Mr. Okano retires
　After the Olympic preliminary tournament in Seoul, Mr. Shun Okano, the manager of the Japanese national team, announced his retirement from his position. Mr. Okano had been the coach and had led the national team to the two Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964 and in Mexico in 1968 before he became the manager in 1970.

　Second Division will be formed
　The representatives of the regional league clubs agreed recently to form the second division of the Japan Soccer League. The minor league will start from April in 1972 with eight leading clubs from the three regional leagues of Kanto (Eastern), Tokai(Midland) and Kansai (Western).It will be the first step to expand the Japan Soccer League to 14 or 16 teams(from 8).

　Malaysian Success in Seoul
　When the East-Asian group matches of the preliminary round for the Munich Olympic football tournament were held in Seoul, Korea, in November and October, the Japanese and the Koreans were reminded a football proverb, 'Ball is round', that means a football can roll in every direction and sometimes go out of an expected way.
　The Japanese and the Koreans had been confident that the position For the Munich Olympic football tournament should be contested between the two traditional North-Eastern rivals. Thus, the most important match between Korea and Japan had been scheduled on the last day of the two weeks round robin tournament.
　 But an unexpected things had happened at the early stage of the tournament. The under-estimated Malaysians defeated Japanese 3-0 at the opening match of the tournament. Thus at this stage, the Korean supporters were delighted very much for the Japanese setback would made a big advantage for Korea. They had no doubt that their representatives would win over Malaysia.
　But the ball rolled to other way. Malaysians' counter-attack brought another success on the second day of the tournament. They beat the stronger Korean side with the score of 1-0 and made it to be sure to gain the position in Munich.
　Practically the competition ended in these two days, because the other two competitors, the Philippines and the Formosa, were considered to be much weaker.
　Some critics pointed out that the true reasons of the Malaysian success had based on the reformed tactics of Malaysian football. Traditionally, in Asia, the Malaysian players were famous with their splendid individual technicques while they had no reputation of running wide into open space and making attack with fast break through. In Seoul, they showed the reformation of their football. The fast counter-attack with long ball from their solid defence produced some splendid goals for them. Well-combined team-play was their main weapon adding to their individual skills.
　It is the first time that the Malaysian football advanced to the final stage of the Olympic Games. Their success may stimulate the South-East Asian countries. Now they can look forward to the world-wide tournament like the Olympic Games and the World Cup.

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