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Sunday October 11, 2009

Blue Samurai too strong for second- string Scotland

YOKOHAMA: An own goal and Ken­suke Honda’s strike in the final 10 minutes led Japan to a 2-0 friendly win over a second-string Scotland here yesterday.

Wolverhampton Wanderers defen­der Christophe Berra slotted into his own net from a cross by Japan defender Yuichi Komano on 83 minutes.

The Blue Samurai went further ahead on the stroke of injury time when Honda slammed in a rebound off Catania striker Takayuki Morimoto’s shot inside the box.

“We could not find our offensive rhythm in the first half, struggling with our basic pass-and-move tactics. But we started to get better towards half-time,” Japan coach Takeshi Okada said.

It was Japan’s first win in three international matches against Scot­land, having drawn twice before.

Japan, who have qualified for the World Cup, face Togo in another home friendly in Miyagi next Wednesday.

Okada rested several key players, including midfield lynchpins Shunsuke Nakamura and Yasuhito Endo, just two days after his squad outclassed Hong Kong 6-0 in an Asian Cup qualifier at home.

Scotland manager George Burley has brought an experimental squad missing 10 regulars, including Man­ches­ter United midfielder Darren Flet­cher and Spurs fullback Alan Hutton.

The Blue Samurai kept possession and squandered several scoring chances in the first half.

Blackpool midfielder Charles Adam’s 30m free-kick went wide in the 31st minute and Kawasaki midfielder Kengo Nakamura shot into the side of the net from close range from a Honda cross four minutes later.

FC Tokyo’s Naohiro Ishikawa, who has scored 14 goals in 23 J-League matches this season, slotted a cross from Kashima Antlers defender At­­suto Uchida into Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon’s arms on 37 minutes.

Nakamura was on target again in the 41st minute.

Ishikawa fed a cross from near the baseline to Nakamura in front of the net but his shot was stopped by Celtic defender Stephen McManus.

Morimoto, 21, who has already scored three goals in Serie A games this season, was called in on 56 minutes to make his international debut.

In the 62nd minute, Gordon punch­ed away Honda’s 20m free-kick.

Adam picked the ball in front of the goal five minutes later but blasted it over the net.

Scotland blew another chance in the 73rd minute as Burnley striker Steven Fletcher almost carried the ball past surging Japan goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima. Kawashima fell but kicked the ball away from Fletcher’s feet. — AFP

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