14 Sep 2009(Mon)

September 11, 2009: It all ended happily ever after in the Netherlands thanks to Japan’s remarkable 4-3 victory over Ghana in Utrecht on Wednesday.

Japan scoring four times against a fellow 2010 World Cup qualifier was something in itself, but also noticeable was the attitude Japan showed in the second half.

When they went 2-0 down it looked like game over, only for Kengo Nakamura to hand them a lifeline when the wickedly spinning ball caught out the Ghana defence. But when Ghana scored a third for 3-1 it looked like men against boys, as if Ghana could do what they wanted when they wanted.

A second heavy defeat in two matches was on the cards, but amazingly Japan turned it round with goals from Tamada, Okazaki and, finally, Inamoto.

What was really impressive about Japan in the closing stages was their mental fortitude. Ghana had played with a certain amount of arrogance from the kick-off, as if they did not take Japan seriously, and were showboating midway through the second half.

So it was good to see Japan give them their comeuppance, and capitalise on Ghana’s over-confidence and cockiness by staging their late goal flood.

This was important for Japan as they had to prove they could stand up for themselves and not accept their fate so meekly, as they had done against the Dutch.
The player who deserved a lot of credit for the reversal of fortunes was Nagatomo, the FC Tokyo left back who had conceded the penalty in the first half from which Ghana had taken the lead.

It was Nagatomo’s tireless work down the left that enabled Japan to punish Ghana’s careless defending with Tamada’s sweetly-struck left-foot shot into the far corner, and Nagatomo again who laid the ball on for Inamoto to drive low into the bottom corner for the winner. In between those two, Inamoto had crossed from the left for Okazaki, timing his run perfectly beyond the defenders, to score with his head for 3-3.

Takeshi Okada would surely have preferred a tight and compact 1-0 win to this error-strewn 4-3 roller-coaster, but at least he saw some pride and venom in his team to come back twice from what looked like a lost cause.

More important, though, than how they got out of the mess was how they got into it in the first place, so Okada has plenty to address before the next tests.

ends