Japanese League season opens
The first half of the Japanese Soccer League season in 1975 opened on April 6 and the league between the ten teams in the first division will end on June 2. The second of the season is scheduled for nine weeks between October and December. Training of the national team will take place during the summer interval.
Shun Okano becomes the director of JASA
Shun-ichiro Okano, who is the former manager of the national team and now an official of the Japanese Football Association in charge of international affairs, has been elected a member of the executive directors' board of the Japanese Amateur Sports Association (JASA). Shun Okano is now 43 years of age and is one of the youngest directors of JASA. |
Aby's opinion on Japanese players
Can we believe the diplomatic expression of "Aby" Ericson, the Swedish World Cup manager who visited Japan last March? He told the Japanese press that the footballers of the Japanese national team were skillful and physically fit enough to play against the tall and powerful European teams.
However the results of the games between Aby's young team from Sweden and the Japanese national team did not back his words. The Japanese side lost all of the three friendly matches against the visiting Swedish team in early March in Tokyo, by scores of 1-0, 4-1 and 2-0. The local spectators were very disappointed not only with the results but also with the low morale of their candidates for the Montreal Olympics. No Japanese players showed the positive techniques and the fighting spirit necessary to beat the very close man-to-man pressure of the Swedish defense.
The visiting Swedish side did not entirely consist of internationals. Only two players who had registered for the World Cup last year were included in the team. They were Goran Hagberg and Thomas Ahlstrom. Hagberg had been the second goalkeeper of the Swedish World Cup team hut he had no chance to substitute for the brilliant Hollstrom in West Germany. Ahlstrom was the most promising striker for Sweden and he had played substitute twice in the last World Cup playing 40 minutes in all. These two players and a veteran Thomas Nordahl, the son of the famous international striker in the 1940s, Gunner Nordahl, were the key players of the visiting team. Most of the team were young players under 23 years of age, Aby Ericson explained that the team was intended to become of candidates for the next World Cup held in Argentina in 1978.
On the other hand the Japanese side was the best possible with the exception of a few injured players. It was the national team for the preliminary tournament of the Asian third group for the Montreal Olympics which will probably be held in 6 months' time (at the time of writing we have not got the final decision when and where the competition will be held).
The Japanese players were four years older on average and more experienced than the Sweden, but the only player who could stand up against the taller, stronger and more skillful Swedish players was Kunishige Kamamoto who is now 30 years of age.
"Japanese players were not so bad" said Aby Ericson again after his third victory in Japan. "The main defect was the lack of individual movement and the lack of imagination. It should improve after more international experience such as they have had with us".
In spite of Aby's opinion, Japanese suporters are not so optimistic about the future of their national team. |
