TOKYO, June 29, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Japan’s football chief has saluted the
team for its “fair play” as debate rages over the manner in which the Blue
Samurai booked their spot in the last 16 of the World Cup.
Kozo Tashima, president of the Japan Football Association (JFA), insisted
the team deserved a place in the knockout stage in Russia, won at the expense
of Senegal by virtue of having picked up fewer yellow cards.
However, Japan have faced an angry backlash for running down the clock in
the last 15 minutes despite losing 1-0 to Poland on Thursday, gambling that
the West Africans would not equalise against Columbia in the other Group H
game.
“It is our commitment to fair play that has got us through,” Tashima told
local media on Friday after Japan moved on to face Belgium next week.
“We had fewer yellow cards so we were able to progress. It’s the result of
the ‘Japan Way’ — a thorough dedication to passing football and playing in a
fair manner.”
Those comments rang hollow to many, however, after the Japanese played
keep-ball inside their own half under instructions from Coach Akira Nishino
and were booed off the pitch at the final whistle.
As several foreign television commentators slammed the tactics and
referenced the infamous 1982 World Cup match between West Germany and
Austria, where both teams played out a mutually beneficial 1-0 win for the
Germans, Tashima leapt to Nishino’s defence.
“Our main objective was to get through the group stage,” said the JFA
chief, who took the controversial decision to sack former Franco-Bosnian
Vahid Halilhodzic two months before the World Cup and replace him with
Nishino.
“I actually think it’s great we’ve become a team capable of playing that
kind of football,” Tashima added.
“There was a risk we could have gone 2-0 behind if we had kept pushing. It
was the right decision and it took guts.”
Former JFA president Saburo Kawabuchi also praised Nishino for a call that
will have done little to endear Japan to neutral fans in Russia and around
the world after defying the odds to advance.
“There was a high possibility that we would go through to the knockout
phase losing by one goal,” he said.
“That call was absolutely spot on. (Nishino) has emerged as a great coach.”
Japan finished level with Senegal on four points and with identical goal
difference but with a better disciplinary record. Colombia won the group with
six points from three games.
Nishino called his decision “regrettable” after the game and revealed that
he would talk to his players about the thought process.
Despite widespread criticism, however, the Japanese players toed the party
line after the match and agreed it was job done.
“It was an all-or-nothing call but in fact it was a victory for teamwork,”
former Japan defender Yutaka Akita wrote in a newspaper column.
“Japan had their staff at the Colombia-Senegal game analyzing and reporting
to the coach,” he added.
“Nishino used their data to plan his tactics, instructed the players
accordingly — and we move on.”