The excuses were flying thick-and-fast in the aftermath of Gamba Osaka's thrilling 4-3 AFC Champions League victory over Melbourne Victory at the Telstra Dome in Melbourne on April 9. They were mainly flying from the mouths of Melbourne apologists, who were quick to point out that Victory were missing Australian international Archie Thompson, that the salary cap had cruelled their chances of beating a "rich" club like Gamba Osaka, and that, given that the A-League is currently in the midst of its long off-season, Melbourne were lacking match fitness.

Some of these statements contained an element of truth, but they masked the fact that Melbourne were beaten on the back of making elementary mistakes. It's notable that for all of the Victory's pre-match claims that they had been "scouting" Gamba games - they were apparently unaware that Yasuhito Endo always looks for captain Satoshi Yamaguchi from corners (which is how Yamaguchi scored in Gamba's clash with Shimizu S-Pulse just three days earlier), or that Takahiro Futagawa is one of the best long-range shooting specialists in Japan.

Perhaps the most irritating claim, however, was the one made by Melbourne fans claiming that their team had been beaten by a "full strength" Gamba line-up. Pardon?

A cursory glance through the Gamba team-sheet for the match at the Telstra Dome reveals that the Osakans were missing defender Akira Kaji and striker Ryuji Bando. Kaji has won over 60 caps for Japan. Bando has seven, but would surely have more had he not been struck down by a series of injuries over the past couple of seasons.

Their replacements were Hideo Hashimoto - an experienced player, but nominally a midfielder, and ex-Oita Trinita striker Masato Yamazaki. In over 250 league appearances in Japanese football, Ryuji Bando has scored more than 80 goals. Yamazaki has made about 80 league appearances. He's scored just three times. Full strength line-up? Not quite.

It's notable that Melbourne fans were so quick to highlight the absence of Archie Thompson but were oblivious to Gamba's own injury woes. Not only does it suggest a lack of grace in defeat, it also highlights that when it comes to Asian football, Australians remain - on the whole, fairly oblivious to the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents. That's not surprising - Japanese fans would be hard pressed to name a single A-League player. Yet their fans are arguably more circumspect when it comes to assessing an opponent in the aftermath of defeat.

Now, as both teams prepare for the return clash at Expo '70 Stadium on the northern outskirts of Osaka, it's Gamba who hold all the ready-made excuse cards. Not only is first choice shot-stopper Yosuke Fujigaya injured, but so too is his deputy Naoki Matsuda. That means that 23-year-old rookie Atsushi Kimura will feature between the posts for the Panasonic-outfit, for what could be a nerve-wracking Champions League debut.

As for Akira Kaji and Ryuji Bando, both were expected to return from injury towards the back end of April, but with Gamba set to play five J. League fixtures over fifteen days at the end of the month, it's unlikely that either man will feature against Melbourne. Indeed Gamba will no doubt have an eye on their upcoming regional derby with Vissel Kobe - a club that seems to exist merely to irritate their Kansai cousins from down the road.

Melbourne captain Kevin Muscat has already proclaimed that his team can't offer any excuses, with the Victory's AFC Champions League campaign hanging in the balance. Noble sentiments from the fiery skipper, but only time will tell if they ring true.

Well that was quick. After provoking howls of fury from certain sections of the domestic press for his frank assessment of the A-League, new Australia coach Pim Verbeek has seemingly won over some of his detractors following the Socceroos' clinical defeat of Qatar in their opening World Cup qualifier. 

Australia hammered Qatar 3 - 0; it should have been at least six, with the Qatari's seemingly overwhelmed by a Socceroos line-up containing the likes of Everton star Tim Cahill, Palermo ace Mark Bresciano and Celtic striker Scott McDonald. The goals were all scored within the opening thirty-three minutes and but for some wayward second-half finishing the Aussie's could have run-up a proverbial cricket score.

The victory was enough to momentarily silence some of the critics who seemed ready to blame Verbeek for everything from a potential dip in attendances at A-League games to the severe storms currently lashing the country - I wouldn't have been surprised if someone tried to rename La Nina - "La Verbeek."

Still, the straight-talking Dutchman just seemed happy to have got the job done. The real test now comes in the form of China at altitude next month. If Australia needs any reminder of just how much of a role weather can play in the outcome of matches, they need only watch a tape of the Japan - Thailand clash, with the Thai's looking visibly uncomfortable in the snow in Saitama.

Evidently not one to be too perturbed by the machinations of the press, Verbeek did let one cat out of the bag. When TV commentator Simon Hill reminded the Dutchman that former Socceroos assistant-coach Johann Neeskens had not only learned the words to the Australian national anthem but actually sung it with gusto during the World Cup, Verbeek suggested that he hopes to have learned the lyrics after fourteen qualifying matches - and went on to claim that he'll sing it on TV when he does!

From Euro-snob to "Aussie Pim" - it's a funny old game indeed.

The news that Australia talisman Harry Kewell has been overlooked by new coach Pim Verbeek for Australia's opening World Cup qualifier against Qatar provoked less wailing and collective gnashing of teeth than I might have expected.

That's probably because Australian football fans have already worked themselves into an hysterical frenzy over Verbeek's frank assessment that he would rather select European-based players who were training regularly, over players currently plying their trade in the A-League.

The reaction that Verbeek's statement caused was immediate and sadly indicative of Australia's insular mindset. The suggestion that the Dutchman pack his bags and head back to his snobby Euro-football might have been a predictable one from the average flag-waving fan, but when the calls are led by Fox Sports commentator Robbie Slater and Sydney FC coach John Kosmina, it's harder to fathom.

The fact that not a single ball has been kicked under Verbeek's reign has been incredibly overlooked. Nor has Verbeek's obvious knowledge of Asian football been taken into account - the Dutchman was formerly coach of J-League sides Omiya Ardija and Kyoto Sanga FC, and was twice an assistant coach of the South Korean national team, before guiding them as head coach during the 2007 Asian Cup. Oddly enough the same Australian fans who snipe that the Koreans played "boring football" remain silent on the subject of some of the football on offer in the A-League. The fact that Sydney FC coach Kosmina grumbled about how to utilise 2002 World Cup winner Juninho surely speaks volumes.

Now Verbeek has walked into the lion's den - desperately under-prepared as his team faces up to a tricky looking Qatar in Melbourne. An all A-League Socceroos side could only manage a 1-1 draw with Melbourne Victory at the weekend, in Australia's only hit-out before the World Cup campaign kicks off. That surely vindicates Verbeek's claim that an all A-League team would struggle to qualify for the World Cup.

Patriotic jingoism aside, Verbeek's decision to drop Harry Kewell smacks of an attempt by the Dutchman to assert some authority over the squad. Kewell is, after all, the most storied player in the Socceroo ranks. As a 17-year-old he scored in both legs of Australia's agonising World Cup defeat at the hands of Iran. In 2003 he tormented England in a 3-1 demolition of "the Old Country" at Upton Park and was instrumental in Australia's epic World Cup playoff win over Uruguay in 2005. Crucially, he scored the goal the sent Australia through to the second round of the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Yet the erstwhile Liverpool midfielder has been plagued by injury and poor form over the past few seasons. His poor spot-kick against Japan in the 2007 Asian Cup sent Australia on the way to a penalty shoot-out loss, and his chances of regular first-team football appear limited at Liverpool. Form and fitness aside, Harry Kewell simply should not be expected to carry the national team every time he takes to the pitch.

The commotion over Verbeek's A-League assessment and the subsequent omission of Kewell has at least generated feverish interest in the clash with Qatar. Should Verbeek's men register a first-up victory at a restlessly sold-out Telstra Dome it might silence the sceptics - for now. It won't, however, dampen the perception that Australians are growing increasingly intolerant of outsiders. One thing is the same - when it comes to being criticised, Australians remain as reactionary as ever.

Having visited the incredible Toyota Stadium during the recent FIFA Club World Cup, I began to consider some of the best stadiums I've ever seen games in.

I've been fortunate enough to watch football in many different stadiums. At the 2006 FIFA World Cup I attended games at the Fritz-Walter-Stadion in Kaiserslautern, the Allianz Arena in München and the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion in Stuttgart.

At the FIFA Club World Cup, we saw games at the National Stadium in Tokyo, the futuristic Toyota Stadium and of course Nissan Stadium in Yokohama. I've seen games in more ramshackle grounds too - my favourite being the Südstadion in Köln, where I once saw Fortuna Köln striker Seyedali Mousavi hit a passing train with a hopelessly inaccurate penalty against VfL Bochum.

These days I watch the majority of my football at Shimizu S-Pulse's atmospheric Nihondaira Stadium.

Set amongst the Nihondaira hills with a spectacular view of Mount Fuji and the port city of Shimizu below, it's hard to imagine a more picturesque venue for a football stadium.

The ground itself isn't too bad either, with four distinct stands rising up over the landscape. The so-called 'Back Stand' features a roof that stretches only three-quarters of the way across the stand. Like many I had been duped into believing it was so that the view of Mount Fuji was not obscured, but wikipedia's Shizuoka Sensei (whose photo I have lovingly republished here) assures us that the reason for the missing section is because there is not enough room behind the stand to lay the necessary foundations to support the roof!

Before moving to Shimizu, my venue of choice was the Sydney Football Stadium, home of A-League misfits Sydney FC.

The stadium would have to be the subject of one of the most ridiculous arguments I've ever stumbled across; that being whether Sydney FC should play out of a ground located in the city centre, or whether they should move to a stadium in the suburbs, closer to the geographical centre of Sydney - one of the world's most sprawling cities.

Personally I think it's ludicrous to suggest that Sydney FC should play anywhere but in the heart of the city itself, but when Sydney FC fans are not donning their town planning hats, they're often maligning the stadium's frustrating roof. Heralded as an architectural masterpiece, the roof over the Sydney Football Stadium is everything that modern architecture should never be - nice to look at and completely useless. The roof is supposed to represent a wave, or something, and meanders up and down over the stands in an eye-catching manner. Unfortunately it also covers about 10% of the stands below, allowing the majority of the crowd to leave A-League games wet, since a Sydney FC home fixture is synonymous with wet weather in the Harbour city.

Before the advent of the A-League, the ground I frequented most often was Borussia Dortmund's legendary Westfalenstadion.

There are hardly enough superlatives to describe what is rightly considered one of the world's truly great football grounds. Dortmund's Südtribüne (pictured) - where I used to stand in Block 12, is Europe's largest standing terrace, and is packed with more than 25,000 of Dortmund's most vocal supporters on Bundesliga matchdays. When I used to attend games in 2000, the capacity of the Westfalenstadion was 63,000. That was increased to 80,000 (or 65,000 as an all-seater) as Dortmund hosted a semi-final at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, and these days Borussia Dortmund enjoy the highest average attendance of any club in Europe.

The stadium was originally built as a 40,000 capacity venue for the 1974 FIFA World Cup. With the capacity having doubled since those days, some Dortmund fans now complain that the atmosphere at the ground has been diluted, with half the fans in attendance simply there to enjoy the spectacle of one Europe's biggest crowds. Still, it's hard to look passed the Westfalen as a venerable temple of football, and it's generally regarded as one of the most intimidating venue in the Bundesliga, at least when frustrated Dortmund fans aren't jeering their own team.

These days stadiums built in the 20th Century seem to have passed their use-by-date. They are increasingly being replaced by stock-standard stadia built on the outskirts of town, far from commercial and residential areas, and the potential for social interaction that these areas encompass. It seems the days of enjoying a pint or two in pubs that line the route to the ground are numbered.

The question of what makes a great stadium is also subjective. Some talk about capacity, others prefer location, while others still mention the atmosphere created inside the ground. For me a great stadium entails all of those things. But I'm interested to hear what you think. Which do you consider to be the best stadium in world football?

Nihondaira Stadium

Sydney Football Stadium

Westfalenstadion

Urawa Reds' bold declaration at the start of the season that they would become "the first Japanese team to reach the AFC Champions League quarter-finals" raised a few eyebrows in Japan. To begin with, it overlooked the fact that fellow J-League outfit Kawasaki Frontale were also competing for that honour. More importantly, it ignored the success of Jubilo Iwata, who reached three continental finals in a row between 1999 and 2001, before the old "Asian Club Cup" was rebadged and revamped.

Ultimately it was Kawasaki, and not Urawa, who became the first Japanese team since 2003 to book their progress beyond the knock-out stage of the AFC Champions League, as Urawa learned that deeds on the pitch and not words in the media, were the key ingredient in getting out of their group. Urawa did get out of their group - just, and not surprisingly they've kept the preparations for their quarter-final clash with defending champions Jeonbuk Motors FC fairly quiet, as have Kawasaki, who face a tough task against Iranian side Sepahan.

Yet Urawa's bombastic rhetoric marked a growing trend in world football. Arrogance, it seems, is the new black.

When Uruguay came to Sydney for their knock-out FIFA World Cup qualifying clash in 2005, Uruguayan striker Alvaro Recoba incurred the wrath of the locals by declaring that Uruguay would win the tie because they had a "divine right" to play at the World Cup. Sadly for Recoba, his inference that Uruguay's rich football history was enough to get his team over the line proved incorrect, as Australia ultimately booked their place at the World Cup finals.

The late Australian legend Johnny Warren had hoped to live long enough to say to the world "I told you so" when it came to Australia rejoining the footballing élite. Yet Socceroos fans didn't have to wait long before the clichés kicked into overdrive, as first Brazil and then eventual champions Italy fell over themselves to declare that they would be easy winners against the supposed minnows from Down Under, before a ball had even been kicked.

How ironic, then, that Australia's maiden Asian Cup campaign should come undone partly as a result of their arrogance. After declaring that they could beat any team because they possessed a "tougher mental attitude," the suggestion that perhaps Iraq might also possess a tough mental attitude - given that their country had just been bombed into submission and was now being torn apart by civil war, sent the Australian camp into a spin - and eventually lead to the suggestion that any media outlet who questioned Australia's attitude was obviously conspiring against them.

Of course there is no greater arena for arrogance than the UEFA Champions League. Today English giants Manchester United and Liverpool announced their opposition to new UEFA President Michel Platini's plan to include domestic cup winners in upcoming editions of the Champions League. For Liverpool - who last won a league title some seventeen seasons ago, and United, who like the Anfield club were recently bought by a consortium of North American investors, nothing is more important than their own self-interest.

Tradition-laden teams from countries outside of the big three of England, Spain and Italy are routinely portrayed as easy-beats by both managers and fans alike, and with a level playing field having long since disappeared from European football, triumphs by clubs like Steaua Bucharest and Red Star Belgrade seem more like historical anomalies than distinct possibilities nowadays.

With fans in the modern era possessing greater access to information and video footage than ever before, perhaps the most telling aspect of this facade of grandeur can be found on message boards and forums across the internet. In many cases the majority of fans spend more time belittling their opponents, than worrying about the fortunes of their own team.

Modern football is seemingly at a crossroad. There may come a time when money - and the churlish attitudes that seem to come with it, no longer rules the game. But with the likes of Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho snarling his contempt for referees, FC Bayern commercial manager Uli Hoeness implying that the Bundesliga is a one-horse race, and Urawa Reds conveniently forgetting both their opponents and contemporaries on a regular basis... I wouldn't bet on it.

I've been lucky enough to see some of the biggest punk bands on the planet.

I've seen Agnostic Front tear up Klub Eskulap in western Poland. I've run a gauntlet between protesting Christian fundamentalists and Marilyn Manson fans lining up to buy tickets, on my way to see legendary Los Angeles act Bad Religion in Düsseldorf. I've witnessed an on-stage marriage proposal - and acceptance - at a Sick Of It All show, and had the same band dedicate Injustice System to me in front of more than 15,000 fans at an outdoor festival in Germany.

I've watched bands like Raised Fist and Ensign play in front of twenty-five people and invest more energy into their sets than some people do their entire lives. I've heard the strain of emotion in Zoli's voice when Ignite played Poverty For All in Prague, and I've seen hundreds of fans burst into the Yokohama Cultural Centre as the opening riff of Everready boomed out from New York's prodigal sons H2O. I've seen just about every recent Australian punk band you care to name.

The memories of these shows, acquired over years of blurry nights at sweaty clubs packed with angry kids, share a common theme. Passion. That's something that I don't see a lot of on the football pitch these days.

What I see a lot of are players who talk the talk. You know the type. They sign for a club. They kiss the badge every time they score. They engineer some kind of falling out with the manager, sign for their former club's biggest rivals, kiss a new badge and tell all and sundry that it has always been their dream to "play for this club." And then two years later they do it all again. It's an insult to the fans.

Fans seem to be the forgotten factor in some leagues. Back in 2000 I called the ticket office of Southampton FC and had a conversation that went like this...

Us: "Hello, can you please tell me what your cheapest ticket costs for the match against Liverpool?"

Them: "28 pounds."

Us: "28 pounds? Do you have anything cheaper?"

Them: "That's how much it costs to watch top quality football."

Us: "But I pay about five pounds to watch Borussia Dortmund - and they won the European Cup three years ago.

Them: *click*

Welcome to the brave new world of the English Profit League - Where We'll Always Treat You Like A Customer, Hold The Line Please!

If ever a league has misunderstood fan culture, it's the J-League. If ever there was one team synonymous with that misunderstanding, it is the Yokohama Flügels.

The Yokohama Flügels don't exist any more. Ever wondered where the "F" in Yokohama F. Marinos comes from? Now you know. The Flügels were absorbed by the Marinos in 1998 when the bubble burst in Japan and some men in suits calmly informed their respective clubs that they were merging. The merger took place overnight, with no consultation of coaches or players - let alone fans. In Japan, business mergers happened all the time... the respective owners of the Marinos and Flügels saw little difference between those mergers and the merger of two football clubs.

Yet at a time when the mercurial Hidetoshi Nakata was thumbing his nose at the Japanese hierarchy, the merger of the two Yokohama clubs unleashed the wrath of Hades on these bumbling Japanese bureaucrats. Fans from both clubs reacted furiously and set in motion concerted campaigns to have the merger annulled. If there is one thing that Japanese bureaucrats love more than making hare-brained decisions, however, it is steadfastly refusing to back down from those decisions, no matter how inappropriate they seem.

So, fast-forwarding almost a decade, you could forgive Yokohama FC fans for being a tad more passionate than usual about this weekend's clash with cross-town rivals Yokohama F. Marinos. "But who are Yokohama FC?" I hear you yelp. They're a club founded by former Flügels fans, after their own team was taken out from under their feet. Around 40,000 of those fans descended upon Nissan Stadium to watch their rock bottom misfits lose 1-0 to JEF United in the last match before the mid-season break. If the J-League isn't careful, Nissan Stadium could well be rocking to the tune of 70,000 fans this weekend.

Fans, huh. Remember them?

http://www.tribalfootball.com/article.php?id=32619

Japan's recent 3-2 loss to Saudi Arabia in their absorbing Asian Cup semi-final in Hanoi smacked of a team that had no Plan B. Plan A, of course, had been to beat Australia and avenge what had been a humiliating loss to The Socceroos at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. Once that mission had been accomplished, Japan looked a team bereft of inspiration.

Saudi Arabia threw everything but the kitchen sink at the two-time defending champions and in the end goals from Yasser Al Qahtani and a double to Malek Maaz were enough to see off the Japanese, who equalised twice through defenders Yuji Nakazawa and Yuki Abe.

The latter celebrated his goal as though it was some kind of catharsis. Well may it have been, since it was Abe who looked the weakest link in Japan's back line. His hesitant defending caused constant panic in the Japan defence, and against Saudi Arabia the finger of blame could surely be pointed at Abe for at least one of the goals. Yet the finger of blame will surely be pointed at coach Ivica Osim instead, who insisted on playing his former protege at JEF United out of position, while leaving Urawa Reds' experienced central defender Keisuke Tsuboi on the bench.

The issue of JEF United players in the Japan squad will no doubt rear its ugly head again, and although substitute Naotake Hanyu smacked the crossbar with a thunderous strike late in the match, the performances of Hanyu, Maki, Mizuno and Yamagishi in this tournament will surely draw further scrutiny in the post-mortem to this defeat.  

So Japan trudge home failing to claim the third straight Asian Cup crown that they claimed they desired. Like Australia before them, they now experience the sting of unfulfilled ambition, but one can't help but wonder if it wasn't that quarter-final victory over Australia that took the wind out of Japan's sails and ultimately saw them blown off course by a proud Saudi outfit.

The performance of Sydney FC defender Mark Milligan, and to a lesser extent team-mate David Carney in Australia's 4-0 win over Thailand at the Asian Cup, has presented Australia coach Graham Arnold with somewhat of a quandry ahead of Australia's Asian Cup quarter-final clash with Japan.

West Ham defender Lucas Neill - who has endured a miserable tournament so far, returns from suspension, posing the question of who will partner Neill in defence - Milligan, or 1.FC Nürnberg stopper Michael Beauchamp.

Beauchamp has usurped Leicester City man Patrick Kisnorbo in the central defensive pecking order for Australia, although Beauchamp has at times looked shaky in an Australia jersey. He memorably came off the bench in the last minute of a friendly against Paraguay in Brisbane, and then promptly scored an equalising own goal, to send the crowd of 50,000 home in dismay.

Nevertheless Beauchamp turned in a solid performance against Thailand, even opening the scoring with his first ever goal for the national team - at the right end of the pitch, at any rate. Yet it was the performance of the small and agile Milligan that dominated the headlines.

Sydney FC coach Branko Culina has urged Milligan and Carney to consider their options in Australia, before rashly signing for one of Europe's lesser lights. Who could blame him? Culina obviously wants to keep his star players at the club, but in highlighting the fact that Milligan and Carney are both good enough to play for the national team, he has a valid argument.

Michael Beauchamp is a case in point. At Central Coast Mariners he was regarded as a defender with undoubted potential, but it took a move to the German Bundesliga for him to receive a serious look-in with the national team.

That no longer needs to be the case. Milligan and Carney's performance proves that if you are good enough, you should be in the team, regardless of where you play your club football. 

Of course one match is unlikely to be the basis of a monumental shift in attitude, but it has certainly given Australia coach Graham Arnold food for thought.

So it's come down to this. Given the turmoil at Sydney FC prior to the start of their Asian Champions League campaign - with coach Terry Butcher given the sack and Branko Culina brought in as interim manager, it was difficult to envisage the Harbour City club unduly troubling the likes of Urawa Reds and Shanghai Shenhua United in their ACL group, right? Wrong.

Going into the final group game at Saitama Stadium on May 23, the 2005 A-League champions Sydney FC are still in with a chance of qualifying for the knock-out stages of the competition at their first attempt. They'd have been in prime position, had midfielder Ufuk Talay not crashed a penalty into the crossbar in Sydney's most recent 0-0 draw at home to Shanghai Shenhua.

That draw, coupled with Urawa's 3-3 draw with Persik Kediri in Indonesia means that the Japanese giants have nine points going into the final match, with Sydney FC just behind them on eight. Urawa can afford to draw in front of what should be a vociferous home crowd at Saitama Stadium, but Sydney FC will come at them with all guns blazing.

Urawa were stunned when these two clubs met at Aussie Stadium back in March, having seemingly underestimated the 2005 Australian champions, as they fell two goals behind after just twenty minutes. The J-League champions showed their mettle, however, more than matching Sydney for the rest of the game and roaring back thanks to strikes from Robson Ponte and Yuichiro Nagai. The latter arguably scored the easiest goal of his career in Sydney, and Clint Bolton's uncharacteristic handling error - he spilled a cross at the feet of Nagai, could come back to haunt the A-League giants.

Urawa, however, are under the pump in Japan. Rumours that several squad members don't see eye to eye with new coach Holger Osieck just won't go away. Despite the over-abundance of talent at his disposal, Osieck rarely makes changes to a team that has already made gruelling trips to Sydney, Shanghai and Solo City this season. As a result, Urawa have rarely looked their best in 2007.

Thus a fascinating battle should ensure between a club written off before this competition kicked off, against the over-hyped J-League champions. Before this competition commenced, Urawa loudly proclaimed their desire to become the first Japanese team to reach the quarter-finals of the Asian Champions League since the competition was revamped in 2003. They have already been beaten to that punch by Kawasaki Frontale, and with Sydney FC looking to do business in Saitama, there might just be another nasty surprise in store for the 2006 J-League champions Urawa.