Japan coach Zaccheroni prepares to face Italy at Confederations Cup

RECIFE (Brazil) - Alberto Zaccheroni’s first foray into international football culminated in a resounding success, and his second big tournament hinges on a meeting with his home country.

Zaccheroni, a 60-year-old tactical expert from Italy who has coached several top Serie A clubs, qualified Japan for the Confederations Cup by leading the team to the Asian Cup title in 2011. But the Japanese lost to Brazil 3-0 on Saturday in the opening match of this year’s World Cup warm-up tournament, putting their chances of reaching the semi-finals in early danger.

To make things more difficult for Zaccheroni and Japan, they face Italy on Wednesday in Group A at the Arena Pernambuco.

“I could say that this is just one step in our path, but clearly for me that’s not the whole story,” Zaccheroni said yesterday (June 18). “When I started coaching I imagined many possible scenarios, but not this. Not the fact that I might find myself coaching a team playing against Italy.”

Zaccheroni took over Japan’s team in 2010, shortly after leaving Juventus. In 1999, he coached AC Milan to the Serie A title, and he has also been at the helm at Inter Milan.

When he was introduced as Japan’s coach three years ago, he said he wanted to create great memories for Japan by bringing “Zaccheroni football, Zaccheroni samurai” to the country’s national team.

Less than a year later, Japan was champion of Asia.

“This is not just like any ordinary game, but clearly I am focused on trying to help my team develop,” Zaccheroni said. “So far they have done very well. They deserve to qualify for the Confederations Cup.”

Besides qualifying for the eight-team tournament in Brazil, Japan also became the first team to qualify for next year’s World Cup, which will be played at some of the same venues in use this month.

“We are here to get some good preparation, international experience, ahead of the World Cup next year, so this is our opportunity to grow and to develop,” Zaccheroni said. “Clearly just in the space of one year we will not be able to compete with the very best teams, but our goal is to reduce the gap between the strongest teams in the world and Japan.”

Against Italy, Zaccheroni will be facing several familiar faces, starting with counterpart Cesare Prandelli - who he calls a friend. The Italy coach led his team to the 2012 European Championship final but then lost to Spain. In the opening match of the Confederations Cup, Italy beat Mexico 2-1. AP

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Common style is key to S’pore football improving, says head coach Stange

SINGAPORE - If the standard of Singapore football is to improve, then its national sides must share the same footballing philosophy, said Singapore national head coach Bernd Stange.

A month after his appointment, the German said the priority is to get the under-21, under-23 and senior national sides playing the same way.

However, the 65-year-old lamented the poor state of S-League pitches that hinders the one-touch football he is preaching to get this moving.“Even the parks in the city boast of fields of better playing conditions,” he quipped.

Stange was addressing the media on Monday after receiving a certificate and €1,000 for being among five nominees in the inaugural German Football Ambassador Award, which was won by former journalist Holger Obermann. Stange has donated his prize money to Singapore Cerebral Palsy Football Team.

For now, he has given Football Association of Singapore (FAS) Technical Director Slobodan Pavkovic inputs on how the three-year-old National Football Syllabus can get everyone in the football fraternity on the same page.

A new programme will be rolled out in a month’s time, and if successful, it will be recommended to all S-League clubs.

But Stange made clear he will not be changing everything in the current syllabus as it is of a high international standard adapted from top footballing countries and with a clear strategic programme.

“There are special football things in the technical department where I can help and I have to do that,” said the former Belarus and Iraq coach.

“I am not a politician in our federation. I am a coach and responsible for the technical department and please believe me, I will control it. We will go in one direction because there is no way right and no way left.”

Stange led the Lions to wins over Myanmar (2-0) and Laos (5-2) in friendlies earlier this month as preparations for the upcoming Asian Cup qualifier at home to Oman on Aug 14.

The Lions had lost 4-0 to Jordan in their opening Asian Cup group match back in February. Back then, the team was led by caretaker coach V. Sundramoorthy.

But even though Stange knows that good results in the Asian Cup qualifers could give Singapore football a huge boost, he said that qualification for the 2015 Finals is not his main priority.

“I would like to say it is not the most important thing,” he said. “The most important thing I am here for is to realise our strategy and if we can beat Oman, it would be great.

“It would be brilliant because we have a couple of players in our team, they are over 30 years old. If I mention Qiu Li or Indra (Sahdan) or Noh Rahman, if I mention these players, it is their last chance to do something.

“If we cannot win, there will soon be a change in more young players because the next highlight for our national team is next year (Suzuki Cup). We want to do everything but the AFC qualifiers is not our main target.”

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