Making themselves at home

An absolute wall of noise greeted fans as they approached Yokohama Stadium for the Club World Cup final, as tens-of-thousands of Corinthians supporters took over the main plaza. Their team went on to emulate theme on the pitch, too…

Last week I wrote in praise of Auckland City, whose participation in the Club World Cup provided something of a link to the grassroots of the game – a little unusually seeing as the competition is intended to pit the world’s elite against each other.

The semi-professionals from New Zealand undoubtedly gave football fans something to identify with but their impact on the tournament and everyone who took part in it was a drop in the ocean compared to the waves made by the sensational fans of Corinthians.

A few days before Auckland and Sanfrecce Hiroshima got the ball rolling in Yokohama images started filtering through of what lay in store for Japan from the fiel (faithful), when 15,000 fanatical supporters caused gridlock at Guarulhos Airport as the Copa Libertadores champions set off for Japan.

Over 20,000 followed swiftly behind their team and, upon arrival, were boosted by around 8,000 Japan-based Corinthians fans, leading to Toyota and Yokohama Stadiums being besieged by black-tracksuited hordes of suporters, the likes of which even seasoned football fans and journalists had rarely, if ever, encountered before.

The tracksuits weren’t only a common sight at the venues, and pockets of Corinthians fans – always in uniform – were spotted around the country taking in the sights and endearing themselves to the locals with their enthusiasm and good humour.

The day of the final against Chelsea was when they really came into their own, and the entire journey from the ticket-barrier at Shin Yokohama station to the stadium provided entertainment.

Whether it was spontaneously breaking into song, shouting good-naturedly but incomprehensibly in Portuguese to baffled security guards en route, or heckling the street-vendors selling dodgy Chelsea shirts the Brazilians were making themselves at home.

Their passion was infectious and despite the fact that the European champions were in town Chelsea were essentially playing an away game.

Even though they were vastly outnumbered off the pitch they were expected to have too much for Corinthians once the sides crossed the white line though, and few expected anything other than a victory for the English side.

Of course, that wasn’t how things turned out and the visceral, flare-lit and animated support from the tens-of-thousands who’d travelled halfway around the world – in some cases reportedly selling their cars and spending life-savings to fund the trip – was surely in some way responsible.

The Corinthians players and coach certainly thought so.

“They are the players, part of us, too,” head coach Tite observed after the match. “I don’t know how the supporters are getting the energy but when the team don’t have enough energy sometimes [they] inject [it] into the team. Sometimes the matches are very rough and the supporters expect us to play rough. The supporters are very passionate. Sometimes maybe too passionate!”

Defender Paulo Andre – a fascinating character who also paints (he is working on a piece now to commemorate the world championship) and was off to Miami and Las Vegas the next day, “I will have fun. I like to play poker!” – agreed, and explained how the players now come to expect their 12^th men (and women, and children) to have their backs.

“We are not surprised anymore because we know they will travel all over the world to be with us, to be with our team. We were playing for them and that’s what they asked for. So we are happy and having fun on the pitch because we know that we have 30 million people cheering for us.”

He also gave an indication as to what motivated everyone at the club to overcome their more famous, glamorous and wealthy opponents.

“It’s football and most of the time it’s a team, it’s not one player or two players but 11 players who work together to achieve our goal,” he said.

“I think it’s a real battle between the third world and the first world. For our people, for our fans who have a difficult life and everything else, it’s very important to show the world that we can beat them and be the best in the world.”

Officially now that is exactly what they are. No such title exists for supporters but the Corinthians fans would take some beating.

Fans help keep Corinthians believing

Corinthians became Club World Cup champions on Sunday night, defeating Chelsea 1-0 to claim their second world crown.

I was at Nissan Stadium to see the Brazilian side’s triumph, and after the game I gathered reaction from the players and coaches of both sides for The Daily Yomiuri.

Making the connection

On the whole the Club World Cup is a fairly strange competition. This year Auckland City reminded me of one of the positives, though…

Last year I pretty much dismissed any pretentions the Club World Cup had to being a serious competition, and with Chelsea the European representatives this year my enthusiasm for the tournament had not exactly increased.

Although I was delighted that Sanfrecce Hiroshima would get a chance to exhibit their brand of attacking football – not to mention their purple kit and elaborate goal celebrations – to a slightly wider audience, the lack of a potential Barcelona v. Santos face-off in the final meant there was very little glamour or excitement in the air as things creaked into action.

Without the distraction of the Messi and Neymar sideshow, however, it turned out that I was able to focus on one of the few positives of FIFA’s money-making extravaganza; the chance for the minnows to get their 15 minutes.

Auckland City, the undoubted underdog of the competition, were back in town, and having met some of the staff and players when they competed last year (losing 2-0 in the opening game to Kashiwa Reysol) I paid slightly more attention to the club on this occasion.

Part of the reason for that was the sheer amount of effort they were putting into being noticed, and as an amateur club with extremely limited potential as things currently stand with the game in New Zealand they were doing fantastically to connect with football fans in any way they could.

Whether it was by going beyond the call of duty to help me write a feature on their Japanese full-back Takuya Iwata – formerly of FC Gifu and now working as a delivery driver by day – or attempting tweets in Japanese to engage with local supporters they demonstrated that football is, for the majority, a social activity based around communication and cooperation.

Last year I spoke to the side’s Argentinean striker Emiliano Tade, and even though he and his side had just been eliminated from the tournament he demonstrated genuine excitement at what he had experienced.

“It’s an honour to be in a big tournament,” he said. “All my life I wanted to be here, it was my dream. It was really exciting and I’m really proud.”

That is exactly what I would say. Not because I’m a media-trained professional and it’s what you’re supposed to say but because, think about it, you’re playing out there in front of the TV cameras and thousands of fans when not so long ago you were washing dishes and just hoping for a kick-about (as Tade had revealed was his situation when he’d arrived in New Zealand).

This year, too, the side wasn’t short of interesting stories, and although Iwata provided the key focus for obvious reasons, goalkeeper Tamati Williams was also well worth having a chat with.

“I had three and a half or four years off,” he replied to a Kiwi journalist who, fully aware of the answer, had cheekily enquired what he’d been up to of late.

“I was a full-time model,” he continued. “I always struggle to say that with a straight face,” he added, true to his word breaking out into a slightly embarrassed grin. “It was good – I had a great experience with that, but I had to put the football on the back burner. At the time I was in the national team, so it didn’t sit well with a lot of the coaches.”

That decision can’t have been an easy one to make but, away from the obscene riches and glamour at the very top of the pyramid, the reality for many players worldwide – even professional – is that they have to make ends meet.

“The next step is obviously going up to playing as a professional,” Williams concluded, “but it’s not something I have to worry about. If the bridge comes along, then I’ll worry about it then, but otherwise the first priority is [playing] football and study.”

Comments like that don’t generate as many hits on the websites as Messi v. Ronaldo, but they do make for refreshing reading. The grounded and dedicated players at Auckland are primarily playing for playing’s sake, and thanks to their participation in the Club World Cup I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for their results from now on.

Chelsea into Club World Cup final

Chelsea comfortably overcame Mexican side Monterrey on Thursday, setting up the expected Club World Cup final against Copa Libertdores champions Corinthians.

After they booked their place in Sunday’s match I gathered some reaction from Frank Lampard, Rafa Benitez, Fernando Torres and Gary Cahill for The Daily Yomiuri.

Sanfrecce fall short of Club World Cup semifinals

Having qualified for the competition as J.League champions Sanfrecce Hiroshima were always going to be up against it in the Club World Cup, but they had their sights set on a semi-final berth at worst.

After their opening victory in the competition I spoke to Croatian midfielder Mihael Mikic about the team’s season, the Club World Cup and what’s next on the agenda for Sanfrecce.

Albi-there

“Taking it one game at a time” and “playing to the very end” are insufferably trite comments offered after seemingly every game I watch in Japan. For Albirex Niigata, that is exactly what they did as the 2012 season drew to a close though…

Gamba Osaka’s relegation was understandably the main talking point after the final round of the J.League season but Albirex Niigata deserve a huge amount of credit for performing their great escape.

The Hokuriku side had been in the bottom three for the last 12 weeks of 2012 – only spending six above the dotted line all season – and after losing 1-0 at home to Kawasaki Frontale in Round 32 it looked like their stint in J1 had come to an end.

An incredible away win over then-title-chasing Vegalta Sendai the next week gave them an outside chance of hanging on, though, and with that victory having gifted the championship to Sanfrecce Hiroshima I decided that for the last league game of the year I would head up to Niigata for their clash with Consadole Sapporo.

I have to admit that I also had slightly selfish reasons for wanting to go to the Big Swan Stadium.

At the start of the year I’d set myself the target of seeing every J1 team play at home at least once, and although I had been to Niigata once this year to see Japan play UAE it looked like Albirex were going to be the only side I’d miss out on.

The surprisingly early conclusion at the top of the table presented the opportunity though, and with Gamba and Vissel both needing positive results and Albirex facing whipping boys Consadole Sapporo I had a feeling the game could be well worth going to.

I wasn’t wrong and as soon as I got to the stadium I found myself caught up in the atmosphere.

Waiting at the players’ entrance, despite the bitterly cold and  wet weather, were some 3,000 home fans, waving flags, holding up orange placards declaring, in English, “We are one,” and creating a phenomenal noise to welcome their team.

Results elsewhere had to go their way but the Albirex fans were going to make damn sure their team held up their end of the bargain and get the job done at home.

The players didn’t disappoint, and although Consadole came briefly back into the game at the start of the second half the result was never really in doubt, and for the final 20 minutes or so most people in the stadium had their attention directed elsewhere.

Well, except the Albirex players and staff, that was.

“We weren’t following [the other games] at all,” stand-in coach Katsushi Kurihara said in the press conference (Masaaki Yanagishita was suspended having been sent off in the previous week’s win).

“We knew that our route to stay up absolutely depended on us winning. We wanted the players to be entirely focused on this match so until the very end we didn’t tell the players what was happening at the other venues so they didn’t know.”

Atomu Tanaka confirmed that those out on the pitch had no idea what was going on in Iwata (where Gamba eventually lost 2-1) or Kobe (where Vissel went down 1-0).

“We did what we had to do,” the midfielder said after the 4-1 win.

“We didn’t know at all [what was going on elsewhere] until the very end. After the game finished I looked at the bench. It seemed like the other games still hadn’t finished but I heard that if things stayed as they were we would be ok.”

I asked him if the players had believed two weeks previously that they would still be in the top flight in 2013.

“We weren’t going to give up until the end,” he replied. “Everyone gave everything they had right until the very end. Next year we will be able to play in J1 again so I feel relieved.”

Kurihara insisted that the achievement was a result of continuity and trust.

“Really it didn’t feel at all different to watching a training match. I believed in the players’ strength and knew they would turn up.

“With regards to having to win at home, we thought that maybe because of the support of the fans our path would be made a little easier. In the end that was how it turned out.”

How Gamba and Vissel must wish they had taken a different road.

Good things come to those who wait

At a time when clubs are increasingly in search of the magic formula for instant success this year’s J1 champions Sanfrecce Hiroshima showed that sometimes it really is slow and steady that wins the race…

First things first, I would like to offer my sincere congratulations to everybody at Sanfrecce Hiroshima.

Since I arrived in Japan I have visited the club several times and am delighted for the players, staff and fans that they have achieved their first ever J1 title.

Vegalta ran them close and are another club I have particular affection for, and although their football is maybe not as easy on the eye as Sanfrecce’s they would have been popular champions – particularly when considering the impact of the March 11^th earthquake and tsunami on the area.

I have been a little critical of both sides throughout the course of this season for not really seizing the initiative and stamping their authority on the title race, but no other team took advantage of that hesitancy and Sanfrecce – top for the last 10 rounds of the season and in the top two consistently since Round 12 – are worthy winners.

Their success, too, acts as a wonderful example to other sides, particularly as it comes immediately after Kashiwa Reysol’s remarkable back-to-back J2 and J1 championships. Both clubs’ triumphs were earned by consistency.

Reysol laid the foundations for their 2011 title after a year dominating all comers in the second division – a season that almost amounted to one of preparation for their assault on the top flight crown the following year.

To do that the board had needed to keep faith with Nelsinho who was unable to prevent them dropping into J2 having been parachuted in midway through the 2009 season, and they received the ultimate reward for that patience last year.

Sanfrecce’s project, too, was a long time in the making.

Although they did experience a change of coach at the start of this season, Hajime Moriyasu had played for the club and worked under the previous incumbent Mihailo Petrovic between 2007 and 2009 and changed very little when taking the top job.

Indeed, Petrovic’s efforts in Hiroshima – which like Nelsinho also included a year in J2 in 2008 – are so widely regarded that Moriyasu paid tribute to his predecessor in his press conference after Sanfrecce’s 4-1 win over Cerezo Osaka that secured the title.

It was Petrovic who introduced and stuck with Hiroshima’s now trademark 3-6-1 formation, and over the past few seasons the club has refined that to edge closer to this year’s achievement. The board should be commended for sticking to their philosophy and not panicking as previous seasons saw Sanfrecce fall just short of the ultimate prize.

Makoto Teguramori paid reference to Sanfrecce’s consistent approach after Vegalta Sendai’s fatal defeat to Albirex Niigata which gifted the title to the Purple Archers.

“Hiroshima were fourth in 2009, played in the AFC Champions League in 2010 and now they are champions,” he was quoted as saying on the official J.League website.

“We will finally play in the Champions League ourselves next season and I think we’ll flourish there as a team that can be champions, too. Looking at Hiroshima’s triumph, my feeling today is that our time is yet to come.”

It is hard to argue with that reasoning.

Vegalta, like Sanfrecce and Reysol, have also built up a level of consistency over the past three seasons, and likewise have kept faith in their manager. Teguramori has just completed his fifth season in charge, two of which coincidentally – or perhaps not – were, like Nelsinho and Petrovic, spent in J2.

While several larger, richer, supposedly bigger clubs flit from manager to manager and new start to new start the long-termism of sensible clubs like Sanfrecce and Vegalta is proof that picking a coach, a style, and a philosophy and sticking to it is a far more reliable way of achieving success.

JEF United, for instance, would do well to take note of that approach. Yet again this year they missed out on a return to J1 – by just four minutes – and in response decided that the best thing to do was to change head coach. Again. Because that tactic has worked so well for them up until now, hasn’t it.

Whether Sanfrecce can maintain their current status or Vegalta can make the next step up is still open to debate, but they are certainly going about it in the right way.

Timing helped put Iwata in N.Z. driver’s seat

Takuya Iwata spent several seasons at FC Gifu without managing to make a J.League appearance but on Thursday night he will be stepping out at Yokohama International Stadium as his Auckland City side take on Sanfrecce Hiroshima in the opening game of the 2012 Club World Cup.

I wrote a feature on the delivery truck driver’s incredible story for The Daily Yomiuri.

Sato’s super season / Striker named J.League MVP after leading Sanfrecce to 1st title

On Monday night the J.League Awards were unsurprisingly dominated by Sanfrecce Hiroshima and their captain, top-scorer and talisman Hisato Sato.

After the show I spoke to former and current teammates and the man himself about his incredible season.