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J. League 2007
The Reds’ rise to the top is a model
for other teams to emulate
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Guido Buchwald
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Courtesy of Masaaki Kato |
Japan’s soccer season officially
gets underway at Tokyo’s National Stadium on February 24, when J. League champions the Urawa Reds take on Emperor’s Cup runners-up Gamba Osaka in the Xerox Super Cup. The J. League itself kicks off on March 3, with the Reds reigning as supreme champions, having won both the league title and Emperor’s Cup last year.
To say that the Reds are unaccustomed to their position of dominance is an understatement. Since the J. League began 14 years ago, the team has been the whipping boys, underachieving with extravagant recklessness and even spending a year in Division 2 after a disastrous 1999 campaign. But Mitsubishi kept faith in the club, and their fans’ enormous spending power—ticket and merchandise sales are almost double those of its nearest rivals—ensured that the squad could attract top players such as Brazilian striker Washington and former Feyenoord midfielder Shinji Ono. More importantly, the club has strength in depth.
But the key to the Reds’ turnaround—as it is for all successful clubs—was management. Former boss Hans Ooft was mighty miffed when he was replaced by Guido Buchwald in 2004. After helping the Reds to their first trophy (the Nabisco Cup) in 2003 and pushing them up the league to sixth place, Ooft felt he had turned things around. He was right. He had created a platform for the Reds to shoot for the top, as he had done at Jubilo Iwata in the mid-’90s. Both teams subsequently won the J. League Championship.
Perhaps they would have won with Ooft, but hiring Buchwald—a potentially risky move considering his lack of managerial experience—provided the final element the Reds had long lacked: optimism. When Buchwald was with the Reds back in the ’90s, he played with passion and fire and led by example. As manager, he was no different, and the passion he brought to the club translated into absolute and unflinching confidence. That often gets you far in the world of sports.
As the Reds showed in the Emperor’s Cup final on January 1, just believing can get you out of tight jams. Gamba Osaka (who finished third in the J. League last season), dominated the final at Tokyo’s National Stadium, but the Reds clung on—partly in desperation, partly through inspiration—in what was Buchwald’s last game at the helm. In the past, they would have crumbled. In the past, they would never have made it to the final. In the past, the fans had more hope and belief than the players themselves.
The Reds’ story should be seen as an example to all J. League clubs, as a few are at the moment, running on empty. They are devoid of belief; they are unaware that they can transcend their mediocrity; they have managers who are terrified of losing; the players and coaches hide beneath their Japanese exterior and the (false) assumption they are genetically inferior; and the players perform like pantomime superstars when they are theatrical nobodies.
These people look up to exceptions such as Hidetoshi Nakata, but fail to understand him. They see Buchwald as a creature from another planet.
But, in truth, they are all on planet soccer. Buchwald, a German, showed how a team of Japanese failures could triumph by facing the realities of soccer. Nakata, a Japanese, showed how an average player could go beyond expectations through application and belief (Nakata is the same weight and height as FIFA World Player of the Year Fabio Cannavaro). If Japanese players, teams and coaches can understand what these two men did, Japanese soccer can go as high as it wants.
After the disaster of Zico and the 2006 World Cup, it’s time to start understanding.
Feb 24, National Stadium. See sports listings for details.
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