We haven"t learnt our lessons: Zico

Japan coach Zico believes his charges still have a chance of advancing from the group stage at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, despite their 3-1 loss to regional rivals Australia in their opening Group F encounter today.

With their remaining matches against the likes of Croatia and Brazil, who are ranked 19 and 41 places above Australia respectively, the Brazilian great wouldn”t have been blamed for thinking Japan”s progression to the round of 16 unlikely.

However, speaking moments after Japan”s loss to the Socceroos, Zico appeared optimistic that the reigning Asian champions could emulate their previous FIFA World Cup effort that saw them reach the round of 16.

The main reason we lost is because we didn”t take our opportunities. Had we scored the second goal before it became a draw, the result would have been different,⬝ said Zico.

We couldn”t score when we had some chances during the period where we were leading 1-0.⬝

We knew this lesson from past matches but we couldn”t manage a second goal.⬝

Australia changed their tactics by putting three strikers to attack and using long passes. This led to us conceding three goals.⬝

Almost eight years earlier to the day, Japan played Croatia in their second Group H match at the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, ultimately losing 1-0 to bow out of their debut campaign on the world stage winless and at the first hurdle.

Zico and his 2006 cast will be desperate to avoid a repeat of the France campaign in the coming weeks, particularly with Japan”s reputation in world football scaling unprecedented heights leading up to today”s kick off.

With the likes of Hidetoshi Nakata (Bolton Wanderers, England), Shunsuke Nakamura (Celtic, Scotland) and Naohiro Takahara (Hamburg, Germany) featuring regularly in Europe”s top leagues, coupled with impressive performances in the international arena in recent times, Japan are shaping to fulfil their ambition to become a dominant world football power in the short term future.

I didn”t expect this loss by such a big score, but I saw a few good things,⬝ said Zico.

For the next match against Croatia we have to play to get three points.⬝

By Etsuko Miyazaki and Ben Coonan (AFC)