Kings of Asia Keep It Up – Asian Cup From The Stands – Day 12 Review
The 12th and final night of the Asian Cup group stages saw Japan and Iraq win over their respective opponents 2-0.
With not a single match ending in a draw throughout the group stages created a consistent ladder standing throughout the groups of points: 9, 6, 3 and 0. Tuesday night went exactly as planned, following a mauling of Palestine and a bit of a reality shock when they snuck past Iraq 1-0, Japan were looking for an improvement to gain themselves a semi-final date with Australia in Newcastle. The Jordan side they came up against struggled to absorb any sorts of pressure in the first half, and couldn’t find the back of the net in the second. Meanwhile in the nation’s capital, Iraq cruised past a currently weakened Palestine 2-0 with Ahmed Yasin scoring the winner.
Final result: Japan 2 (Honda 24′, Kagawa 82′) defeated Jordan 0
With an unchanged lineup for the third game in a row, Japan started off just like each other fixture with Okazaki running rampage in the offence. The lone striker was utilized as a finisher for long balls into the penalty box, but it was Takashi Inui who drew first blood when his goal was disallowed after Shinji Kagawa stepped over the sideline.
Determined to fight back, within the first twenty minutes of the game Jordan had already resorted to dirty tactics, with nearly every member of their back four in verbal contact with the referee. On top of that, Japan had a 75% possession rate tripling Jordan’s statistics. By now, defenders from the Samurai Blue like Yui Nagatomo and Gotoku Sakai pushed into Jordan’s half and assisted Hasebe with providing the ball to the flanks. Eiji Kawashima was only threatened during this period of time when in the 7th minute Al Dardour was ruled offside near the penalty box.
Just four minutes later, Inui received the ball from the midfield and provided possession to Okazaki who was able to fire a cross at Shafi, who deflected the shot and gave Honda an open shot at goal. From now on things only got worse for the Jordanians and Shafi soon became their best defender and goalkeeper, most noticeably when he cleared three corners in a row from Yasuhito Endo and Keisuke Honda combined.
Nagatomo continued to run amok down the sidelines and the back four became more of a back three, marking only one player in Al Dardour. Jordanian striker Abdallah Deeb was rather poor and was pulled off the starting squad before the second half could begin.
Approaching the half-time whistle things became heated as Japan went seeking a second goal but were continuously denied by Shafi. During the 39th minute, Masato Morishige hit the ground with a suspected concussion. Mohammad Mustafa earned a yellow card for the offence that consisted of a head clash between the two midfielders. A bit of a controversial decision as Mustafa was clearly going for the ball, but it wasn’t the first offence the Jordanian defender had committed as him and Honda had exchanged words just five minutes earlier.
The second half begun with three fouls committed by the Samurai Blue in the opening five minutes. The first foul was in the opening minute where Okazaki found himself in the penalty box challenging for the ball with Shafi. Okazaki earned a yellow card for sliding on his knees in contention for the ball, even though Shafi had arrived at the scene after the Japanese striker. Again it was a controversial decision from Russian referee Ravshan Irmatov, and the second foul to occur in a yellow card was when Inui tackled Mudar Zahran minutes later.
In the 59th minute, Hasebe provided a brilliant through-ball to Honda in Shafi’s box that resulted in what was thought to be a goal. Just after Honda’s shot on target, the sideline referee to rule the play as offside and keep the Jordanians in the contest.
Ten minutes later both Honda and Kagawa tested Shafi infront of the net, both shots on target but only good enough to frighten the Jordanian defence. In the next minute, Jordanian defender Abu Amara was stretchered off the pitch for back pains to make room for a temporary replacement.
Honda persisted infront of the goal into the 79th minute where he attempted a backheel into Shafi’s net off a perfectly timed cross from Endo. The most capped player on the team, Endo oozed precision in his passes on Tuesday night when it came to pressing the Jordanian midfield.
In a twist of fate for Jordan, a poor move infront of the goal from Shafi allowed Kagawa the chance to make it 2-0 to the Samurai Blue. The minutes to follow saw Jordan seemingly accept their fate with their only chance upfront a late free-kick.
The current Kings of Asia are now on par to winning their fifth Asian Cup with awaiting opponents in the UAE, China or Australia.
FTS Man of the Match: Makoto Hasebe. At age 31, in no means has this veteran midfielder shown any signs of slowing down. Tonight with the captain’s armband once again, Hasebe played the lone holding midfielder and was immediately a target for the Jordanians. Hasebe makes dangerous runs through the midfield and distributes passes once again stacked with precision to the flanks. Keisuke Honda is an honorable mention and scored the first goal against Jordan, although the AC Milan star will be in all his glory once he comes up against Abdulrahman from the UAE on Friday.
Crowd: 25,016. Just the day before the clash, a media release was sent out detailing how Japan vs Jordan would be the 4th sellout of the tournament. It would also be the second fixture to do so without the host nation gracing the pitch. The crowds took a while to flow in due to long queues outside AAMI Park that persisted long past kick-off. This could be a contributing factor to the crowd falling 2000 short of its anticipated hype, but by no means a major factor. And in this sense, the crowd wasn’t anything too spectacular.
Final result: Iraq 2 (Mahmood 48′, Yasin 88′) defeated Palestine 0
Despite losing in crushing fashion against both Jordan and Japan, when Palestinian Jaka Hbaisha equalized for the war-torn nation that had merely qualified for the tournament in the first place: Palestine were underdogs. Putting them on almost equal terms coming into Tuesday night’s clash against Iraq.
Both Palestine and Iraq begun with similar squads and the first half saw Iraq press the Palestinian side with their offence, creating the anticipation a goal was to come. But the Palestinian back four had learnt to absorb the pressure better and Toufic Ali was less vulnerable than the previous weeks, Ali would later save a penalty in the 58th minute.
Although this act of brilliance came just 10 minutes after Iraqi striker Younis Mahmoud scored direct from a corner kick with his head. Ahmed Yasin tied up the result for Iraq in similar fashion to Japan when during the 88th minute he scored a long-range bullet. Iraq will return to Canberra Stadium towards the end of the working week as part of a dream date with cross-border rivals Iran.
FTS Man of the Match: Abdelatif Bahdari. A well-known figure throughout in the team, Bahdari has been involved for six years with Palestine and tonight provided the best chance of their match. He plays the centre-back role but on Tuesday could be found constantly at the forefront during corners and free kicks. This has caused an issue in their previous matches where Palestine had conceded five goals each game, but Bahdari has improved significantly and was able to arrange the defence more accordingly.
Crowd: 10,235. The crowds at Canberra Stadium have been known to hover around this mark not just during the rugby league and AFL seasons, but also during this January’s tournament. Known throughout the world as the capital city of Australia, but around its borders known for holding more political than sporting values. Tuesday night’s turnout was rather impressive, although it’d be anticipated to see the crowd push 15,000 when Iran and Iraq play their cross-border derby within the ground.
Team Played Points Goal Difference
Japan 3 9 +7
Iraq 3 6 +2
Jordan 3 3 +1
Palestine 3 0 -10
Asian Cup 2015 Attendance Running Total: 395, 938
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