International Friendly Match:
Japan 2 - 2 Nigeria

Date: 7 October, 2001 Location: Southampton, England Japan 2 1 1H 1 1 2H 1 2 Nigeria Yanagisawa (26') Suzuki (57') Scoring O.G. (28') Aghahowa (81') Miyamoto Toda Cautions Ojigwe Udeze Ejiofor Ejiofor Sent Off Ejiofor Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Naoki Matsuda, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Koji Nakata, Yasuhiko Hato (Toshihiro Hattori 45'), Teruyoshi Ito (Takashi Fukunishi 80'), Junichi Inamoto (Daisuke Oku 70'), Kazuyuki Toda, Shinji Ono (Nozumi Hiroyama 45'), Akinori Nishizawa (Takayuki Suzuki 45'), Atsushi Yanagisawa Ike Shorounmu, Eric Ejiofor, Ifeanyi Udeze (Celestine Babayaro 54'), Isaac Okoronkwo, Sunday Oliseh, Augustine Okocha, Karibe Ojigwe, George Finidi, Victor Agali (Garba Lawal 74'), Tijani Babangida (Julius Aghahowa 54'), Yakubu Aiyegbeni.

Japan and Nigeria took to the field in Southampton under rainy skies on Sunday afternoon. Although the pitch held up fairly well, heavy rain throughout the match clearly slowed down play. Japan, still smarting from their 2-0 loss against Senegal, came out with a lot more energy than they showed earlier in the week. Troussier abandoned his attempts to use little-known reserves, and adopted a formation with three defensive midfielders in order to fill the gaps created by injuries to Nanami, Nakata and Morishima. Shinji Ono played one of the two offensive midfield positions, though he only lasted 45 minutes, and Yasuhiro Hato played on the other side for the full match. At defensive mid, Troussier had Inamoto in the middle, flanked by Teruyoshi Ito on the left and Kazuyuki Toda on the right. Perhaps the biggest difference from the Senegal match was the presence of Atsushi Yanagisawa up front. His strike partner Akinori Nishizawa was nearly invisible, but Yanagisawa was a threat all night long. In the back, Yoshikatsu Kawagushi got the start in goal, but the back line was a bit shuffled, as Tsuneyasu Miyamoto replaced Ryuzo Morioka at the center back position, Naoki Matsuda held down the right flank and Koji Nakata took his usual position on the left.

Japan moved the ball well from the opening tap, managing to string together a lot of passes despite the slick field conditions, and maintaining a slight edge in posession. Nigeria showed some dangerous flashes when they got the ball, especially in the individual play of Jayjay Okocha and Sunday Oliseh, but Japan's team defence prevented them from getting off a single shot in the first 20 minutes. The one area of concern early on was the right flank, where Babangida was able to outrun the hobbling Ono down the sideline on several occasions. Midway through the half, Ono and Hato switched sides, and the danger posed by Babangida was largely contained for the rest of the match.

Despite the lack of its starting offensivbe midfielders, Japan created some dangerous plays early on, mainly with through balls from Inamoto and Koji Nakata to Yanagisawa. The Antlers forward was very active, as he both created chances for himself and fed teammates into the box. Inamoto got off one pretty lob shot in the 15 minute after being sent through by Yanagisawa, but the tall Nigerian keeper, Ejide, was still close enough to his line to get back and tip the ball over the bar. Then, in the 26 minute, Japan finally broke the deadlock. After winning a free kick on the left side, about 30 meters out, Ito took a quick kick and found Yanagisawa breaking on net. Yanagisawa managed to redirect the ball slightly and head it inside the near post for a 1-0 lead.

Unfortunately, Japan allowed Nigeria to get right back in the match, on a corner kick from the right side just a few seconds later. The ball sailed to the far post, and Hato tried to control the ball instead of simply blasting it clear. As a result, Eric Ejiofor was able to collect the loose ball and fire it point-blank into a scramble of players in the goal mouth. The ball deflected off Naoki Matsuda and into the net, knotting the score.

But after this one miscue, Japan settled down and had the advantage in both posession and opportunities for much of the first half. Yanagisawa went close again in the 38 minute and again just before the half. On Nigeria's side, most of the danger was created in the middle, by the silky-smooth dribling of Okocha. Kawaguchi had to make two nice saves in the final five minutes of the half as Nigeria started to gain momentum.

After the break, however, Japan came out and once again took control of posession, with a lot of hard running and ball pressure. Nozomi Hiroyama replaced Ono on the right wing, Yanagisawa's Kashima teammate Takayuki Suzuki joined him in the front line, replacing the invisible Nishizawa, and Toshihiro Hattori subbed for Nakata at left back. Once again, Japan got on the board following a free kick. This time, Hattori took a kick about 35 meters from goal on the left sideline. His line drive cleared the outer perimiter, and Suzuki stepped in front of his defender to volley home a thundering shot from less than five meters out.

Although they looked like they might outlast Nigeria, Japan started to sag back into more of a defensive stance as the match wore on, and this would prove fatal. Troussier brought in Daisuke Oku and Takashi Fukunishi midway through the half, but they were not able to pressure the ball as well as Hato and Inamoto had. This gave the Nigerians more room to work their dribbling magic at midfield. As the half wore on, Nigeria started to get more shots on net. However, Japan still might have escaped with a victory, thanks to some fine work in goal by Kawaguchi. He made one stellar save on a blast by Finidi George that he turned just past the post. However, with just eight minutes to go, Naoki Matsuda misplayed a long clearance and allowed Aghahowa to break free one-on-one against the keeper. Kawaguchi was unable to stop this opportunity, and the score was all even again at 2-2.

Japan woke up after the goal, and pressured Nigeria steadily for the final few minutes, but they couldnt qwuite get the ball into the net, and the match ended in a draw. Still, considering the fact that Japan played both of its European matches without key players in offensive midfield -- which is usually the team's greatest strength -- the result was reasonably encouraging.

Below is the full roster for the match against Nigeria: