SENAYAN Special Coverage

Club Preview: Jubilo Iwata

Courtesy of Firstxi.com

Overview

Jubilo Iwata are once again in this year's Asian club championships. They are also Japan's only sole representatives on the winners' list, becoming champions in 1999 and nearly repeated that amazing feat last year. Where previous East Asian giants Pohang Steelers of Korea have succeeded, Jubilo appear to maintain the leverage of mixing it with the traditional big boys from the Middle East.

Things are not looking all rosy for Jubilo at the moment though. They have a new manager now, Masakazu Suzuki, and also a newly assembled squad. Players may have come and gone, but the important thing to know is that the new look Jubilo relies almost totally on local talent, bar Yugoslav midfielder Alexsander Zivkovic and Dutch reserve keeper Arno van Zwam.

Suzuki has gone for an all-Japanese team, and it does look impressive. Gone are key defensive pillars like Adilson and the midfield minder Dmitry Radchenko, and in their stead they now have the excellent ex-national skipper Masami Ihara. More significantly, Japan's second most popular and talented player Hiroshi Nanami, has returned after a stint abroad with Venezia. Nanami, now 27, could have moved to another foreign club but decided instead to return to the delight of the Jubilo fans.

Tactics

The main feature of Jubilo's play is through the playmaker and the fans will get to see Nanami feeding killer assists to the twin strikeforce of Masashi Nakayama and Naohiro Takahara. Other than Hidetoshi Nakata and Shunsuke Nakamura, that is akin to the Japanese attack all by itself.

It is with this reason that Jubilo play an adventurous looking 3-5-2. Nanami is ably supported in midfield by speed flankers like Daisuke Oku and Toshiya Fujita and the workmanlike graft of Toshihiro Hattori and Fumitake Miura.

The defense is perhaps the suspect region, and that is where Ihara's calming influence and abundant experience will come into play. Unfortunately, the other experienced defender Masahiro Ando has been loaned out to Yokohama Marinos. So it is left to Ihara and fellow backs Hideto Suzuki and Takashi Fukunishi to protect the newly installed Yushi Ozaki in goal.

Considering Jubilo are now all about attack in any case, who will bet against Nanami and pals doing the job and clinching the championships again?

Player to Watch:

Hiroshi Nanami

Asian Cup MVP and Japan's defacto playmaker, Nanami is currently rated higher than Nakata within the Japanese football circuits.

Having allied a new-found defensive sensability with his attacking play, Nanami is now close to being the perfect midfielder.

His cool demeanour is also a great plus but he has yet to show that he can do the business just as effectively for the national team.