Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Tashkent: Manabu Takita and Ryosuke Nishitani both netted braces as AFC Futsal Championship holders Japan thrashed Malaysia 11-1 in Group D at the Uzbekistan Stadium on Saturday.
As well as Takita and Nishitani’s doubles, further goals from Tomoki Yoshikawa, Kaoru Morioka (pictured), Nobuya Osodo, Tomoaki Watanabe, Katsutoshi Henmi and Kazuhiro Nibuya saw Japan head to the break with a commanding 10-1 lead after Afif Halil had contributed Malaysia’s only response after a goalkeeping error by Yushi Sekiguchi.
After the goal-rush in the first period, Japan stepped off the gas in the second half with Yuki Murota grabbing the only goal Japan took a huge step towards securing a quarter-final berth.
“In the first half we played very well and we scored with almost every chance we had. We really showed our talent on the pitch,” said Japan coach Miguel Rodrigo.
“In the second, we tried to control ourselves a little. It’s a long tournament but I expected a better attacking performance today [than against Qatar] and they even surprised me a little with just how well they performed.”
After the narrow 1-0 opening win over Qatar, Japan took little time to get out of the blocks at Uzbekistan Stadium and in just the third minute Morioka went on a surging run and passed to Yoshikawa who guided a first time finish past Azrul Hadee from the right.
Less than half a minute later Japan doubled their advantage as a flowing move started by Yoshikawa on the left saw him lay the ball off to Morioka who in turn found Takita who slotted his shot home to make it 2-0.
Malaysia were struggling to contend with Japan’s impressive pressing and they gave the ball away far too frequently with the defending champions enjoying complete dominance for much of the opening term.
On seven minutes they made it 3-0 when Takita grabbed his second after a solo run down the right that saw defenders retreating, allowing him the time and space to blast a shot past Hadee.
Then it became the Morioka show as the attacker with the bright blonde hair waltzed past three Malaysian defenders and wrong-footed Hadee for good measure to make it 4-0 on 13 minutes.
Morioka then turned provider, exchanging passes with Osodo almost immediately from the re-start to make it 5-0.
Malaysia pegged one back after an uncharacteristic mistake from goalkeeper Sekiguchi who dropped a shot at the feet of Halil who tucked it home to make it 5-1 but that only spurred Japan on.
With five minutes of the first period remaining Hadee was caught out of position and Watanabe tucked home the sixth before Henmi chipped the keeper less than a minute later to make it 7-1.
The eighth arrived in the 16th minute as Henmi turned provider for Nishitani to add his name to the list of scorers.
Nishitani completed his brace three minutes later and Nibuya also got amongst the goals as Japan went to the break with a commanding 10-1 lead.
By contrast to the breathtaking first half things were a lot more measured in the second as Japan were content just to maintain possession for long spells.
Watanabe and Murota both had efforts that flashed wide early on and the star of the show, Morioka, forced a sharp save from Hadee before hitting the post as the half wore down.
With less than a minute remaining Nibuya teed up Murota to round out the dominant victory with the only goal of the second half.
“There were two parts to the match. In the first half Malaysia never came into the game and Japan showed their true potential as one of the better teams not just in Asia but in the world,” said Malaysia coach Marcelo Serpa.
“We lost far too many balls and things spiralled out of control somewhat. In the dressing room at half time we discussed about coming into the second half better and being more organized and things improved. But the beginning of the game decided things already.”
Photo: AFC