JEDDAH, 16 November 2006 — Japan returned the favor to Saudi Arabia with a compelling 3-1 victory yesterday in their final Asian Cup home qualifier at the Sapporo Dome in Sapporo City located on the island of Hokkaido, Japan.
With the win Japan finished top of their qualifying group on the basis of head-to-head record with Saudi Arabia. Both teams have identical 15 points in Group A.
Striker Kazuki Ganaha scored twice as Japan avenged their 1-0 defeat away to Saudi Arabia in September. The Kingdom’s Ambassador to Japan Faisal Turad was among the crowd of 43,000 that came for the match. Both sides had already qualified for the 2007 Asian Cup finals but Japan outplayed the visitors with probably their best performance since Ivica Osim took over from Brazilian Zico.
Defender Tulio gave Japan the lead in the 20th minute, bundling the ball home from close range after Seiichiro Maki’s header had been blocked on the line. Ganaha added a second nine minutes later before the Saudi Arabia pulled one back through an Al-Qahtani penalty in the 33rd minute.
Ganaha restored Japan’s two-goal advantage from close range five minutes into the second half to secure a deserved win for the Asian Cup holders.
The draw for next year’s finals, to be hosted jointly by Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia, takes place on Dec. 19 in Kuala Lumpur. Japan have won the last two Asian Cups, in Lebanon in 2000, and two years ago in China with a controversial 3-1 victory over the hosts in Beijing.
According to Egyptian sport critic Khalid Bayoumi who spoke at the ART channel after the match the Saudis had not a good performance to show in both halves. “There was a big gap and lack of skills and professionalism as the players were playing solo and we did not see the Saudis playing as a team,” he said. Saudi national coach Brazilian Marcos Paqueta did not motivate the players enough to give their best, he added.
“The players are the same and the mistakes are still repeated. Not having a basic and strong squad is big problem, the team had been playing many games and many changes are being made. This affects them negatively and on a long term basis,” Bayoumi added.
Bahrain Book Last Berth at Finals
Bahrain recorded a narrow but richly deserving 2-1 victory over Kuwait at the National Stadium in Manama last night to scrape through to the 2007 Asian Cup finals.
Captain Talal Yousef scored the first goal from the penalty spot in the 35th minute while striker Salman Isa doubled the lead 10 minutes later. Kuwait’s substitute striker Faraj Laheeb pulled one back in the 70th minute.
Bahrain, who needed a victory while a draw was enough for Kuwait, qualified from Group D with four points and behind leaders Australia on nine points. Kuwait also finished with four points but bowed out on head-to-head count.
The other matches played yesterday were more about maintaining momentum and boosting morale than anything else.
In Singapore, Uzbekistan clinched one of two remaining places in the Asian Cup finals yesterday with a 2-0 victory over Qatar, leaving Kuwait and Bahrain to fight it out for the final slot.
Despite the loss, Qatar ended top of Group F. It ended any hope Hong Kong had of making the finals. Hong Kong played out a meaningless 2-0 win against Bangladesh.
Despite having qualified for the finals, the pressure was on China to finish what has been an indifferent campaign on a positive note and secure a win to appease the country’s demanding fans and media.
But Zhu Guanghu’s men again failed to deliver, eking out a 1-1 draw at home to Iraq, with Ahmed Salah canceling out Han Peng’s first half goal.
Singapore were unable to play their match against Palestine when the visitors failed to turn up due to the deteriorating situation in Gaza.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) called off the match, saying repeated attempts to contact the Palestinians had failed.
“We were unable to contact the Palestinian FA despite our best efforts,” said AFC Assistant General Secretary and Director of Competitions Carlo Nohra. The Palestinians face a possible sanction.
Neither side could have qualified, with Iraq and China already guaranteed the top two places from their group. Lebanon, the fourth team in the group, pulled out of the competition due to the Middle East conflict.
South Korea traveled to Iran without their Iranian-American assistant coach Afshin Ghotbi, who was refused a visa.
Yonhap news agency said he may have been rejected because of his US citizenship, even though he was born in Iran. Iran and the US do not have diplomatic relations. Both teams have already qualified for finals and their match, which Iran won 2-0, was all about warming up for the Asian Games in Doha next month.
In other games, Syria defeated Taiwan 3-0. Jordan were taking on Oman and United Arab Emirates playing Pakistan later in the day.
— With input from agencies
