National Team Match:
Japan 0 - 1 Mexico

Date: Feb 5, 2000 Location: Hong Kong Stadium Japan 0 0 1H 0 0 2H 1 1 Mexico Scoring Miguel Angel Zapeda (55') Cautions Sent Off Francisco Palencia (52') Seigo Narazaki, Go Oiwa, Naoki Matsuda, Koji Nakata, Teruyoshi Ito (Masaaki Sawanobori 77), Shigeyoshi Mochizuki (Daisuke Oku 75), Hiroshi Nanami, Shinji Ono, Junichi Inamoto, Masashi Nakayama (Takeshi Hirano 80), Tomoyuki Hirase (Kazuyoshi Miura 80) Oscar Perez, Claudio Suarez, Sergio Almaguer, Ramon Ramirez, Gerardol Torrado (Ignacio Hierro 45), Juan Pablo Rodriguez (Daniel Oselmo 56), Mario Mendez (Salvador Caroma 45), Jose de Jesus Arellano (Emilio Mora 45), Francisco Palencia, Miguel Angel Zapeda

In early 2000, Phillippe Troussier finally began rebuilding his national team around a younger core of players. The catastrophic results that the team brougn home from the Copa America, in 1999, very nearly cost Troussier his job. If not for the fine performance of the U-23 team, which was racking up a string of impressive wins in its bid to qualify for the Sydney Olympics, Troussier probably would have been shown the door in early 2000. At the Carlsberg Cup , an exhibition tournament held in Hong Kong in early 2000, Troussier began shifting to a younger lineup that drew a number of players from the Olympic team, particularly defenders Koji Nakata and Naoki Matsuda, and midfielders Junichi Inamoto and Shinji Ono.

The first match of the Carlsberg Cup was not a particularly impressive performance for Japan, but it did show some improvements both in terms of the team's overall strategy, and iin terms of the personnel used. Japan was very unfortunate not to score in the first 15 minutes of the match. In the 10 minute, a sterling counterattack that went from Matsuda to Ono to Tomoyuki Hirase put Japan into the clear, but Shigeyoshi Mochizuki headed Hirase's centering pass into the stratosphere, and the chance was wasted. Shortly thereafter Ono once again put Hirase clear with a pinpoint pass, but his shot was stopped by the keeper, and another fine opportunity went by the boards.

By the middle of the first half, Mexico seemed to realise that they were up against a much better team than they had anticipated, and began playing a more cautious match which offered Japan less of an opportunity to counterattack, and by the end of the half, Mexico were beginning to regain control of the tempo.

Shortly after the restart, defender Ramon Ramirez played a beautiful ball that caught both Hiroshi Nanami and Teruyoshi Ito flatfooted, splitting Japan's center and sending Miguel Zapeda into the clear. Before the last line of defence could close in on him, Zapeda fired a bullet into the top corner of the net to give Mexico the lead.

Shortly thereafter, Mexican defender Francisco Palencia committed a brutal breakaway foul to prevent Hirase from getting into the clear once more, and was shown an immediate red card, giving Japan a chance to get back into the match. But the Mexican team showed the experienced gamesmanship that one comes to expect of Latin American teams, stalling play, wasting time and finding all sorts of ways to preserve their lead. Japan showed good ball control over the final 30 minutes, but was incapable of equalising.

Here is the full roster for the match against Mexico: