International Friendly Match:
Japan 1 - 1 Italy

Date: 7 Nov, 2001 Location: Southampton, England Japan 1 1 1H 0 0 2H 1 1 Italy Yanagisawa (7') Scoring Doni (50') Inamoto Toda Takahara Cautions Coco Gattuso Doni Hitoshi Sogahata, Ryuzo Morioka, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Koji Nakata,Yasuhiko Hato (Tomokazu Myoijn 74'), Kazuyuki Toda,Junichi Inamoto (Teruyoshi Ito 75'), Shinji Ono (Toshihiro Hattori 69'), Hiroaki Morishima (Hidetoshi Nakata 45'), Atsushi Yanagisawa (Akinori Nishizawa 66'), Naohiro Takahara (Takayuki Suzuki 45') (Masashi Nakayama 87'). Gianluigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro, Alessandro Nesta, Mark Iuliano, Luigi Di Biagio (Cristiano Zanetti 45'), Francesco Coco (Giuseppe Pancaro 66'), Gianluca Zambrotta, Francesco Totti (Cristiano Doni 45') (Angelo Di Livio 89'), Gennaro Gattuso, Filippo Inzaghi (Stefano Fiore 87'), Alessandro Del Piero (Marco Delvecchio 59')

Japan put on a fine show against a rather annoyed and petulant Italian side, in their final match of 2001. The Italians clearly were expecting a stroll in the park, and though they responded well after half time and managed to level the final score line, they were dominated for the first 45 minutes, and compounded their poor performance with a bucketload of lame excuses. Jet lag, poor pitch conditions, bad officiating . . . well, Im sure you know the litany.

But lets ignore the aftermath, and consider the match itself which was lively and enjoyable to watch, with both teams playing attractive football. Just 9 minutes into the match, Shinji Ono created the opener with a superb steal, deep in the Italian end. With a quick sweep of the leg, he dispossessed Italian skipper Fabio Cannavaro and then floated a perfect cross in front of goal. Atsushi Yanagisawa made a slashing run in from the right flank, and met the cross with a emphatic looping volley over Buffon. Japan nearly deepend the blush of embarassment on Italian faces further, in the 22 minute when Yanagisawa turned provider, breaking free down the right side and centering for Junichi Inamoto. But Inamoto balooned the ball over the crossbar from close range.

Italy came out chastened and serious in the second half, with Cristiano Doni providing Italy's equaliser soon after coming on as a second-half substitute. Thereafter the two teams battled back and forth, producing some pretty plays but only a handful of shots on goal. The score line ended at 1-1, and Japan closed out 2001 on a reasonably positive note.