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October 17, 2018

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Japan sees off Uruguay in a thriller

JAPAN made it three wins out of three under new coach Hajime Moriyasu with a thrilling 4-3 victory over Uruguay in a friendly in Saitama last night.

Inspired by 24-year-old playmaker Shoya Nakajima and forward Takumi Minamino, who finished the night with a brace, Japan stunned Oscar Tabarez’s side, which is ranked fifth in the world.

Japan, ranked 54th, continued on from its 3-0 victory over Panama on Friday with a vibrant attacking display involving many of the younger players Moriyasu has brought in since taking over after the 2018 World Cup.

Starting with Minamino, 23, Ritsu Doan, 20, and Nakajima as three attacking midfielders behind Yuya Osako, Japan played a brand of football that Uruguay struggled to cope with.

The trio only had nine caps between them coming into the night. But Salzburg’s Minamino opened the scoring after 10 minutes, wriggling past Uruguay captain Diego Godin with a clever turn and drilling his shot into the top corner past goalkeeper Fernando Muslera.

Uruguay lacked fluidity throughout the first half, leaving striker Edinson Cavani isolated up front without his strike partner Luis Suarez, who missed the match because his wife is due to give birth.

Its best chances came from set-pieces and after Japan goalkeeper Masaaki Higashiguchi had saved well once from Godin’s header, it was PSV Eindhoven’s Gaston Pereira who scored following another floated Uruguay free kick on 28 minutes.

Japan reclaimed the lead less than 10 minutes later after Nakajima’s shot was parried into the path of Osako. The Werder Bremen forward had been largely wasteful until that point but buried his finish to give Japan a 2-1 lead heading into the break.

Uruguay equalized for a second time when Cavani took advantage of a misguided back pass from defender Genta Miura to score his 46th goal for his country on 57 minutes.

However, Japan roared back just two minutes later through 20-year-old Doan’s neat finish before Minamino claimed his second from another Muslera rebound.

The goal was his fourth in just five appearances for Japan.

The drama was not over, however, as Uruguay substitute Jonathan Rodriguez pulled a goal back in the 75th to set up a nervy finish for Moriyasu’s team.

However, the Japanese held on to keep up its 100 percent record under Moriyasu and hand Uruguay its second loss on the bounce, following a 1-2 defeat in South Korea on Friday.

South Korea, meanwhile, gave up a two-goal lead as Paulo Bento’s side was pegged back to a 2-2 draw by Panama in a friendly.

Park Joo-ho and Hwang In-beom struck to put the home side two goals up inside the first 33 minutes, only for Abdiel Arroyo to halve the deficit just before the break and Rolando Blackburn to pull the Panamanians level four minutes after the restart.

The draw means Bento remains unbeaten since replacing Shin Tae-yong, who took the Koreans to the World Cup finals in Russia, at the helm of the team in mid-August.

Following its last home game of the year, South Korea completes its preparations for the Asian Cup in January with November games against Australia and Uzbekistan.




 

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