

In addition Ogasawara holds nine selections to the J.League "Best Eleven", eight NT goals, seven selections to the JOMO Cup all-star team, six J.League crowns, three as the team captain, five MVP awards in a title match, four World Cup appearances, three Emperor's Cups, three Nabisco Cups, two Xerox Cups, two Asian Cups, one A3 Championship title, one League MVP, and a partridge in a bloody fig tree!

However, despite that extensive record of success, anyone who has bothered to follow football in Japan for more than a month or two is well aware that there are specific reasons why coach Okada (and Ivica Osim before him) chose not to call Ogasawara to the team. One clueless writer in Europe filed an article last week proposing the idea that it was because Ogasawara was "too much of a prima donna" -- a bit like suggesting that Peter Crouch was left out of the England team because he is too short. In truth, the problem is exactly the opposite. Ogasawara is an extremely quiet, unemotional and "cold" person (this character is what earned him the nickname "The Baby-Faced Assassin"). As early as his third season, when the Antlers won the triple crown of League title, Nabisco Cup and Emperor's Cup, he was the team's dominant player, and thus should have been the obvious choice for team captain . . . but was passed over due to both his cold, distant personality and his own strong desire to avoid the limelight and the responsibility. Yasuto Honda actually postponed retirement for two years so that he could sit on the bench and be the nominal captain, while Ogasawara led the team in every sense except the "emotional" one. Is it any surprise that a player like this might be viewed as a potential risk to team chemistry?

Though we do not have any firm evidence about Okada's reasons, the Rising Sun News was told specifically, by someone close to Ivica Osim, that the reason Oga was not called to the NT during his time in charge was due to this "awkward" personality. According to that source, Osim believed that the player had an "emotion deficit", and though he might be a great player, he wasnt really a good person to include when trying to develop team rapport, warmth and team spirit. Thus, at least for the first year or two, Osim intended to pass him over.

As for Okada, when asked point blank about the issue he seemed to hint at similar reasons, without actually spelling them out. Okada observed that "he isnt a player that you can call up just to sit on the bench," but that "from the standpoint of the team," he wasnt a player that he was ready to put in the starting lineup, at that time. On the other hand, while Ogasawara might not be good to have around when the team was trying to find its emotional balance, both Osim and Okada seem to have viewed him as a potential wild card, who might be added to the roster in the latter stages of team development.

So after the call-up was announced, when Okada commented that he had been "planning to take a look at (Ogasawara) at about this time", there is every reason to accept the explanation at face value. Any sports journalist who writes gloomy articles speculating about the "hidden reasons" for this move is essentially trying to dig a well in the middle of a pond. And lets face it . . . the person who suggested that this is a sign of "chaos" in the NT simply doesnt have a clue.

I feel like the closet is still only half-empty. But after rambling on for several pages, I suppose it is best to wrap up this rant and move on. However, there is one more issue that never fails to set my teeth to grinding, and it may be a good way to wrap up this article. Over the years, the Rising Sun News has had several occasions to observe that the Japanese players plying their trade in Europe have ended up there largely by accident. And while the high level of competition and fine coaching facilities may have made them better players, their greater name recognition among non-Japanese football fans is by no means an accurate reflection of their quality. Many of Japan's "best" players have never left the J.League . . . and though a move to Europe has become an increasingly common stop on the career path of NT stars, that is still very much the case.

The reason for bringing up these comments is that several aging players are returning from Europe, this year, to rejoin the J.League. Nothing wrong with that, of course. But the response that these transfers elicited from the press -- and especially from overseas sportswriters -- has become so noxious that SOMEBODY has to open up a window and let in some fresh air. When Naohiro Takahara returned to Japan in 2008, there was an avalanche of articles explaining how he was coming back "to reclaim his spot in the national team," and more than a few of these stories went on to speculate breathlessly about how many goals he was likely to score, and how much it would help the Reds secure a League title.

Some people never learn.

The only thing that has changed, in two years, is that now Shinji Ono and Junichi Inamoto are the subject of the breathlessly overhyped articles. In both cases, the players have been passed over by coach Okada and essentially removed from consideration as NT candidates for over a year or more. In Inamoto's case, at least one could claim that he still is in the picture. But Ono has a long history of injuries and has been a shadow of the player he was in his younger days. Even a breif return to the J.League in 2007 failed to earn him NT calls. While the two will surely be a useful addition to their club teams -- if only for the added merchandising income from their t-shirts -- the simple and blatantly obvious truth is that there are better players available today. Making a few appearances off the bench for some midtable Bundesliga club does NOT make you a NT-level player. All it means is that you have enough name recognition in Europe to attract an offer.

The argument about whether Japanese players are better off chasing any opportunity to move to Europe, or whether they are better off staying in the J.League, can get very emotional. Opinions on both sides are very strong, and it is hard to be completely ambivalent about the issue. This writer tends to lean in the direction of those who insist that most players who go to Europe come back older, out of shape, and emotionally damaged. However, both sides of the argument probably contain a certain amount of truth. At the end of the day, it is really a question of the individual player's character and skill set. Some can indeed benefit from a move to Europe, particularly those like Shunsuke Nakamura or Daisuke Matsui, who were drifting with the current in Japan and lacked the self-discipline and daily challenge to lift their game to a higher level. Others find themselves trapped in a strange world that places heavy emphasis on their ability to "communicate" and "adjust to the culture", rather than on their actual football skills. Even when they achieve substantial results on the pitch (as Sota Hirayama did during his stint in the Eredivisie), they return home branded as "failures".

At the end of the day, though, the important point that needs to be understood and accepted by players and fans alike is that Europe is no "Promised Land", nor does the experience of playing in Europe make a player any better than those who have spent their entire career in Japan. Its all a question of what one does with the opportunity.