Japan 1 - 0 Russia

Date: 9 June, 2002 Location: Yokohama Int'l Stadium, Japan Japan 1 0 1H 0 1 2H 0 0 Russia Inamoto (51') Scoring K. Nakata Miyamoto Nakayama Cautions Pimenov Solomatin Khokhlov Japan: Seigo Narazaki, Naoki Matsuda, Koji Nakata, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Junichi Inamoto (Takashi Fukunishi, 85), Hidetoshi Nakata, Shinji Ono (Toshihiro Hattori, 75), Tomokazu Myojin, Kazuyuki Toda, Takayuki Suzuki (Masashi Nakayama, 72), Atsushi Yanagisawa Ruslan Nigmatullin, Yuri Kovtun, Yuri Nikiforov, Andrey Solomatin, Viktor Onopko, Alexei Smertin (Vladimir Beschastnykh, 57), Igor Semshov, Valery Karpin, Yegor Titov, Marat Izmailov (Dmitry Khohlov, 52), Ruslan Pimenov ( Dmitriy Sichev, 46)

The thundering echoes of celebration are only now beginning to fade, after Japan got its very first World Cup win last night, and moved a step closer to the second round with a stirring victory over Russia. Nor could even the most biased Russian fan claim that it was a lucky win. If Japan (and in particular, Hide Nakata) had done a better job of finishing, the score might easily have been higher. Though national team supporters have been confident of such a scenario ever since the draw was announced, the world football press is finally waking up to Japan's potential, and have been quite lavish in their praise of the team's performance (though hardly any overseas news organizations were able to accurately name the players who contributed to Japan's lone goal)

Troussier once again brought out a very traditional 3-5-2 lineup, though he chose to play the more defensive Tomokazu Myojin on the right wing rather than Daisuke Ichikawa, who started the Belgium match, and Tsuneyasu Miyamoto took over as the center back, replacing Ryuzo Morioka who suffered a bruised calf in the Belgium match. Koji Nakata, and Naoki Matsuda rounded out the flat three, Junichi Inamoto and Kazuyuki Toda were once again selected at the twin volante positions, Shinji Ono played right wing and Hidetoshi Nakata played the point. The two forwards were once again the Antlers strike team of Takayuki Suzuki and Atsushi Yanagisawa.

Japan looked much smoother in the first half of this match than they had against Belgium. Their nerves seemed much steadier, and they wasted little time in putting the pressure on their opponent. As was true against Belgium, both Yanagisawa and Suzuki made strong contributions in support of the defence, by pursuing the ball all over the field, and harrassing the Russian midfielders from behind to prevent them from developing any offensive flow. Shinji Ono once again looked below peak form, but he did a good job of shutting down Valery Karpin on the defensive end before being replaced by Toshihiro Hattori, midway through the second half. Myojin also focused primarily on the defensive end, leaving most of the offensive work to the two strikers, Hide Nakata and the tireless and relentless Inamoto.

Japan held the initiative for most of the first half, but poor shots prevented them from making a serious scoring threat. The best two opportunities were a free kick from just a meter outside the box, which Nakata wasted over the crossbar, and a nice cross from Suzuki on the left side that was chested down for Nakata by Ono. Once again, Nakata balooned his shot over the bar. Russia had one or two good chances as well, but most of them were from long range, giving Narazaki plenty of time to handle them. The only real dangerous opportunity was a drive from Marat Izmailov, which left Narazaki flatfooted, but was a meter wide of the left post.

As they had against Belgium, Japan came out of the locker room in a frenzy after the half time break. A swarm of pressure on the ball soon had the Russians back on their heels. Then, in the 51 minute, Koji Nakata made a nice foray down the left sideline, and spotted his Antlers teammate Yanagisawa at the center of the circle above the penalty box. His cross was placed perfectly, and although Yanagisawa was well marked, he could see Inaomoto in the clear as his defender tried to collapse on the cross. Yanagisawa volleyed the ball out of the air, dropping it just in front of Inamoto. The Arsenal backbencher only had to pick his spot, which he did perfectly, firing into the top right side of the net in almost exactly the same place that his goal against Belgium had hit.

The cascade of noise that followed Inamoto's strike, and persisted until the final whistle, virtually gave Japan another player on the pitch. The tide of emotion generated by the 66,000 fans lifted the team and carried them through the remainder of the match. Russia did have one good chance to equalise, soon after Inamoto's goal, as the defence seemed to lose their concentration for a moment, and a long cross found Vladimir Beschastnykh open on the left of the box. However, Beschastnykh rushed his shot after rounding Narazaki, and sent it into the side netting. After this opportunity, though, the flat three put in a solid performance, allowing only long-range shots that Narazaki could scoop up with ease.

On the offensive end, meanwhile, Japan's surge of emotion had them outrunning the Russians all over the pitch, and it nearly won them an insurance goal. Yanagisawa took a cross from Inamoto on his chest, and whirled past his defender into the box, but he wasted his shot over the crossbar. Hide Nakata, who had a much better performance in the second half, came even closer when he unleashed a rocket from 25 meters which beat the keeper and rattled the crossbar, but failed to go in. Troussier then made what might have been a strategic error when he brought in veteran Masashi Nakayama for Suzuki, hoping to boost the emotion level further, but despite dogged ball pursuit, Nakayama clearly lacks Suzuki's ability to control the ball, and thus was not able to contribute offensively.

By this time, though, Troussier was clearly more interested in keeping Russia off the scoreboard. He brought Toshihiro Hattori on for Ono in the 75 minute, and then replaced the exhausted Inamoto with Takashi Fukunishi, to give the midfield an even more defensive appearance. The strategy paid off, as Russia were unable to get off a truly dangerous shot in the final 15 minutes despite throwing everything they had into attack. With the final whistle, all of Japan burst into celebration, for the nation's historic first win in World Cup action!!!!