One minute. That is all that stood between Japan and a first ever FIFA Men’s World Cup appearance in 1994 over in the United States. Successfully defend a last gasp corner kick, and the men in navy blue on the pitch would have been etched into the country’s sporting history. Just one minute.
The Japan men’s national football team is one of Asia’s biggest success stories in the world of sport. They are four-time AFC Asian Cup winners, have defeated the likes of Spain and Germany on the international stage, and they have qualified for seven straight FIFA World Cups, reaching the knockout stage three separate times. But it wasn’t always this way.
Back in the early 90s, football fever was stretching across the East Asian nation. In a location where sumo claimed the label of the traditional national sport, and baseball topped the popularity polls, the founding of the Japan Professional Football League in 1992 had done its part in raising awareness for the sport in the country. Though the league wouldn’t begin for another year, excitement of the game remained high as Japan claimed their first AFC Asian Cup in the summer, beating Saudi Arabia in the final and going through the entire tournament unbeaten.
Now the champions of their continent, eyes across Japan became firmly focused on the same national team’s qualification campaign for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, a competition that eight countries from Asia had qualified for at that point but had eluded them thus far. Residents had high expectations for the side, and, at the point referee Serge Muhmenthaler blew his whistle to begin Japan’s last match in the final round, they had matched them.
Unbeaten in the first round and topping the sole six-team group in the second round heading into the last game, Japan faced one final task in aiming to overcome an Iraq side that had experience on the World Cup’s stage. After getting the better of rivals South Korea last time out, Japan were favourites to claim victory and qualify for the World Cup as a result.
Only five minutes after the starting whistle, Japan had taken the lead. Kazuyoshi Miura had headed in a rebound off the crossbar to push the Samurai Blue ahead in the Al-Ahly Stadium in Doha, Qatar, the neutral city that was hosting the entirety of the second round. Despite a couple of yellow cards, no more clear-cut chances were created in the first half, and the Asian champions went into the half-time break ahead. The other two matches in the group were taking place at the same time and, though Saudi Arabia were winning in their game against Iran, South Korea were being held by their Northern counterparts in the Qatar SC Stadium further north, meaning Japan were only 45 minutes away from making history for their country.
This clearly led to nerves settling into the team and the second half started shakily, with Japan being spared by the offside flag after substitute Jaffar Omran Salman thought he had equalised with a far post header. The same leniency did not shine its light on the group leaders moments later, however, as Iraq’s captain, Ahmed Radhi, managed to beat goalkeeper Shigetatsu Matsunaga to a loose ball in the box and prod the ball into the back of Japan’s net.
Now at 1-1, Japan needed another goal to progress as South Korea had since taken a two-goal lead in their own game. Pressing forward heavily, the team were now susceptible to counter-attacks and were once again fortunate to not concede as a rising drive by Alaa Kadhim left Matsunaga stretching but went wide of the post.
Continuing their push, and with one of their own players laid out on the floor injured, a slow pass through the centre, that the Iraqi defence still failed to react to, found the feet of right midfielder Masashi Nakayama who sent Japan ahead once again with one touch. Questions were immediately raised over whether the linesman had been right in not lifting his flag, but what was certain was that the Samurai were now back on track to qualifying. All that was required was for the defence to hold out for twenty minutes.
Those twenty minutes became ten minutes when Masahiro Fukuda sent a half-volley sailing just over the Iraq crossbar. Ten minutes became five minutes when Japan replaced their current match winner Nakayama for the game’s final stretch. And then five minutes became just one minute. That minute signalled the end of the other two games in the group and the sight of an incoming cross from the right side of the box meeting the head of Omran Salman.
He had been denied by the offside flag earlier in the half, but now, with less than sixty seconds on the clock, his header saw the ball fly across the face of the box and loop into the far side of the net. Defenders slumped to the ground as Salman celebrated half-heartedly. The final whistle blew only moments later. The final score, 2-2.
With both Saudi Arabia and South Korea winning their matches, the latter by a four-goal margin, it meant both teams were eliminated, and Japan had lost their greatest opportunity to climb onto the footballing world stage.
Manager Hans Ooft was sacked a few weeks after the match, his Asian Cup success from the year earlier quickly and quietly ignored after the despair the country had suffered. All but two of the thirteen players to play for Japan in the game would never represent the country at a World Cup and the term ‘Agony of Doha’ was quickly termed for the match where Japan had lost their hope from a state of nigh-on certainty.
In the thirty years since that game, the men’s national team have more than made up for their hiccup on that day, qualifying for every FIFA World Cup since and engaging in memorable displays against the sport’s biggest countries. However, that match in Doha, for however heartbreaking and humbling it was for the Japanese population, will forever be immortalised in the country through the now common term, Dōha o wasureruna, ‘Never forget Doha’.
