Japan eased some of the pressure on coach Takeshi Okada with a 2-0 home win over Bahrain in their Asian Cup qualifier yesterday.
Both teams had already booked their places at next year’s tournament in Qatar but victory meant Japan finished top of Group A and lifted the gloom after a poor run of results.
Striker Shinji Okazaki headed home after some excellent build-up play in the 36th minute before midfielder Keisuke Honda nodded a second in injury-time for World Cup-bound Japan.
PHOTO: EPA
“I was never that worried about the team,” Okada told reporters. “We knew there would be no excuses tonight and we got the result we deserved.”
Japan, booed off the pitch after slumping to third place at last month’s four-team East Asian championship in Tokyo, finished with 15 points from six games, three clear of Bahrain.
Okazaki was guilty of a shocking point-blank miss from a Shunsuke Nakamura cross moments before finding the net following a sweeping four-man move.
The influential Honda stooped to head home a second goal Japan’s vastly improved performance merited after twice being denied by Bahrain goalkeeper Sayed Jaffar.
“I’d missed a few chances so it was relief to score one,” Honda said. “I don’t know what people would have said if I hadn’t put one away. It was important to get the result and we have to keep this form going.”
Okada paid tribute to the CSKA Moscow midfielder.
“Honda brings something different to the team,” the 53-year-old said. “He keeps things simple and tidy and his energy gave the team a real boost.”
“Perhaps we should have taken our chances earlier and we got a bit bogged down in the second half but we stuck at it and got our reward, which is important,” Okada said.
Bahrain coach Milan Macala, whose side missed out on a World Cup place after playoff defeat by New Zealand last November, had no complaints.
“It’s a fair result,” the Czech said. “You could see Japan were better. The difference in the level showed.”
Earlier yesterday Australia qualified for the finals with 1-0 win over plucky Indonesia.
The World Cup-bound Socceroos controlled possession for long periods of the match but only had Mark Milligan’s 42nd minute goal to show for their dominance.
Asia’s top-ranked nation fielded a largely A-League lineup against the 136th-ranked Indonesians and only needed a draw to go through to next January’s showpiece in Qatar.
“I can only be happy with the result, but of course we would have been happier if we had scored more goals,” coach Pim Verbeek said.
“I think we tried everything to score more goals, defensively we played concentrated and didn’t give anything away, but attacking-wise we know it’s difficult to play against a team that’s defending with nine players in their own half,” he said.
“With all respect to Indonesia, this is not the standard of the World Cup, we have to play better but we also have better players,” Verbeek said.
With midfielder Jason Culina, leading his country for the first time and always on the ball, the Socceroos had virtually all the play but lacked a cutting edge.
Australia dominated the opening half, controlling possession and probing for openings, but engineered few definite scoring chances until Milligan scored.
Luke Wilkshire’s free kick hit Milligan’s shoulder and ricocheted on to the bar before he swivelled and rifled the rebound past goalkeeper Markus Harison.
The Australians almost doubled their advantage in added-on time when Simon Colosimo’s bullet-header was tipped over.
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