The Hindu : It's Japan's team effort vs China's individual brilliance

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 26, 2002

Sport

Sport - Football

It's Japan's team effort vs China's individual brilliance

By Our Special Correspondent

Margoa April 25. Japan, with South Korea as its co-host, is set to touch at least a billion cords when the first-ever football World Cup in Asia goes on stage next month. On a much smaller scale, Japan is also playing its part as a role model for the not-so-privileged Asian countries to look at in the field of women's football for the emerging youth. While the world turns its attention to Japan, the women's wing of the Japan FA has its own thoughts squarely turned on this little Goan township to refurbish its support base and enhance its stature as a regional giant.

The maiden Asian Football Confederation women's (under-19) football championship passed through the lop-sided preliminaries last evening and gets into real competition at the Nehru Stadium here tomorrow.

A dozen teams got into AFC's newest concept aimed at building a core for women's football in the continent to sustain. It hasn't taken long to separate the accomplished from the bunnies. The four teams emerging out of the preliminaries — Japan, China, Chinese Taipei and North Korea — are arguably the four strongest entities in the region. An exception, perhaps, was South Korea, which lost out on the race for the second best team after the group topper, to China.

Chinese coach Gao Pong Ming put the business end of this championship in the right perspective. "My guess is that all the four teams are equally matched.'' Yet, the Chinese would have been far more happy playing someone other than Japan in the semifinals though the coach sounded pretty confident that his side would take on anyone. The politically sensitive, diplomatically deadlocked mainland-Taipei cold war may have, in a humourous way, turned up its ghost in the form of Chinese Taipei doing just about enough to avoid meeting Japan and instead pushing China into it!

The girls from Taipei took the field against Singapore last evening, needing a huge win to get to the top of the group and avoid a meeting with Japan. And they ended up with 18 goals. This led Taipei to a semifinal clash with North Korea, which given its floundering economy and its crippling effect on life back home, has found an expression through its football skills to seek world empathy and help.

In the eyes of the experts, the first semifinal to be played in the morning between Japan and China is virtually the final simply because these two sides stand head and shoulders above the rest.

"It is a pity that these two sides are not meeting in the final,'' a visiting offical reacted when the line-up was made known.

Both Japan and China have well-run women's leagues which have created ideal platforms for girls to take up the game early. Most of the other teams are woefully short on this privilege.

Yukan Kinga and Kanako Ito have already had a taste of professional football in Japan and are also in the National shortlist among seniors. That makes them the most dangerous duo for any opposition. And Ayako Kitamoto has been a prolific scorer in the first phase.

When it comes to team effort, Japan has looked the most formidable, though in terms of individual brilliance, China has a distinct edge.

Bi Yan is a livewire in the Chinese scheme of things while Li Nan is a potential goal scoring force. Dandan Wang also figures prominently among the emerging talent list.

Japanese coach Ikeda Shinbou is not willing to make a guess as to how this game could go. He may not be weary of the press as such though his distaste for the media is rather well-known. But Shinbou is the kind of coach who prefers to play his cards close to his chest.

Sho O's talent on show

Taipei is a lot more relaxed now that it has managed to get the lesser of the evils in the semifinals. Taipei's Tseng Sho O is on a roll, having topped the goal-scorers' list with seven goals and four assists. She is a player who can beat the best of defences and has struck a good rapport with Li Chen Tsai, whose good height has been of vital importance to the team.

Taipei coach Chang Yao Chuan said at the end of the first stage that he was more than satisfied with his team's effort. "The girls have overcome the challange of playing in a foreign environment and deserve credit for making it to the semifinals.''

The organisers dropped the idea of holding the semifinal under floodlights in view of errant power supply. Public interest has been understandably low-key. But for the people who ought to be present, there are not many around, barring a small of group of school children. That, however, does not underscore the importance of this event for Asia, in general, and countries taking part, in particular, since it is regarded as AFC's earnest attempt to shore up women's football.

The AFC got this championship, planned at present to be a biennial affair, off the ground as a sequel to the world body FIFA unveiling the World women's (under-19) championship. The finalists here will qualify for the FIFA event to be held in Canada. And the semifinalists realise that this is a big incentive to go for.

The semifinal line-up: Japan vs China (8.30 a.m.) and Chinese Taipei v North Korea (4.00 p.m.).

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