Japan 0 - 1 Holland 
Eiji Kawashima, Yuichi Komano, Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Yuji Nakazawa, Yuto Nagatomo, Yuki Abe, Makoto Hasebe (Shinji Okazaki 77'), Yasuhito Endo, Daisuke Matsui (Shunsuke Nakamura 64'), Yoshito Okubo (Keiji Tamada 77'), Keisuke Honda
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There really is not much to say about Saturday evening's match against the Netherlands. In our report on the Cameroon match we breifly voiced the hope that the winning result might finally allow coach Okada to bury the past and begin considering a more adventurous form of football. The Bespectacled One responded to that faint hope with the eloquence of Popeye the Sailor Man: "I yam what I yam and thats alls what I yam." No surprises there.
And at the end of the day, there is no real point in bewailing what might have been. We have always known what sort of decisions Takeshi Okada would make as head coach of the Japan National Team. This is exactly the way he has always done things, and we ought to know by now that this is one old dog that wont ever learn to change his stripes to spots. You could replay the Holland match every weekend for the rest of eternity, and Okada would surely select the same players, adopt the same strategy, react just as slowly to the flow of the match, bring in exactly the same substitutions, and produce exactly the same results. We have known this for three years, and Okada never made any pretence of being open to alternative ideas or suggestions. All one can do, at this stage of the game, is to congratulate the team for giving it all they had, and coming closer to success than we honestly expected them to.
If only Japan had adopted a more agressive strategy in the opening minutes of the second half . . . . if only Okada had brought on a player who knows how to score goals, like Takayuki Morimoto for example. . . . . if only he had left Matsui on the pitch and swapped Okubo for Nakamura . . . . No - the OTHER Nakamura . . . . if only he had been a bit more supportive of Okazaki this past week, instead of letting him sit in the corner, steadily losing self-confidence and sharpness. . . . . if only . . . . if only . . . .
None of those "if onlys" are of any use now. The opportunity has passed Japan by, and now they need to hope they can refocus and get a more meaningful result in their final contest, against Denmark. Discouraging as this result may have been, we have known for a long, long time that this was the sort of football we were going to get from Okada Japan, and at the end of the day, it wasnt as bad as it could have been. Japan played well enough to claim some respect and hopefully, to bolster their confidence for the critical final match. For now, we simply have to be happy with the half-full glass in front of us. Its the same as it ever was. Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was. Same as it. Ever. Was.
Until next week - Gambare Nippon!!!!
