Japanese Football on the International Stage in 2017
Sean Carroll
East Asian Cup (EAC)
Saturday's 4-1 thumping by South Korea in the East Asian Cup (EAC) meant 2017 ended on a disappointing note for Japan, but looking back on the year as a whole it was a positive one for the country in international competition.
Vahid Halilhodzic's B- (or possibly even C-) team ultimately had to settle for a runners-up spot in the semi-serious four team round-robin contest with North Korea, China, and South Korea, but the full national team made relatively straightforward work of qualifying for it's sixth consecutive World Cup finals at the end of the summer, sealing its spot with a game to spare.
Their ticket to Russia was stamped with a 2-0 win over Australia on 31 August, and while a lack of depth further down the pecking order was highlighted at the underwhelming EAC the fact that the goals in the victory over the Socceroos were struck by two of the nation's up-and-coming talents in Arsenal striker Takuma Asano (currently on loan at VfB Stuttgart) and Leeds United-bound Yosuke Ideguchi offered promising signs for the next generation of the Samurai Blue.
World Cup 2018
Even so, hopes are not especially high for next summer's global showpiece, with Japan losing four of their eight games since that victory at Saitama Stadium (and drawing another of them 3-3 with lowly Haiti). A caveat should be added that Halilhodzic appeared to use the latter part of this year as a testing ground to try out potential alternatives to the usual suspects in his squad, with Shinji Kagawa, Keisuke Honda, and Shinji Okazaki all notable by their absence.
The EAC, in particular, offered Halilhodzic an opportunity to cast his net even wider than usual as he was unable to call up his Europe-based players, and the humbling by Japan's old rivals at Ajinomoto Stadium on 16 December will surely have convinced the Bosnian that he has a relatively slim pool of players to pick from.
It would be surprising, therefore, if at least two of the above trio are not returned to the fold in the New Year, as the preparations to take on Colombia, Senegal, and Poland in Group H - a tough but not impossible pool - begin in earnest.
As well as missing the injured Cerezo Osaka trio of Hotaru Yamaguchi, Hiroshi Kiyotake, and Kenyu Sugimoto for the season-closing EAC, Japan also had to do without a handful of other players likely to have been involved on account of Urawa Reds' participation in the Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.
Reds AFC Champions
The Saitama outfit disappointingly exited that tournament with a whimper, losing their quarter-final against Al Jazira to miss out on a once-in-a-lifetime clash against Real Madrid, although they did at least salvage a modicum of respect by beating Wydad Casablanca of Morocco 3-2 in the fifth-place play-off (who'd have thought there was a less inspiring game than a third-place play-off?).
Their qualification for the competition is how Reds fans will remember 2017, however, with the club there as representatives of Asia after a remarkable journey to the AFC Champions League title.
The side got off to a rapid start in this year's continental showpiece by knocking in goals for fun in the group stage to progress alongside Andre Villas-Boas's Shanghai SIPG, but it was in the knockout rounds that they really provided the entertainment.
In the Round of 16 it looked like they were set to be eliminated at the same stage as last year when they lost the first leg 2-0 away to Jeju United, but the team rallied superbly in the return fixture - a bruising affair which went to extra time and saw Jeju have three players sent off - winning 3-0 thanks to a 114th-minute Ryota Moriwaki goal.
That was to prove nothing compared to the drama of the quarter-final though, when Reds overturned a 3-1 first leg defeat away to fellow J.League outfit - and ultimately 2017 J1 champions - Kawasaki Frontale.
That deficit was widened after just 19 minutes of the second leg in Saitama, as Elsinho capitalised on a defensive mix-up to put Kawasaki 1-0 up on the night and seemingly as good as into the semis.
Shinzo Koroki equalised in the 35th minute, though, and then another red card – this time for Frontale's Shintaro Kurumaya - swung the momentum in Reds' favour. Three more goals in the space of 15 late minutes from Zlatan Ljubijankic, Rafael Silva, and Toshiyuki Takagi wrapped up a sensational night of football to send Reds into the last four.
At this point the side, by now under the guidance of long-time assistant Takafumi Hori after previous coach Mihailo Petrovic had been sacked mid-season, decided they had put themselves and their fans through enough and shut up shop, grinding out a 2-1 aggregate win over SIPG in the semi-final and then riding their luck in the final to pip Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia to the title by the same score.
Having drawn the first leg 1-1 away from home a 0-0 in the second leg would have secured the championship for Reds, and for a long time it looked like that was how things would finish - especially after Al Hilal added to the tradition of having a player sent off in Saitama when Salem Al Dawsari received his marching orders.
Rafael Silva, who had been the subject of some disgraceful racist abuse from supposed Hilal fans after scoring in the first leg, made sure Reds' first continental title in a decade was wrapped up in style though, slamming home with aplomb after getting in behind in the 88th minute to spark delirium in the stands.
That moment and Ideguchi's drive into the very same goal three months earlier will live longest in the memory of Japanese football fans when they look back on 2017, and here's hoping for similar scenes next year as well.
Copyright: Sean Carroll & Soccerphile.com
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