Japan 3-1 Iceland

A good win to start off the 2012 international calendar. Japan dominated throughout and went up 3-0 before Iceland pulled one back at the death with a penalty. The scorers were Ryoichi Maeda, Jungo Fujimoto, and Tomoaki Makino.

Makino set up the first goal in the 2nd minute with a perfect cross onto the head of Maeda, after a good run down the right and embarrassing the Icelandic rightback with a cutback.

Japan created a number of other chances in the first half, led forward menacingly by the excellent Fujimoto. However, they were unable to capitalize on any of these and entered the break up 1-0.

In the second half, Japan picked up right where they left off. Debutant Junya Tanaka came on at the start of the half for Yasuhito Endo.

Fujimoto scored a deserved goal in the 53rd, latching onto a wonderful ball from Kengo Nakamura and chipping cooly over the Icelandic keeper.

A minute later, Fujimoto was at again. This time provider, the Nagoya Grampus playmaker played a great ball to Tanaka who shot inches wide from his first senior goal.

It became 3-0 in the 79th when Makino scored from a sitting position in the middle of a scramble in the Icelandic box after a freekick by Nakamura. It was his first goal f0r the national team.

Makino’s only mistake was conceding a penalty in added time, which Arnor Smarason cooly placed by the otherwise untroubled Shusaku Nishikawa. Final score 3-1.

It was another great time performance from Japan, who dominated possession, and carved open the Icelandic defense at will with quick passing. Makino was excellent coming out of defense, and Fujimoto showed that he can play the number ten role well filling in for Honda and Kagawa. Tanaka also played well in his first appearance. It was a good first match of the year.

Some points: The Icelandic number 7 Steinthor Thorsteinsson wowed the Osaka crowd with a number of ‘front flip’ throws. Technically, they are illegal, but the crowd loved them and it was a friendly.

Japan continues to show that its best form of defense is never letting the other team have the ball. They continued to dominate possession and never game Iceland a moment on the ball. Nishikawa was hardly troubled.

Next: The final World Cup qualifier of the third round, at home against Uzbekistan on Wednesday.

Here are the highlights.