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Last-Minute Changes Yield World Cup Success

Stroke of Genius or Stroke of Luck?

Okada retained the same starting lineup and kept Honda as the lone striker for all four of Japan’s World Cup matches, including the round-of-16 match with Paraguay. But when did he settle on this strategy?

The answer is June 10, the day before the World Cup opened, when Japan played a practice match against Zimbabwe at its South African base camp in George. Until then, Okada had never tried playing Honda as a lone striker. Four days later, he was using this tactic in Japan’s opening World Cup match against Cameroon. Generous observers might describe it as a stroke of genius; less generous ones as a shot in the dark. By the time this article is published, the celebratory atmosphere surrounding Japan’s performance will have died down, and a dispassionate debate over Okada’s second, two-and-a-half-year spell as national team coach will have begun.

I would like to close by giving my own thoughts on Okada’s record. To be sure, there were some problems in the way that Okada managed the team during his tenure. Time, money, and talent were undoubtedly wasted on occasion. Yet what is required of a national team coach, more than the steady development of a “project,” is results. No matter how smoothly a coach may build a team or how many practice matches that team may win, a coach will be branded a failure unless he can produce results in the competition that counts, the World Cup.

Okada made considerable sacrifices, such as enduring fierce personal criticism as the team misfired, and benefited from unexpected breaks, Honda’s rapid progress being the most notable. In the end, though, he achieved results of which he can be justly proud, and this should be sufficient to deflect any criticism of his term as coach. Results are everything in sport, and all of us in the Japanese media can only applaud coach Okada’s achievements.

The Japanese national team’s adventure at the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa is over. The team had trouble scoring, put the emphasis firmly on defense, and displayed little of the footballing beauty that marked the eventual winners, Spain. But thanks to this team, the Japanese people were able to experience a sense of national unity that has rarely been seen in recent years. In that sense, Okada and his players were a wonderful team that will live long in the memory.

Translated from “Okada Japan o sukutta ‘girigiri de no shinkyû kôtai,’” Chûô Kôron, August 2010, pp. 126–33. (Courtesy of Chûô Kôron Shinsha) [August 2010]