The Hindu : Sport / Football : Japan thrashes India

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 10, 2004

Sport

Sport - Football

Japan thrashes India

SAITAMA (JAPAN), JUNE 9 . Forward Tatsuhiko Kubo scored a goal as Japan cruised to a 7-0 win over India in a 2006 World Cup qualifying match here on Wednesday.

Kubo, who plays for J-League side Yokohama F Marinos, opened the scoring in the 12th minute when he redirected a long forward pass from Alessandro Santos past India's goalkeeper Sangram Mukherjee.

Playing before a capacity crowd of 60,000 at Saitama Stadium 2002, Japan doubled the lead just over 10 minutes later when Takashi Fukunishi of Jubilo Iwata gathered a Kubo header in the area and fired a low blast off the post.

``We weren't able to score much in previous games,'' said Japan's Brazilian coach Zico. ``But we created many chances in this game and took advantage of those chances and the team played well.''

Reggina's Shunsuke Nakamura gave Japan an insurmountable 3-0 lead minutes later with a curving free kick over the wall.

India, ranked 143rd in the FIFA rankings, was no match for the host and had few chances against Japan goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi. Japan widened its lead to 4-0 early in the second half when Keiji Tamada beat three Indian defenders and rifled a long-range shot past an outstretched Mukherjee.

Yuji Nakazawa scored a pair of second-half goals and substitute Mitsuo Ogasawara added another to complete the one-sided rout. Japan was playing without injured Europe-based stars Hidetoshi Nakata of Italy's Bologna, Naohiro Takahara of Germany's Hamburg and Junichi Inamoto of England's Fulham.

Japan leads its group in Asia with nine points, following wins over Oman, Singapore and India. India beat Singapore but lost to Oman in its previous matches.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport