Striking Gold? Japan’s World Cup striking options. Are the Blue Samurai blunt where it matters most?

March 12th, 2010 | by: Aidan | View Comments

The final part of my look at Japan’s potential squad is of course up front where the real action is. This is where dreams are made and dreams are dashed. Unfortunately in Japan’s case, there hasn’t been much of the former, and far too much of the latter in recent times.

The Blue Samurai’s blade is blunt, and that would be something of a worry at anytime, let alone just before World Cup in which your coach has targeted a semi-final place!

To try and resolve this problem, Takeshi Okada has resorted to Maradona levels of squad numbers, by selecting no less than 21 different strikers in the last 2 years. Astonishing.

But let’s look at the main protagonists in contention for South Africa.

Shimizu S-Pulse striker Shinji Okazaki (left) is the main man at the moment. This situation developed in 2009 where he banged in a superb 15 goals over the course of the year, but the behind the headline story is that naturally many of these goals were against inferior opposition. He is under pressure to deliver more of the same, but his finishing has been called into question when playing better sides. Despite this, he remains the first choice up front, and will surely be on the plane to South Africa.

Another who is a current flavour of the month is Sota Hirayama of FC Tokyo. He’s a big lump of a striker, 6ft 3” tall, which is something of a rarity in Japan, and be knocked in three goals on his debut against the might of Yemen in January. This has led to his inclusion ever since, although he has singularly failed to convince, and also his scoring rate in the J-League isn’t great. Okada seems to think that 3 goals against Yemen is the kind of things international strikers are made of, but as we’ll see with one or two others, Okada sticks to his guns with some players much to everyone’s frustration.

Speaking of which, Nagoya Grampus’ Keiji Tamada and Yoshito Okubo of Vissel Kobe are regulars in the squad and team for reasons which are a mystery to most. Both have looked far short of international quality for long enough, but that doesn’t stop Okada starting them when available.

As noted in the Japan Times recently “The two strikers are unlikely to suddenly turn into world-beaters in South Africa, but then Okada’s target of reaching the semifinals shows he makes his calls more on aspiration than hard evidence.”

The hard evidence of course suggests that Tamada and Okubo are not good enough at this level. However, there is a fair chance that one or both may well make the final squad, given Okada’s previous selection policy.

A lot of hopes are being placed on the young shoulders of Takayuki Morimoto (above) who plays in Italy’s Serie A with Catania. He is highly rated, but hasn’t really done too much of note for the senior national team yet. Unfortunately for him, I suspect the fact that he plays in Serie A has led to many Japanese supporters to expect a lot more of him than he is capable of delivering just yet, but let’s be clear, he does have very good potential. He’s still a mere 21 years old (22 by the time of the World Cup) and still has to develop as a player but could be worth taking a chance on for the summer. He’s a good shout for the squad, but I hope that too many don’t consider him the instant answer to Japan’s prayers. He may well be over time, but a limited role this time around is more likely for Morimoto I think.

Other options?

Hisato Sato of Sanfrecce Hiroshima is another striker regularly in the squad but who hasn’t really taken the chances given to him, and I think he will miss out on the final cut.

Two others who haven’t been given as many chances as they should have in my opinion, and certainly less opportunity than Okubo and Tamada, are Jubilo Iwata’s Ryoichi Maeda and Kashima Antlers’ Shinzo Koroki.

Maeda (left) was top scorer in last season’s J-League, despite playing for a mid-table side (and second best team in Shizuoka Prefecture I might add!). Okada hasn’t given Maeda many opportunities at international level, and so it would seem unlikely that he’ll be on the plane to South Africa, which is frustrating really. He has displayed a better eye for goal than many of the others who are regularly picked up front, but Okada continues to overlook him, having only played Maeda in a couple of friendlies last autumn.

Shinzo Koroki is an interesting case too. As part of the J-League winning squad he clearly benefits from a good creative team, but he had a happy knack of scoring crucial goals in the run in to the title in November, and began the new J-League season in the same way, scoring Antlers’ opening goal against Urawa Reds last weekend.

Koroki is small, which will count against him if Okada’s love of the giant Hirayama is anything to go by, and his work rate is open to question at times too. In a squad that will have to be all fighting for each other this may not help his cause.

He has been involved recently, and was in the squad prior to the East Asian Championships, but was cut from that squad with Okada claiming that Koroki “lacks the mental strength for international football”. He duly missed out on that tournament, during which Japan’s strikers (and the whole team) performed rather badly. This then led to a recall to the squad for the recent Bahrain match.

A cynic might say that Okada doesn’t really know what he’s doing and is desperately searching for the right striker to come along and solve all his prayers, as the Koroki and Hirayama situations seem to suggest. The case of Okubo and Yamada hints at a lack of good judgement, but then what the hell do I know?

It should also be noted that in Japan’s most recent match, Okada selected a 4-4-1-1 formation or thereabouts, with one main striker (Okazaki, who was later replaced by Morimoto) supported by Keisuke Honda pushing forward from his more usual midfield position, which looked worthy of another try as a possible formation for Japan.

I think it’s fair to say that the strikers that I would chose would be different to those Okada will pick for the World Cup, so I’m putting forward my own quartet and also the four I think Okada will pick for debate (assuming that World Cup squads are often made up of four strikers).

My four strikers:
Shinji Okazaki
Takayuki Morimoto
Shinzo Koroki
Ryoichi Maeda

My guess at Okada’s four strikers:
Shinji Okazaki
Sota Hirayama
Takayuki Morimoto
Keiji Tamada

Want to know what’s going on behind the strikers? Have a look at the goalkeepers, defence and midfield.