Asia Cup Qualifiers :
Japan 9 - 0 Brunei

Date: February 13, 2000 Location: Macao Stadium Japan 9 5 1H 0 4 2H 0 0 Brunei Masashi Nakayama (1') Masashi Nakayama (2') Masashi Nakayama (4') Kazu Miura (36') Shunsuke Nakamura (45') Takeshi Hirano (66') Takeshi Hirano (66') Naohiro Takahara (75') Masaaki Sawanobori (85') Naohiro Takahara (88') Scoring Shinji Ono Atsushi Yoneyama Cautions Martilu bin Haji bin Haji Shah bin Haji Shah Sent Off bin Haji Shah Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Naoki Matsuda (Atsushi Yoneyama 45), Yuji Nakazawa, Toshihiro Hattori, Shinji Ono Takeshi Hirano, Daisuke Oku (Masaaki Sawanobori 45), Shunsuke Nakamura, Junichi Inamoto, Masashi Nakayama, Kazuyoshi Miura (Naohiro Takahara 71) Jeffrey bin Mohammed, Norsilmy bin Haji, Awangkhu Allasudin, Saiful Rizal bin Awag, Rosli bin Haji Liman, Martilu bin Haji, Sharimin bin Haji Shah, Fadlin bin Galwat, Azamnuddin bin Haji Gillen, Irwan bin Mohammed, Suni bin Mat Jerah

The qualifying matches for the Asian Cup, in 2000, marked the watershed for Japan's national team, between the "old generation" and the "new generation". Phillippe Troussier gave members of the old guard one last chance to show what they could do at the Carlsberg Cup in Hong Kong, at the start of the year. When they failed to come through, he began making a wholesale shift in his national team to the younger core of players from the U-23 team, which had been racking up a string of impressive wins in the qualifying rounds for the Sydney Olympics. At the Carlsberg Cup, Troussier started this shift, adding defenders Koji Nakata and Naoki Matsuda, and midfielders Junichi Inamoto and Shinji Ono to the starting lineup. Two weeks later, he made an even bigger shift in Japan's match Asian Cup qualifier against Singapore. When Japan took the field against the lowly regarded team from Brunei, the starting strikers were aging icons Masashi Nakayama and Kazu Miura, but it was already apparent to most people that this was to be their last hurrah.

Nakayama took full advantage of the opportunity, scoring a hat trick in the first four minutes, and thus writing his name into the record book for fastest hat trick in a FIFA "A" match. Kazu, on the other hand, was already sailing off into the sunset. He managed to recored a goal in the 36 minute thanks to a perfect service pass from Junichi Inamoto, but Naohiro Takahara replaced him at the 60 minute mark and scored two goals in quick succession, as if to demonstrate that the torch had been passed to the next generation.