Yuji Nakazawa - Career

Career

Nakazawa started playing football for his home country. He played for Yoshikawa Higashi Junior High School and Misato Technology High School, but attracted no scouts' eyes. Determined to be a pro, he left for Brazil to improve his football skills and trained with América Mineiro. During his time there, he won the Campeonato Mineiro in the junior category and played a key role in coach Ricardo Drubscky's squad.

After a year, he returned to Japan and joined Verdy Kawasaki in 1998 as a trainee, which meant he received no compensation. He impressed the club enough to win a full professional contract the following year.

His first J. League appearance came on March 13, 1999 against Cerezo Osaka at Todoroki Athletics Stadium. He scored his first league goal on April 10, 1999 against Nagoya Grampus Eight also at Todoroki. That year, he received the J-League Young Player of the Year award and was selected for the J-League Team of the Year.

Philippe Troussier called him up for Japan's national team. Nakazawa played in Olympic qualifiers as well as the finals in Sydney. Troussier promoted him to a full international. His first international appearance came on September 8, 1999 in a friendly against Iran at the International Stadium of Yokohama. He scored his first goal on February 13, 2000 in an Asian Cup qualifier against Singapore in Macau.

He was a member of the Japan team who won the 2000 AFC Asian Cup in Lebanon. He played 3 games in the competition. However, he was not selected for the 2002 FIFA World Cup finals as Yutaka Akita was preferred.

He was transferred to Yokohama F. Marinos in 2002 and contributed to the club winning two consecutive J. League championships in 2003 and 2004. He was selected as the Most Valuable Player of the league in 2004.

Under new national manager Zico, he partnered with Tsuneyasu Miyamoto at the back line. He participated in the 2004 AFC Asian Cup finals. He played in all the Japan matches and scored 3 goals, one of which was a stoppage time equaliser in the semi-final against Bahrain, and Japan went on to win the title again.

He also played in the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany but the team failed to proceed to the knockout stage. After the tournament, he announced his retirement from the international football at the age of 28. However, six months later, he withdrew his decision and Ivica Osim played him in a friendly against Peru on March 24, 2007.

He played in the 2007 AFC Asian Cup finals but this time the team failed to defend the title and finished 4th in the tournament.

On February 14, 2010 Nakazawa made his 100th appearance for the Japan national team against South Korea in the final match of the 2010 East Asian Football Championship at Tokyo's National Stadium. Nakazawa becomes only the third Japanese player, following Masami Ihara and Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, to reach 100 caps for his country. Later that year, Yasuhito Endō also reached 100 caps for Japan.

On May 30, 2010 Nakazawa scored an own-goal in a friendly match against England to give England the lead; his defensive partner Tulio had already scored an own goal to draw England level with Japan. The match ended 2-1 to England.

In the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Nakazawa played all 4 of Japan's games on their way to the round of 16 and knockout by penalties to Paraguay. He played some of the best football of his entire career and, alongside Marcus Tulio Tanaka, was the heart of defence.