Shunsuke at the World Cup

Ali Hannah on Shunsuke Nakamura's World Cup Hopes, and News from Scotland

Shunsuke Nakamura has been given responsibility for Japan’s deadball situations in the World Cup and the little playmaker has spent the last few weeks wondering how to use the weapon to best effect. Japan are in one of the toughest groups in the competition and will have to overcome Brazil, Australia and Croatia if they are to progress in the tournament.

Knowing just how vital it is to take anything from the three games that Japan will play, Nakamura has revealed that he has been studying his opponents closely to pinpoint any frailties.

Taking aim from a corner kick is something the midfielder will be attempting and, like Lubomir Moravcik who achieved the same feat at Parkhead, Nakamura has already scored directly from a corner when he played for Japan against Honduras in 2002.

He was then dropped from Philippe Troussier's squad and wasn't involved at the World Cup for his country, an omission that still rankles with him and for which he is keen to make up for. When he scored with the corner four years ago in a friendly before Japan’s World Cup squad was announced, he claimed it was something of a fluke that he netted.

But this summer his plan is to head straight for goal whenever Zico's side win a corner, an idea he came up with after watching Holland v Australia.

"They are all massive and in the penalty area there is no space," said Nakamura. "It is difficult to kick the ball when everyone is running around looking for space.

"The potency of my corners was dropping.

"If I can fire in a low fast corner kick then there is the possibility that the opposition will put the ball in their own net. Even if no one can get on the end of the cross as long as someone can put away the rebound then that will do.

"Until now I have been trying to find someone with a pinpoint corner kick but against taller opponents it doesn't work and the ball is cleared out of the area.

"So, I thought to myself it would be better to aim directly at the goal with a ball that no-one can reach. It is more of a shot than a corner kick.

"I want to try and make more chances in front of goal and this is one way to try to achieve that."

On the back of winning the Kirin Cup in Japan last month, Scotland will send a squad to the European Under-19 Championships in Poland next month. It is the first time for 20 years that Scotland have made it to the final at youth level and offers further scope for optimism among that the green shoots of recovery are finally poking their heads through the darkness.

The Kirin Cup and qualification for a youth tournament may seem like nothing much to crow about for those nations who are currently competing on the world’s most glamourous stage in Germany, but for Scotland the boost is desperately needed.

Scotland News

The last time Scotland scored five goals was away from home against New Zealand in the 1982 World Cup in Spain. What really mattered in Japan, the thing that will stick in the players’ minds and give absentees pause for thought, was the manner of the win as much as the scoreline against that Bulgaria side. Rangers’ Kris Boyd and Chris Burke, managing two goals apiece in their international debuts, got all the headlines, and rightly so. But there were also signs that this was a team that could pass and move, slickly and efficiently. It was also a team playing to a system understood by all concerned, and to a system adaptable enough to accommodate numerous changes in personnel. Of the 11 who started against Bulgaria in the opening game of the Kirin Cup only Manchester United midfielder Darren Fletcher operates at the very highest level domestically, and then only intermittently.

The rest are either journeymen or, like Boyd and Burke, potential players for the future. Their achievement, no mean thing after the horrors of recent years, was to allow fans to indulge in a little optimism. If the second string can put on the sort of show offered in Japan, what might a full-strength Scotland manage? At minimum, the climb from a deplorable 62nd in the Fifa rankings should surely continue over the coming months.

Archie Gemmell, whose goal against Holland at the 19778 World Cup still stands as one of the best to grace the tournament, will be in charge of the young Scots when they head to Poland in July and he is optimistic that the future is bright. Scotland face a monumental task to qualify from an impossibly tough group and make the European Championships, but Gemmell believes that players are now coming through who can genuinely cut it among the best.

"Things have changed a bit over the past few seasons and clubs have been forced to give young players their chance, which is great news for the national team," he said.

"We always want to do well and win games, no matter what level it is, but obviously helping to shape players that can go on to make it into the senior side is what we are after.

"Steven Naismith was in this squad last year and you can look at the kind of season he has just had.

"He picked up the Young Player of the Year award and was absolutely outstanding for Kilmarnock.

"Even if it is only 10 first-team games that a youngster plays, it is better than a full season at youth or reserve level because it gives them a proper taste of what to expect in competitive football when the pressures are totally different."

Former Celtic manager Martin O'Neill has declared himself open to offers after deciding the time is right to return to management.

The former Northern Ireland international has taken a year out of the game to care for his wife Geraldine, who was diagnosed with cancer.

He left Celtic at the end of the 2004-05 season but claims he was eager to become England's new manager and, having missed out to Steve McClaren, is seeking a suitable club management role. O'Neill spoke to Middlesbrough about the vacancy which became available following McClaren's elevation in the England job, and he has also been linked with Sunderland, should the Niall Quinn-led consortium take charge at the Stadium of Light.

A return to management beckons, sooner rather than later if O'Neill has any say.

"It's something I would dearly love to get back into because I have missed it," said O'Neill.

"The games I've gone to see I've gone for enjoyment's sake. I've now gone past that enjoyable stage and want to get back into the un-enjoyable stage.

"I would like to get involved and I hope to at some stage in the not-too-distant future."

He added: "Only time will tell if you come back as a better manager.

"I would hope that not too many things would have changed."

The former Leicester manager broke his silence in a BBC Radio Five Live interview, ending any doubt over whether personal circumstances would allow him to return to football. His wife would support O'Neill's comeback, as the 54-year-old quipped: "I think she would want me to get back to football because I'm an absolute nuisance about the place at the moment."

O'Neill has also revealed that he would have had no qualms about taking on the England job.

"It is one of the great jobs in world football," he said.

"If Brian Clough, who had the ego the size of 15 houses, had the humility to go for an interview for the England job then the rest of us mortals should be able to subject ourselves to that.

"Had the job been offered, then I would have been absolutely foolish to turn it down." He claims the Football Association have not been in touch since awarding McClaren the England job, which he will begin after the World Cup.

"Whether people on the other side of the table were impressed, unimpressed, had their own particular agenda, eventually you can come up with all sorts of reasons, the fact is when the dust settled I wasn't the England manager," said O'Neill.

O'Neill had been thought to have strong support at the FA, but McClaren was in an apparent position of strength due to him being on Eriksson's coaching staff, with the chance to ensure continuity working in his favour.

As an Irishman, O'Neill would have been a controversial appointment among those who were pressing for Eriksson's successor to be English.

He remains in the dark as to whether that might have been a factor in being overlooked.

"I don't know is the honest answer," he said.

"I don't think that should be a prevention of you getting an international management job and there are numerous cases I could quote of people who are not the nation of their chosen team. It shouldn't have been a problem and it certainly wasn't a problem for me."