Japan send warning to rivals with big win over Jamaica

Japan flexed their muscles ahead of the AFC U23 Championship Thailand 2020 with a 9-0 win over Jamaica in a friendly at the Transcosmos Stadium in Nagasaki on Saturday.

Japan were on the front foot from the first blow of the referee’s whistle and their early pressure saw Yuta Nakayama putting the 2016 AFC U23 Championship winners side ahead in the fifth minute.

Japan, also preparing to impress in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, continued pressing and scored three goals in four minutes to blow Jamaica’s challenge away, with Reo Hatate (16th, 19th) and Maeta Daizen (19th) giving them a comfortable lead.

Abe Hiroki scored their fifth in the 28th minute but Japan didn’t let up in the second half as Shunki Higashi (51st), Kazunari Ichimi (82nd), Kaoru Mitoma (88th) and Yuto Iwasaki (90+5) completed a resounding win.

Japan open their AFC U23 Championship Thailand 2020 Group B campaign against Saudi Arabia on Jan.9. They meet Syria three days later and Qatar on Jan.15.

Meanwhile, Uzbekistan continued their encouraging pre-AFC U23 Championship form, earning a 3-1 win over Iraq in the UAE.

Sherzhod Nasrullaev, Mirjakhon Mirakhmadov and Khojiakbar Alijonov were all on the scoresheet for Ljubinko Drulovic’s charges, while Munthader Sattar found the net for Iraq.

Uzbekistan’s win follows an earlier 4-2 victory over Iraq, as well as a 4-0 success against local club outfit Al Arabi, as the Central Asian side prepare to defend their Asian title in Thailand next month.

Three of the game’s four goals came in a frantic period just prior to half-time, with Nasrullaev opening the scoring with a close-range header in the 41st minute before Mirakhmadov found space behind the defence to roll home a second goal three minutes later.

Sattar found the net after a goalmouth scramble to reduce the deficit to one in first-half stoppage time, but FC Pakhtakor full-back Alijonov sealed the win with three minutes remaining in the second half, cutting inside a defender before sliding the ball home from 12 yards to make it 3-1.

AFC U23 Champions in China PR in 2018, Uzbekistan’s Thailand 2020 campaign begins against Islamic Republic of Iran in Songkhla on January 9, a day after Iraq begin their tournament against Australia in Pathum Thani.

In addition to the Asian title, the 16 teams in the competition will be competing for a ticket to next year’s Tokyo 2020 Olympic football tournament, with the top three finishers to join hosts Japan among the qualifiers.

Meanwhile, as the AFC U23 Championship Thailand 2020 rapidly approaches, one of the stars of the 2018 edition has recalled one of the most iconic moments in the tournament’s history.

At a snow-clad Changzhou Olympic Sports Centre, Nguyen Quang Hai curled home a stunning free-kick to draw Vietnam level with Uzbekistan in the final with what would later become renowned in the Southeast Asian nation as the ‘Rainbow in the Snow’.

While the young Golden Stars went on to lose the match 2-1 after a goal in the last minute of extra-time, the campaign saw both Quang Hai and a talented young Vietnamese team gain recognition across the Continent and began a two-year period in which they have achieved success after success.

Now, with the 2020 edition set to kick off in Thailand on Jan.6, Park Hang-seo’s team will begin the competition among the favourites to lift the title and also qualify for the Tokyo Olympics as one of the top three sides.

Vietnam will kick off their Group D campaign in Thailand against the UAE on Jan.10 before meeting both Jordan and DPR Korea in a group they will be favourites to progress from.

The Southeast Asians will travel to Thailand with the hopes of a nation resting upon them as they target a place at the Olympic Games in Japan later in the year and aim to underline their status as one of the greatest Vietnam sides in history.

“The tournament in 2018 is so memorable for me and my teammates as it was the first time Vietnam’s U23 side reached the final, but we played in conditions we had never experienced before,” the U23 captain Quang Hai told the-AFC.com.

“But we faced all the challenge with unity, confidence and a big ambition to achieve victory; we never gave up.”