Japan’s Coach Resigns After Loss to Jamaica

Years from now, it will be a World Cup trivia question, although the sorry answer isn’t so trivial today:

What two countries competed in the 1998 World Cup without winning or tying a match?

Japan, which lost its Group H finale to Jamaica, 2-1, in Lyon Friday, would be one.

The United States would be the other.

Sad but true, if the 32 teams in the France 98 field were ranked top to bottom in terms of points earned during group play, Japan and the United States would be tied for last with zero.

To Japan Coach Takeshi Okada, it was reason to resign.

“I will quit as a professional coach,” Okada said. “When a coach fails to achieve what he sets out to do, he should quit. It is my responsibility. I was not able to draw the best out of the players in this match.”

Okada’s controversial decision to drop the team’s top scorer, “King” Kazu Miura, just before the tournament haunted the team through 1-0 losses to Argentina and Croatia and 73 scoreless minutes against Jamaica.

Japan played 253 minutes before scoring its first World Cup goal--a running volley by Masashi Nakayama from a header across the penalty area by Brazilian-born striker Wagner Lopes.

But that long-awaited goal merely cut Jamaica’s margin of victory to a goal. Theodore Whitmore gave the Jamaicans a 2-0 lead with goals in the 39th and 54th minutes, securing the victory just after halftime.

Although they go home at 1-2, having yielded nine goals in three games, the Reggae Boyz were ecstatic after the victory, Jamaica’s first in a World Cup.