National Team Match:
Japan 1-1 (PK4 - 3) Jordan

Date: 3 Aug, 2004 Location: Chengdu Stadium, China Japan 1(4) 0 1H 1 3 2H 2 1 ET1 0 0 ET2 0 1 (3) Jordan Takayuki Suzuki (14') Scoring M. Shelbaieh (11') Alex Santos Cautions Hatem Aquel R. Al-Awadat Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Makoto Tanaka (Naoki Matsuda 115), Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Yuji Nakazawa, Akira Kaji, Yasuhito Endo (Koji Nakata 58), Shunsuke Nakamura, Takashi Fukunishi, Alessandro Santos, Takayuki Suzuki , Keiji Tamada (Masashi Motoyama 72) A. Sabah, K. Saed, R. Al-Awadat, B. Yaseem, F. Ibrahim, H. Aqel, H. Qaseem, O. Abu Allah, A. Abu Zema, M. Shelbaieh, M. Salim

Japan may have stretched their luck in this contest, but they ultimately prevailed despite eleven opponents, four referees and an estimated 52,000 spectators who all did everything in their power to defeat them. This match was pretty unspectacular, with most of the highlight-reel performances generated by the Chinese referee (gee, do ya think they could have chosen a more impartial person than that?)

The Rising Sun News knows better than to expect "justice" from the AFC, though in any "real" football confederation, the referees would be the ones collecting yellow and red cards in this tournament.

After 120 minutes of deadlock, Jordan took a 2-0 lead in the PK shootout, when a patch of mud caused both Nakamura and Santos to miss their kicks. But Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi dug down deep and came up with a stunning bit of clutch play, blocking three Jordanian shots in a row to carry Japan to a 4-3 victory in the shootout.

Below is the full roster for the match against Jordan: