COLUMN: Paddy Agnew's Euroscene
On the last week of the France'98 World Cup, reporters were invited to a coaching seminar in Paris. Among the speakers were former England coach Bobby Robson, former Dutch coach Rinus Michels, Juventus coach Marcello Lippi and Frenchman Philippe Troussier, coach to South Africa at France '98. Troussier made the most striking address. He talked about witch doctors and about the business of making sure African players managed to eat at least once a day.
Not for nothing was Troussier (47), known as le sorcier blanc (the white witch doctor) in Africa. During spells as national coach not only with South Africa but also with Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Nigeria, Troussier earned respect for his efforts at understanding and imbibing local practices, allowing witch doctors into training camps.
As coach to Japan, one of the two host countries at this summer's World Cup finals, Troussier will need to weave more magic spells. Like Dutchman Guus Hiddink, coach to South Korea, Troussier is entrusted with ensuring a host country makes it to the second round. If South Korea and Japan go out in the first round, that would represent a first for a World Cup host country.
For Troussier, too, there is more riding on this World Cup than for Hiddink. The Dutchman has nothing left to prove in Europe, where he has won the Champions League (Real Madrid), Dutch titles (PSV Eindhoven) and steered Holland to the semi-finals of France '98.
Troussier, in contrast, has never coached at the top level in European soccer and admits he would love to use the World Cup finals as a trampoline to launch himself back to Europe. It is hard to know if the draw has been kinder to Troussier than to Hiddink. Critics suggest Japan's group (Belgium, Russia and Tunisia) is easier than that featuring South Korea (Portugal, Poland and the USA).
What is sure is Troussier's four-year reign as Japan coach has been marked by tensions with the country's football association and with its best-known player, Hidetoshi Nakata of Parma. Troussier admits Japan has represented a more difficult challenge, culturally, linguistically, and in terms of football than Africa.
Even if he relies on an interpreter to communicate with his players, his results have been doing a lot of talking for him. Wins against Paraguay, Cameroon and Yugoslavia, plus a draw with Italy in 2001, not to mention lifting the 2000 Asia Cup in Lebanon, have suggested Japan will be no pushover. However, defeats last year by France, Spain and Senegal served as useful reality checks, too.
Talking to the New York Times in Tokyo recently, Troussier said: "The greatest frustration of this people is that their shogun period has sadly disappeared. During the second World War, they were completely defeated. All their cultural weapons were taken away and replaced with teddy bears. Today there is a second shogun whose name is Philippe Troussier who is trying to reawaken the strength that lies within them."
