EDITORIAL: Asian Cup soccer victory

Substitute striker Tadanari Lee's spectacular, text-book volley in extra time gave Japan a victory over Australia in the final of the Asian Cup on Saturday. Japan won the Asian title in 2004, but did not appear in the final in the last tournament in 2007.

It was a wonderful win for Japan that harked back to the FIFA World Cup last year, in which the Japanese team advanced to the round of 16, throwing the entire nation into a state of feverish excitement.

Qatar's capital, Doha, where the latest Asian Cup tournament was held, revives some bitter memories for Japanese soccer fans.

In 1993, Japan faced Iraq in its last match of the final Asian qualifiers for the 1994 World Cup in the United States. In that match in Doha, Japan conceded an injury-time equalizer, shattering its dream of appearing in the World Cup finals for the first time.

The Japanese team's great achievement in the Asian Cup has healed the trauma inflicted by that setback, which is remembered by Japanese fans as the "Doha no higeki" (Tragedy of Doha).

This is a valuable victory and will provide a powerful boost to the Japanese team's efforts ahead of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Japan's Italian coach, Alberto Zaccheroni, lauded his team's "great cohesion." The players had grown and shown solidarity on the path toward the victory, he said.

There was a strong sense of solidarity and mutual trust within the national team, which was shared equally by the leading players and the substitutes.

Lee came on only in extra time, and his game-clinching shot was his first goal as a member of the national team. He was typical of a group of young team members, relatively new to the Japanese squad, who contributed significantly to the team's success. Four players, including Lee, scored their first goal for the national team during the tournament.

The victory was made possible by the high level of motivation in the squad, which was backed up by good coaching. Zaccheroni paid scrupulous attention to all the members of the team and managed to extract the best out of the players, who in return responded brilliantly to his management style.

Japan had no easy wins on its way to the cup. The Japanese side had players sent off in two of its matches and lost the lead in three games. Zaccheroni's side won a nail-biting semifinal penalty shootout against archrival South Korea, which Japan had failed to beat in five matches spanning five and a half years.

They showed ambition and amazing self-confidence, a legacy of their tough fights in last year's World Cup.

Asia is no longer seen as a distant backwater, even in Europe, the home of soccer. A growing number of Asian countries are climbing the world's soccer ladder, a fact underscored by the advancement of both Japan and South Korea to the knockout stage in the World Cup in South Africa.

Africa has come to be regarded as a rich reservoir of football talent, but Asia is now getting more attention in the international soccer community. An army of European scouts came to Doha to check out promising players. Many members of the Japanese team proved themselves agile and highly skilled, if relatively small, players. They also showed they had team spirit. Japan will attract growing international attention.

Despite its team's improving performance on the field, however, Japan Football Association Vice President Kohzo Tashima failed to win a seat on the FIFA executive committee. He was beaten in a ballot at the Asian Football Confederation Congress held just before the Asian Cup. Tashima's defeat, which came on the heels of Japan's unsuccessful bid to host the 2022 World Cup, will reduce Japan's influence within the soccer world.

This is another sign of Japan's lack of clout in international sports, which was also evidenced by Tokyo's failure in its bid to host the Olympics. These episodes appear to symbolize Japan's declining influence in the world.

Japan wants to win in its next attempt to host the World Cup. Japan's soccer community needs to map out an effective strategy for boosting its presence off the field as well as on it.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Jan. 31