National team manager Takeshi Okada vowed to get straight back in the saddle after his public dressing-down on Monday. After the beating he has just taken, a period of quiet reflection might be a better option.

Okada had to suffer the indignity of a vote of confidence from JFA president Motoaki Inukai after Japan's poor showing at the East Asian Championship, but it was just the latest bloody nose after two weeks of calls for his resignation, ferocious criticism of his methods and boos cascading from the stands.

The most frequent charge leveled at Okada has been his rigid inflexibility, and there was plenty of evidence of that at the Tokyo tournament. The opening 0-0 draw with China was shocking not because it came against a team that had fallen at the first hurdle of World Cup qualifying, but because it suggested Okada and his players had learned absolutely nothing in their two years together.