Come September 8 and Kolkata — and the Salt Lake Stadium — is going to witness a kind of football extravaganza it has not seen in the last 27 years. A star-studded Japanese national team is coming to play the return match with India for the qualifying round of World Cup 2006.India played their away match in June last and lost 7-0.However, the Indian Football Association (IFA) has put its best foot forward to organise the scintillating event in the best way it can do for soccer connoisseurs of the city. ‘‘This is a mega event for Indian football and we are making all arrangememts to make the event successful,’’ Subrata Dutta, President, IFA, told reporters a couple of days back.A 23-member Japanese team including four players who took part in World Cup 2003 — Alex Santos, Shunsuke Nakamura, Koji Nakata and Shinji Ono — are coming to play for the match. Even more exciting for the football-crazy city here is the fact that legendary Brazilian striker Zico — Japan’s coach — will also be visible groundside.About 1400 Japanese supporters and 80 mediapersons are also touching down for the event. Dutta says there are indications that many more Japanese supporters are expected to come to cheer the team.The match will be telecast live by Doordarshan, Dutta added.The football fraternity in Kolkata believe the event will benefit Indian football a lot. ‘‘ This will help. We will learn how Zico fields his players. We know we are a much weaker side but I don’t mind. This is the way we will improve,’’ East Bengal coach Subhas Bhowmick told this reoporter.
