The Hindu : Sport / Football : Japan colts drub HAL

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Saturday, May 27, 2006

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Sport - Football

Japan colts drub HAL

Principal Correspondent

Bangalore: The Japan under-20 team defeated HAL 5-1 in a practice match at the Football Stadium here on Friday.

The Japanese colts found their rhythm that was sorely missing in their earlier 1-0 win against India under-20 here on Thursday and helping their cause was HAL, which churned out a below-par performance much to the disappointment of its local supporters.

HAL failed to counter the fleet-footed Japanese. In the sixth minute, Kawahara Kazuhisa latched onto Ito Sho's pass and scored with ease after bisecting Pawan Kumar and Mohan Raj while goalkeeper Balaji was left stranded. In the 20th minute, Nagasawa Shun capitalised on a goalmouth melee to bulge the net.

The HAL think-tank immediately replaced Balaji with Subash Kumar but that did not alter the match's script. Two minutes later, Oshima Takahiro headed in a floater from Yasuda Michihiro to help Japan race ahead and in the 42nd minute, Ito Sho found easy pickings as HAL defender Pawan Kumar failed to clear a loose ball in front of the goalmouth. Ito Sho slotted the goal to leave Japan 4-0 ahead at the break.

In the second half, HAL did raise its game but it was not enough to test the visitors. In the 56th minute, Yokotani Shigeru headed in a Yasuda corner kick to round off Japan's tally. HAL at last had something to cheer about in the 61st minute when Srikanth and Nanda Kumar combined well and the resultant pass was converted by Xavier Vijay Kumar. However there was more bad news for HAL as its substitute goalkeeper Subash fractured his right shinbone after a collision with Sano Katsuhiko in the 73rd minute.

Satish replaced Subash and in fact did a fair job as he palmed off Aoki Kota's attempt to convert a penalty awarded in the 85th minute.

Saturday is a rest day and on Sunday, the visitor will clash with India under-20.

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