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.

Japan Plays Iceland

Apparently Japan has a friendly with Iceland this Friday. Since it’s not a FIFA international day, the team will be comprised entirely of domestic players who won’t miss any club matches or have to travel halfway across the world both ways. The Iceland team will also be made up of players from their domestic league (except for a couple in Norway and one in Greece). Unsurprisingly, the Icelandic league plays during the summer because of frigid arctic winters.

The Japan team…

Goalkeepers (rookies in bold): Takuto Hayashi, Kaito Yamamato, and Shusaku Nishikawa.

Defenders: Yuichi Komano, Daiki Iwamasa, Yasuyuki Konno, Yuzo Kurihara, Naoya Kondo, Masahiko Inoha, Ryota Moriwaki, and Tomoaki Makino.

Midfielders: Yasuhito Endo, Kengo Nakamura, Yuki Abe, Chikashi Masuda, Yosuke Kashiwagi, Ryota Isomura, and Gaku Shibasaki.

Forwards: Naohiro Ishikawa, Ryoichi Maeda, Yoshito Okubo, Jungo Fujimoto, Junya Tanaka, Hidetaka Kanazono(injured), and Yuya Kubo.

In all, nine debutants, including three who are 20 or younger. In particular, I’m looking forward to seeing Junya Tanaka (the Japan Footblog J. League Player of the Year!). He had a great Club World Cup, and hopefully he can play well and solidify his place in the national team. After leading Kashiwa to promotion and then the championship, Tanaka finally gets his chance with the national team. There is no place for Marcus Tulio Tanaka, who can’t seem to get a game under Zaccheroni.

Zaccheroni will probably be experimental in this game, so it’s difficult to predict who will be in the starting xi. I would say Tanaka, Fujimoto, Maeda, Nakamura, and Endo are all pretty certain starters among the front six. In back, Komano and Konno are locks. I don’t have a clue who will start in goal.

The experts (message boards) seem to think that youngsters like Shibasaki and Kubo are being brought along just to experience the senior team and are unlikely to play. That’s kind of disappointing, but I’m sure they’ll get their chance in the future.

Overall, experimental or not, I don’t think Japan will have too much trouble in this friendly. After this, World Cup qualifiers start up again.

Other news: Keisuke Honda played for CSKA in the Champions League against Real Madrid. Honda came on as a sub in the 68th minute and played well. The match ended 1-1, a good result for a team in the middle of its winter break, against an opponent that has been redefining ‘steamrolling’ in its domestic league.