Kamikaze Hokkē

As much as the Tokyo Games were a success, in that they went ahead at all and the athletes managed to complete their events, the way that they have been portrayed outside of Japan has been very different to how many of those who were there saw them.

There are many who feel they should be remembered as the exclusive Games. You could also say that they were the Privileged Games, for those who were able to attend. There are others who feel that they will be remembered as the Propaganda Games, due to the spin that was being sent out to the world, such as when the Olympic Games Executive Director Christophe Dubi said: “Has sport ever looked so good?” With no crowds and no atmosphere we all know the answer, this was all about money, and so it did not look good at all.

In fact Spin was the order of the day in Tokyo. Maybe its an Olympic thing, that every four years the media has to go all out and run only good positive stories for two weeks. Maybe that is why when something goes wrong it is upscaled to catastrophic.

In Tokyo there was something very wrong about the Japan Women’s Hockey team. Yet at the Games themselves little was made of the fact. Now that they are over the spin has started to try and deflect from what is a very sad tale.

The Japanese Women’s hockey team wrote their name into the record books in Tokyo in a way that as a host nation they would not have wanted and would not have ever thought possible.

Only once before in the women’s hockey at an Olympic Games had the host nation failed to medal. That was when the USA finished fifth on the league ladder in Atlanta in 1996 and missed out on a semi final berth; the top four tams progressing to the semi finals. At every other Olympic Games apart from Athens in 2004 and Rio in 2016 when the host nations failed to qualify, the host nation has won a medal.

Japan not only failed to win a medal, but shockingly they failed to make the quarter finals. In fact they failed to win a game, to gain a single point, and finished bottom of their pool having conceded 13 goals and scored just six in five games.

For those who do not follow hockey, this was a major surprise. Japan are the current Asian Games Champions. They beat the Olympic semi finalists India in the final.

This was a team that had been progressively building towards Tokyo and the improvement and the progress was there for all to see.

Australian Anthony Farry, fresh after guiding Canada men’s team to the Rio Olympic Games, after they had missed out on in London in 2012, took over the reins of the Japanese women’s team in May 2017.

I was fortunate to commentate many of Japan’s matches over the next three years, at the 2018 World Cup, the 2018 Champions Trophy and the 2018 Asian Games. I had also been there when Japan competed in the International Festival of Hockey event in Melbourne at the start of Farry’s tenure in November 2017, an event where Japan beat Australia in their last pool game to earn a place in the final against the Netherlands. So I had seen first hand the improvement and the growth amongst this group of players and how their belief in the themselves had also grown.

Heading into Tokyo most of the teams in Pool B would have been very wary of Japan. In their group were Australia, Spain, Argentina, New Zealand and China. They had beaten Australia, New Zealand, Spain and China in recent times. Only Argentina had the wood over them in terms of victories. So here was a team that was expected to challenge for a top four place in the pool. After all they are the reigning Asian Champions. So what went wrong?

First of all the Covid Pandemic hit. Like many around the world the players were unable to train for six months as a squad. The Olympic Games were postponed for a year and as a result Anthony Farry tendered his resignation. He tendered this purely for family reasons. He was thinking about what was best for his wife and his children.

He resigned in September of 2020 and the United States now have him as their coach. By all accounts the Japanese did not want him to leave. They hoped that he would change his mind, they waited… In October they realised that he was not going to change his mind.

With nine months until hosting the Olympic Games and with the world being disrupted by Covid many would have thought that the reins would have passed to Farry’s assistant coaches, Japan based John Sheahan and Miura Keiko. Both of these were close to Farry and knew what he had been working on and seen the development first hand. The Players knew the coaches too. Sheahan after all has won nine national titles in Japan with Yamanashi Gakuin University and had also steered the Japan under 21 team to their first ever Junior World Cup appearance in Chile in 2016. Six of those players were in the Japanese squad in Tokyo.

If there was a fear that these two were not experienced enough to carry the team forward an experienced high performance coach could have been brought in to oversee proceedings and offer advice.

Interviews were held locally in Japan, but then a decision was made to try and source an overseas coach. That was all well and good, but with the Olympic Games fast approaching one would have thought that it would have been crucial to find a coach who advocated a similar style of play to that which the team had been playing under Farry.

The word out of Japan is that the Executive Board over-ruled the recommendations of the High Performance Board. They opted to switch from an Australian style of play to a European style, and appointed Spanish coach Xavi Arnau, himself a silver medallist in Atlanta in 1996.

His playing career was well credentialed, 207 caps and 127 goals for Spain, including three Olympic campaigns in 1992, 1996 and 2000. He also won World Cup silver in 1998 in Utrecht.

Once he finished playing he moved into coaching and he won multiple titles with Club de Campo. A highlight was seeing the club reach the final of the Euro Hockey League in 2011. He worked with the Spanish women’s team when they won European silver in 2003. He was a high performance coach with the Spanish men from 2009 to 2013, and headed up their Under-21 men’s program for the Junior World Cup. In more recent times he has been coaching club hockey in Belgium.

The offer must have been like manna from heaven, having not been involved in International coaching for almost a decade to suddenly be offered the head coach role of the host nation at an Olympic Games, well it doesn’t get much better does it?

At the end of November 2020 he flew to Japan and signed a contract that was believed to take him through to the end of the Olympic Games. He stayed three days and returned to Europe. Japan then declared a state of emergency due to Covid, and he was not able to return to Japan.

In January the Japanese held a camp for all the players hoping to break into the national team squad. There were 70-80 players in attendance. Arnau, in Europe watched via video and somehow with the assistant coaches managed to whittle that group down to 47.

In February another camp was held. The coach was still not there. The aim of this camp was to reduce the 47 players down to around 25. Once again the process was carried out via video. A squad was announced, but then the corporations to which the clubs in japan are linked, and who employ the players lodged a complaint. They felt that selecting a squad via video was unacceptable.

The Camp was reconvened for the end of March. The coach was now in Tokyo and out of quarantine. The camp was held and the squad selected.

Now with his squad selected, but despite the global pandemic the coach wanted to take the team on a tour of Europe. At the time many felt that this was never going to happen. Many of the prefectures in which the companies who employed the players were in strict lockdowns. How were the players going to gain release to travel from their employers and the local Government?

The coach allegedly returned to Europe before the tour was signed off on saying that he would meet the team when they arrived. The tour was called off on May 6th. He did not return until May 19th, and then had to serve a period in quarantine. Understandably the players were not happy.

In a move that was both courageous and went against the cultural norms of Japan, a letter was written by the players asking why the coach had not returned immediately. They were told that because the coach was only employed up until the end of the Olympics he had been given permission to stay on and look for another job.

When he returned another camp was held to decide who was in the squad for the Olympic Games, as this had to be submitted on 3rd June. The coach was in quarantine until 2nd of June and once again selection was based on watching players via video. The coach watched half a day of action in person at the camp. Since his appointment in December he had been present to watch the players in action for less than three weeks.

Once again immense courage was shown by the Captain and Vice Captain, Yukari Mano and Yu Asai, as they wrote to the board of directors asking for an explanation as to why such an important selection was once again conducted by video. They received no reply to their letter, not even to say that there will be an investigation into the matter after the Olympic Games. How very sad.

The word is that nothing was supposed to change. However change came, and it too played its part in derailing the hopes and dreams of the group. Arnau brought in his own coaches. Taeke Taekema was brought in to help the penalty corer takers, and Xavi Trenchs as a goalkeeper coach. He also brought in his own video analyst, however it is alleged that the men’s video analysts recorded and coded the games for him.

Much of this content though would not be used. Whereas Farry had encouraged the players to watch video of their opponents and also self analyse their performances, the new coach took the videos down from the platform on which the players would go to view it. They were now only allowed to see what he showed them. This was a huge culture shift, Although there were no complaints raised regarding this, one feels that the empowerment and responsibility this had given the players, was now by not being available detrimental to the team and the individual players.

If they did have concerns once the Games were underway it was hard for the players to discuss them with the coach and the team that he had brought in. His new assistants were staying outside of the village and every morning after breakfast Arnau would allegedly be driven to their apartment, where he would stay only returning to the village for the team meeting around 4pm each day. Only then would players be able to ask questions or raise concerns.

What is more less than a month out from the Olympic Games the new coaching staff opted to change the way they defended penalty corners. Japan conceded a penalty corner in every one of their pool games. Was that why? Or just a coincidence?

What is so terribly sad is that this group of players, who had worked so hard over the past four years in order to be a competitive side when they hosted the Olympic Games were let down so badly. This team had the potential to make the quarter finals, and as their opponents in the Asian Games finals, India proved, anything can happen when you do.

While there have been so many stories about how the Covid delay helped injured athletes recover and be ready in 2021, and how athletes overcame adversity to succeed. No one appears to want to talk about those whose Olympic dreams were shattered due to the delay. Japan as a nation is going to lose billions as a result of the Games going ahead and being played behind closed doors, but one wonders what the long term cost will be to their women’s hockey team

The final twist in this tale is it appears that Xavi Arnau is about to have his contract extended, so now his delay in returning to Japan seems even more inexcusable. How will the players feel? Will they speak up again or respectfully accept the appointment?

So much of this unrest could have been avoided. Whatever happens in the future the chance has gone, an opportunity has been missed, and for some of those players it will never come again. What is more these wonderful ambassadors could have played a huge part in growing the game in Japan and encouraging the next generation, but sadly these Cherry Blossoms, as they are known were never allowed to flower.