Hate to say I told you so...
Friday, 07 November 08, 04:19 PM · Comments(5)
"Mike Tuckerman has a massive problem with the A-league.
And is always making comparisons. Ignore any article he writes, I could fill this forum with his anti-aussie diatribe.
That said it is ridiculous to compare the J league with the A league, and many Australians need to stop doing this, it just gives idiots like Mike the ammunition they require."
That was just one of the responses posted on the message board of a well-read Australian football website, after I wrote this suggesting that perhaps Australian football doesn't have as much in common with the J. League as we think.
Well, after watching Gamba Osaka demolish Adelaide United in the first leg of the AFC Champions League final, the suggestion that the J.
League is the current benchmark of Asian football seems about right to me.
What have we learned from Gamba Osaka's astonishing 3-0 thrashing of Adelaide United in the first leg of the AFC Champions League final?
The first thing is that Gamba should have won by a wider margin. If I were a cynic I might suggest that referee Bashir Abdul Malik looked suspiciously like he was trying to keep the score down, by not sending off Adelaide keeper Eugene Galekovic for a blatant professional foul and then ruling out Yasuhito Endo's "goal" after he subsequently curled his free-kick past Galekovic and into the top corner. But that is to miss the point.
The point is that Gamba Osaka proved that Australian football is light years behind the Japanese game in terms of technical skill.
How this fact has been overlooked by so many in Australia, I'm not really sure. But I have some idea. I caught the intro to Adelaide station Fresh FM's otherwise excellent radio coverage of the game - and bravo to the station for sending a team over to Osaka at considerable expense in the first place - but when presenter Dom Rinaldo told guest reporter Andrew Montesi that he wouldn't ask for his opinion on Gamba Osaka, I had to ask myself why.
If Lucas Neill can "google" Pim Verbeek, then why can't Andrew Montesi "google" Gamba Osaka? Is it acceptable that a paid sports reporter is not expected to present an opinion on the opposition? How hard is it to look up even the most cursory information in an age where this kind of stuff is supposed to be available at our fingertips?
To be fair to Fresh FM, at least they were at the game, and there have been more galling oversights from other media outlets.
How often do we have to put up with the following cliché?
"Aurelio Vidmar leads his team into the unknown."
You what? Isn't this the same Aurelio Vidmar who spent a season at Sancrecce Hiroshima in the late 90's? Wouldn't that mean that he himself has played at Expo '70 Stadium in Osaka? And wouldn't that make him a decent judge of Japanese football? Leading his team into the unknown! Sounds like he's taking his team to Osaka via Mars.
The build-up and subsequent crushing defeat prompted the usual round of soul-searching from the Australian blogosphere and message boards. Some of it exposed the total naivet'e of Australian fans. One proposal had the A-League playing an All-Star game against a J.League XI. A great idea - except for the fact that the J. League already plays an All-Star game against the K-League.
Other suggestions include implementing "free player loans" between J. League and A-League clubs. How does that work? After a J. League team thumps their Aussie counterparts, they then take some Australian players "on loan" to teach them the basic skills that are drilled into Japanese players from the age of five? Why on earth would the J. League agree to that? And why would the J. League want to develop Australian players in the first place? The J. League is a business, not a charity.
Everywhere I turn, I see myth reported as fact. Gamba Osaka as a "giant" of Japanese football. The crumbling Expo '70 Stadium as one of "the best" in Japan. Even the incredulous descriptions of Gamba's "wonderful chanting fans" leaves me irate. How hard is it to look this stuff up? I can't help but feel that if the Australian football community hadn't approached the AFC Champions League final with eyes wide shut, it wouldn't have been so surprised by the level of Gamba's play.
As for me, suggestions that I'm "anti A-League" are well wide of the mark. I was a season ticket-holder when Sydney FC lifted the inaugural toilet seat, and was at all three of Australia's group stage games at the World Cup in 2006. I missed the second round clash with Italy because I was getting married. Even then, it was a close call.
I am just as proud of Australian football as the next fan, but it seems to me that unless we begin to embrace Asian football there are going to be plenty more nasty surprises in store. We could do worse than starting to pay some attention to the J. League.
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Hey Mike. I’m Japanese.I can’t use English well, But If you understand what I want to say, I’m happy.
I think All-Star game between J-league and A-league will hold in future. Why do you think this game held between J and K in this season? All-Star game just had been merrymaking that star players of each clubs were selected by fun play before last season. But this season game changed. Last champion coach selected almost players. And J All-Stars included with two korean (Kim Nam-Il and Chong Tese) by recommendation of the association(Japan Professional Football League). It meant that All-Star game is not for fan.
I think this reason is a 3+1 rule for foreign players on AFC. In consequence of that, various asian player will play in J-league from next season. I think J-league imagine the same as what Japanese watch their country player in Euro on TV and would like to sell Broadcasting right for those asian countries. It's "The J. League is a business" that Mike said.
G'day lol. Thank you for leaving a comment - your English is good!
I know all about the All-Star game. I've seen it quite a few times.
LINK
But you are right about the J. League wanting to expand their broadcast deal. I also think that was a factor behind the 3+1 rule.
As for an All-Star game, it would be nice to see an Australian side involved in the future. But with Australian teams fast becoming strong rivals of Japanese teams in the ACL, and with Jomo and the J. League and K-League having already signed contracts for an All-Star game between those two leagues, I'm not sure how quickly we could see something like that be arranged.
Yah, Now there is two year deal(home&away) between J&K . And All-Star game include with the player in J–League from opponent country become good appeal of J–League.
But I don't hope that game coz J–League player look a salesman. I think If J–League association want to keep on hold All-Star game like this after then. they have to explain other reason for player and supporter.
5 Comments · Add yours
Bit harsh there
J-league are the standard bearers of Asia and australia has a lot of catch up to do especially with youth development, scouting and technical ability.
No one has denied that. But we are a young league and in terms of competent administration we are only about 4-5 years old.
FOr a team like Adelaide to make it to the final while beating the J-league champions and current top of the table Kashima Antlers suggest that we are not that far behind the J-leagues especially since our league is much younger and the financial disparity between the two sides.
No the financial disparity didn't cause J-league to buy imports and buy victory over other teams like you rightly stated. It however does let them invest more money in training facilities, youth development and scouting networks that no Australian club can compete with.
One bad result doesn't make A-league crap just like Adelaide two legged win over Kashima didn't make A-league better than J-league either.
It shows that Adelaide if well coached and playing intelligent football can beat top Japanese sides and overcome the technical gap between the two sides.
No one was surprised with Gamba Osaka level of play we mostly surprised how poor Adelaide was and how defensive it was giving too much space for Gamba. You hear about physique stereotype of Australians but I certainly didn't see Adelaide even attempting imposing themselve physically over the japanese
Other things to comment about
"Aurelio Vidmar leads his team into the unknown."
Is it quite possible that the unknown is not Japan (as Sydney and Melbourne and Adelaide all played previously in Japan before ACL final) but the unknown is an Australian club sidereaching a major continental final for the first time in history.
"A-League playing an All-Star game against a J.League XI"
So K-league already plays J-league XI. So why not try and find a way to make it a tri-series with A-league players then?
Thanks for your response, dasilva, you've raised several salient points.
Of course I think for a league that is just four seasons old, the A-League is doing well to hold it's own. A good basis of comparison is a four year old J. League - with Japanese teams not exactly sweeping all before them in continental football in the mid-1990's.
My concern stems from the fact that we get so far ahead of ourselves. In the euphoria of Adelaide reaching the Champions League final, we seemed to forget that Gamba Osaka might themselves be a very handy football side. And what irks me is when the post-match analysis misses the point - as it often does in Australia. Certainly Gamba Osaka's ability to invest in training facilities, youth football etcetera, has helped them become a force in Asian football, but it's what Gamba does with those facilities that count - they drill good technique into their players. The difference in technical skill between Gamba's players and Adelaide United on Wednesday night was palpable.
And that brings me to another concern, and that is the Australian media/fans' inability to offer/accept constructive criticism.
Every time I see a guy like Craig Foster offer some advice on how he thinks we might do better as a football nation, he's shouted down as "having an agenda" before he's even made his point.
Moreover, anyone who dares suggest that we might do better - myself included - is shouted down as "un-Australian." What does that make Johnny Warren?
As for the J. League playing an All-Star game, again it comes back to a point that I think Australian fans sometimes miss. Of course it would be nice for the A-League to be involved in an All-Star game with a Japanese team. But the point is that the J. League doesn't NEED it. Just because something might suit Australian football, doesn't mean that anyone is Asian football is going to care.
Anyway, I appreciate your well-thought response and I hope you stick around to offer some more insight on here.