ALMERIA, Spain -- When Japan played Spain in Cordoba on April 25, one spectator, who had driven up from his home on Spain's Costa del Sol, had a particular interest in the Japanese team.
That man was Hans Ooft, the former Japan and Jubilo Iwata manager who led the national team's 1994 World Cup qualifying campaign that ended in the "Tragedy of Doha," when an injury-time goal by Iraq dashed Japan's hopes of going to the World Cup finals in the United States.
Ooft quit -- some thought too soon -- to take responsibility for that failure but continued to work within the Japanese game at club level.