Kirin Cup, 2001:
Japan 1 - 0 Yugoslavia

Date: 31 May, 2001 Location: Oita "Big Eye" Stadium Japan 1 1 1H 0 0 2H 0 0 Jugoslavia Inamoto (21') Scoring Cautions Rasovic Zivkovic Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Naoki Matsuda (Tsuneyasu Miyamoto 68'), Ryuzo Morioka, Koji Nakata, Yasuhiko Hato, Junichi Inamoto, Kazuyuki Toda, Shini Ono (Toshihiro Hattori 45'), Hiroaki Morishima (Teruyoshi Ito 70'), Akinori Nishizawa (Masashi Nakayama 89'), Takayuki Suzuki (Tatsuhiko Kubo 77'). Sasa Stevanovic (Predrag Ristovic 86'), Vuk Rasovic (Damir Cakar 80'), Dusan Petkovic (Milovoje Cirkovic 86'), Sasa Zoric, Dejan Ognjanovic, Milan Dudic (Radovan Krivokapic 21'), Dragan Stojkovic, Goran Trobok (Dejan Radenovic 73'), Aleksandar Zivkovic, Igor Bogdanovic (Borislav Stevanovic 64'), Petar Divic

Japan closed out their Kirin Cup campaign in style . . . err . . . a very lethargic style, that is, as they plodded to a 1-0 victory against an understrengthe Yugoslavia side. Japan entered the match knowing that even a one-goal loss would guarantee them victory in the round-robin tournament, so perhaps it is not surprising that they allowed the 35-degree humidity at the Oita "Big Eye" Stadium to sap some of their vigour. After scoring a fairly early goal, Japan seemed totally content to simply wait out the rest of the match against an opponent that never really looked like scoring.

In fact, Japan came out with some fairly lively play in the opening minutes. Though Yugoslavia pressed hard for the first 15 mintuess or so, Japan had some very nice ball movement, especially with Shinji Ono and Yasuhiro Hato working down the wings. When the goal finally came, whoever, it was straight up the middle. After breaking up a Yugoslav attack at midfield, volante Junichi Inamoto -- who is apparently headed for Arsenal in a few weeks -- carried the ball into the Yugo end, and when no defenders came to pick him up, he accelerated towards the goal. As he neared the back line of defenders, Inamoto dropped a pass to striker Atsushi Yanagisawa. Yanagisawa held off his defender and dropped the one-two pass rigth back into Inamoto's path, leaving him wide open at the edge of the box. Inamoto blasted a line drive that knocked the keeper clean off his feet and ricocheted into the high right corner of the net, giving Japan the lead and a two-goal cushion in the cup competition.

That seemed to be enough for the home team, which created a few dangerous opportunities from time to time, but really ever pressed their advantage. For their part, the officiating team seemed to do its level best to ensure that the score line stayed as it was, twice blowing dangerous attacks offside despite the fact that replays showed a defender at least three meters behind the man receiving the pass. For its part, Yugoslavia sputtered and struggled all night. Japan's defence never conceded a real dangerous opportunity, and had to settle for long shots that keeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi was equal to handling.

Shinji Ono retired at half time, to be replaced by the very defensive-minded Toshihiro Hattori, and the pace of the game decellerated from there as both teams emptied their benches. Later in the match, Japan had a golden chance to double its margin as Yanagisawa sent Antlers teammate Takayuki Suzuki into the clear for a wide-open shot on goal, but Suzuki slightly misjudged his shot and it came back off the post. About ten minutes from full time, Hato also got a one-on-one opportunity against the keeper, but he blasted his shot straight at the goaltender and the chance went begging.

With three minutes of injury time already played, Yugoslavia got their best opportunity of the match, as Aleksandr Zivkovic sent in a long cross that for the first time found Vodislav Stevanovic open in front of the net, but Stevanovic's header flew wide of the post, and seconds later the final whistle gave Japan a 1-0 victory and the Kirin Cup.

Below is the full roster for the Kirin Cup: