Japan manager Takeshi Okada's assertion that there was "no problem yet" after his side had drawn 1-1 at home to Uzbekistan in Wednesday night's World Cup qualifier drew hoots of derision from many watching the match, but as a sound bite it neatly summed up the national team's philosophy.
Japan, wholeheartedly devoted to a passing game big on patient technique but short on decisive urgency, showed once again that such an attitude can be a mixed blessing.
On the one hand there was Shunsuke Nakamura, almost single-handedly dismantling the Uzbek defense with an extraordinary range of passes, creating chance after chance as Japan pushed for an equalizer to Maksim Shatskikh's first-half opener.