Asian Cup 2015: Japan beat Jordan 2-0 to claim Group D top spot and set up UAE date
FAVOURITE Japan is through to a quarterfinal with the United Arab Emirates after overpowering Jordan in front of a full house in Melbourne.
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JAPAN is through to a quarterfinal with the United Arab Emirates at ANZ Stadium on Friday after a routine 2-0 win over Jordan at AAMI Park on Tuesday night.
The result means Jordan is out of the Asian Cup and Iraq, which defeated Palestine 2-0 in Canberra, will take on Iran in GIO Stadium in the last eight.
Javier Aguirre’s side was utterly dominant in general play and his players’ passing, touch and control was a joy to watch for the packed 25,231 crowd.
Perhaps the only disappointment was that their performance didn’t generate the amount of goals that it perhaps should have.
Keisuke Honda opened the scoring in the 24th minute, but it wasn’t until Shinji Kagawa fired home in the 82nd that the dose was doubled.
Still, it was another night to remember at AAMI Park as the heavily pro-Japanese crowd created a wonderful atmosphere that made everyone present feel like, for two hours at least, they were in Tokyo.
The crowd was only just short of the 25,231 that attended Australia’s opening match with Kuwait, but probably 10,000 or so missed the start of the sellout match as they were caught in queues to get in to the ground.
The one positive for the Socceroos - if they do meet the four-time Asian champs in the semi-finals - is that for all of Japan’s huffing and puffing, it never quite blows the house down.
Jordan coach Ray Wilkins vowed to make life uncomfortable for the Samurai Blue.
Instead it was the officials making the Japanese squirmish early on after ruling out a classy goal scored in the 10th minute.
Yasuhito Endo played through Kagawa who equally brilliantly squared back for Takashi Inui to ram home, but the assistant decided the ball had just crossed the byline before Borussia Dortmund’s Kagawa cut it back.
But Honda made his team’s early dominance count 14 minutes later when he tapped in from point blank range after Shinji Okazaki’s initial shot was parried by Jordan goalkeeper Amer Shafi.
Honda hit the post from a similar position against Iraq last Friday, but the AC Milan star made no mistake last night, again after some great build-up play by Inui.
Jordan’s four-goal hero against Palestine last week, Hamza Aldaradreh, had a golden opportunity to level the scores four minutes later when played in to the penalty area after a Japanese mistake.
But the current Asian Cup golden boot leader fluffed his lines - and from then on it was all Japan.
Masato Morishige and Okasaki both went close prior to half time, as did Endo, Maya Yoshida and Honda in the 25 minutes after the break, before Kagawa finally broke through.
Played in to acres of space down the left, Yoshinori Muto cut an exquisite ball towards the penalty spot to tee up Kagawa.
Honda almost made it three in the 90th minute, but his wicked shot hit the post.
Aguirre said he was impressed by his side’s performance, particularly as Jordan brought the best out it.
But the Mexican refused to get carried away with Japan’s title-winning chances.
“We showed better play in this game,” Aguirre said.
“From my experience in Copa America, World Cup and Gold Cup I can say our chances are the same as the other seven teams. We start from zero now.
“We must fight 90 minutes in each game, respecting every opponent, but we must continue as we did against Jordan tonight.”
Originally published as Asian Cup 2015: Japan beat Jordan 2-0 to claim Group D top spot and set up UAE date
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