Okada is no laughing stock now

Japans coach Takeshi Okada,once called a bad joke,is now living his dream.

Two months ago,a month ago,even two weeks ago,few wanted to listen to this severe man who is said to write poetry and contemplate retirement as a farmer. He was Japans coach at the World Cup,but who could take Takeshi Okada seriously? Japan reach the semifinals? A team that had never won a tournament game away from home?

Okadas prediction of reaching the semifinals seemed foolish. He became a laughing stock.

And yet,Japan has surprisingly reached the second round,where it will face Paraguay on Tuesday in Pretoria. Japanese fans are no longer booing the team or calling for Okada to be fired. Instead,40 per cent of the nation is watching matches that begin at home in the middle of the night and end around sunrise.

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The most feverishly stricken are jumping into rivers in celebration,as 50 people did in Osaka after Japans stunning 3-1 victory over Denmark on Thursday put it into the Round of 16. He has a hard personality,no smile,his own decisions always, Ushiki Sokichiro,who is covering the World Cup for Japans Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper,said of Okada. He was notorious before. Now,in Tokyo,he is famous.

And not yet satisfied. Okada,who is 53,wears glasses and flavors his remarks with lectures on religion,philosophy and history,has kept urging his team onward to meet his own unlikely forecast,saying,We have to go for more.

This moment of deliverance for Okada is as remarkable as it is unexpected. Japans buildup to the World Cup was dismal. After it lost to a second-string Serbian team,3-0,in an April exhibition,Okada was criticised as a bad joke by Tatsuhito Kaneko,a columnist for the newspaper Sports Nippon. Kaneko said that a prediction of reaching the World Cup semifinals was like ordering the current national team to walk on the moon.

Fans signed petitions and answered polls,calling for Okada to step down as the coach.

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Then things got worse. In late May,after a 2-0 defeat to the fellow World Cup competitor South Korea,Okada seemed to offer his resignation to the Japanese soccer federation before saying he had spoken carelessly.

Even his players questioned Okadas shift from an attacking style to a defensive posture in the days before the tournament.

As the tournament opened,Okada benched Japans most prominent player,the creative midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura,and played with a lone striker in Keisuke Honda,a peroxide blond whose skill is authentic even if his hair color is not.

Honda scored the only goal of that match,against Cameroon,and Japan won a World Cup game away from home for the first time.