`Prove with your play that you are the real thing.' YURIKO SAEKI Soccer coach

Under the clear blue skies of Spain in late September, coach Yuriko Saeki, 31, glares at her 16 female soccer players. It's 5 p.m. and the team is holding its last meeting before kicking off the first game of the season.

``You look absolutely stunning in that uniform, which boasts a 100-year history. I am honored to share this battle with you,'' Saeki says in fluent Spanish.

Just as the players begin to relax, their Asian coach lashes out with a sharp comment. ``But we don't need any phonies. Prove with your play that you are the real thing.''

Saeki coaches the women's B team this season for ``Club Atletico de Madrid,'' a top-class club with 45,000 members.

Last fall, Saeki obtained a national license, the country's highest certification for soccer coaches, and immediately was hired to coach a men's third division club in the Spanish League, the first woman to do so.

In a nation where the world's best players come to compete, coaches far outnumber demand. With so many qualified coaches fighting over a limited number of jobs, Saeki quickly became the target of envy and slander.

``In other words, that means I finally became a threat to these people. Until then, people merely patted me on my back for trying,'' Saeki says, laughing. The team she first coached won its first game, then lost three games in a row. She was fired after the third loss, and now coaches the women's team. But Saeki's goal is to coach a men's team again.

Saeki's passion for soccer came at an early age. She spotted a soccer ball at a sports equipment store in her native Fukuoka when she was a second grader. The yellow ball looked so cool, she begged her mother to buy it for her.

She still remembers a tingle of excitement when she touched the ball for the first time. She began kicking the ball around the school playground the very next day. A year later, a woman in her neighborhood took her to a local boys' soccer team.

She joined the squad, the first girl ever admitted. Indeed, the short-haired, tan little girl looked little different from the other players.

She continued playing soccer in Taiwan-where her family moved when she was in sixth grade due to her father's job-and in Tokyo where she returned for her second year of junior high. But she was shocked by a message written by one of her school teachers on her junior high graduation card. ``From now on, choose a sport you can play for life.''

Saeki felt as if she was being told to wake up and forget soccer. When she entered a private high school, she joined the golf team.

But Saeki wasn't really happy and when her father was transferred to Spain in her third year of high school, she decided to go with him.

Once in the Spanish capital of Madrid, she immediately joined a girls' soccer team. Speaking little English and no Spanish whatsoever, she packed a dictionary in her bag whenever she went to practice. Most of her teammates were older and treated Saeki like a little sister. They would pat her on the shoulder while running and ask her if she was doing OK. They would correct her elementary Spanish. With so much kindness from her teammates, her love for soccer grew. Three years later when her parents returned to Japan, Saeki stayed behind alone and decided to become a coach.

She rented an apartment near the powerful Real Madrid team stadium and attended coaching school, passing one exam after the next. Last summer, she participated in a camp to obtain the national coaching license.

She resided at the camp site for a month, attending classes 12 hours a day. Saeki was the only woman among the 34 coaching candidates that survived the rigorous schedule. There were many injuries, forcing many participants to drop out.

Saeki's team registered a solid 6-1 victory in the season's first game. She patted her players on the back after their winning performance. Written on her palm was a message she had penned before the game: ``With calmness, I command with dignity.'' Soccer in Spain

The Spanish League consists of many divisions, including first division, second division A, second division B, third division and others. The National League is third division and over, with men only. Coaches need to obtain a national license in order to coach in this league. There are 20 professional teams in the first division and 22 in second division A. Coaches and players in other divisions practice on weekends while working at other jobs during the week.(IHT/Asahi: November 20,2004)