England -1 Japan - 1: Sven-Goran Eriksson, with Euro 2004 within touching distance, last night uncovered a maverick streak long buried within himself. In view of this result it ought never to have been disinterred.
The lasting unease arises from the possibility that the manager has unsettled his own team by suddenly deducing that Frank Lampard should be an improbable linchpin in midfield. After his direct opponent Shumsuke Nakamuru had dominated the play, he eventually made way for Nicky Butt. A sheepish Eriksson may now decide that the Manchester United man should not be sidelined again.
Eriksson may not be dedicating himself to salvaging the reputation of friendlies. Even so, whether it was his intention or not, he had added interest to this fixture with the surprising swerve in policy that brought Lampard into the line-up at Butt's expense. The consequences were not hugely encouraging.
One could only wonder how ring-rusty Butt must have been on the training ground at Sardinia, after a year of virtual disuse with Manchester United, to plant doubts in the mind of a manager whose faith in him is dogged. It was a puzzle, too, to determine why Phil Neville or Owen Hargreaves should not take over his duties if an emergency replacement was essential.
Despite that, there could be no argument over the inclusion of Lampard, who vies with Steven Gerrard as the best English midfielder of this past season.
He established that reputation with goals and bold running for Chelsea, however, and those instincts have to be disowned by anyone who cannot stray far from the centre halfs he is charged with protecting.
When Eriksson remarked, a couple of weeks ago, that Lampard was intelligent enough to adapt to a change of duties it sounded like a platitude. The manager was actually in earnest, ready to put that theory to the test at Euro 2004. First, however, Lampard had to acquit himself well against these opponents.That was not an easy assignment in the education of Lampard.
Japan were deft when beating a rudimentary Iceland side at the start of this mini-tournament and Shumsuke Nakamura, of Italian club Reggina, set questions for Lampard after Michael Owen had put England ahead.
He may be no Zinedine Zidane, but Nakamura sidled into space behind the attack for shots on two occasions around the half-hour mark, with David James impressing to get down low to his right to push away the first.
It had taken the jolt of England's opener to rouse the visitors and convert this into an instructive game. There are concerns about using Lampard as the holding player and it is best to have them aired now. Otherwise, Eriksson could only be happy with the freshness of the side's initial efforts. Tiredness will not serve as an excuse this month.
England were fast and vibrant, with a Gary Neville surge drawing a foul by Alessandro Santos after 16 minutes. The Beckham set-piece broke to Lampard and a purposeful shot was blocked by Junichi Inamoto.
Japan were becoming disoriented and, six minutes later, Keisuke Tsuboi headed weakly into the path of Steven Gerrard.
His low effort bobbled but that scarcely excused Seigo Narazaki, the goalkeeper who let the ball bounce of his chest. Michael Owen pounced to score for his country for the 25th time.
It did Japan far more good than England. They were sprightly and inventive for the rest of the half and they deserved the penalty denied them by the Italian referee Roberto Rosetti in the 43rd minute.
Santos twisted away from Terry and Paul Scholes made contact with the back of his legs inside the area. The episode was chastening for England and they had other matters to brood upon when Japan equalised in the 53rd minute. Nakamura slid the ball inside Gary Neville and Santos rolled the cut-back that the Feyenoord attacker Shinji Ono converted.
ENGLAND: James, Gary Neville (Phil Neville 85), Terry (King 88), Campbell, Ashley Cole, Scholes (Dyer 77), Beckham (Joe Cole 81), Gerrard (Hargreaves 82), Lampard (Butt 82), Owen (Vassell 77), Rooney (Heskey 77). Subs Not Used: Bridge, Robinson, Carragher, Walker, Defoe. Goal: Owen 22.
JAPAN: Narazaki, Nakazawa, Miyamoto, Tsuboi, Santos, Ono, Inamoto (Fukunishi 90), Kaji, Nakamura, Tamada (Suzuki 60), Kubo (Yanagisawa 60). Subs Not Used: Doi, Kawaguchi, Miura, Tanaka, Chano, Fujita, Ogasawara, Endo, Motoyama. Goal: Ono 53.
Referee: Roberto Rosetti (Italy).
