Keisuke Honda’s first-half penalty proved the difference as defending champions Japan downed Iraq 1-0 in their Asian Cup Group D match last night.
Honda coolly converted from the penalty spot in the 23rd minute to give the Blue Samurai a well-deserved win in front of almost 23,000 at Brisbane Stadium.
The 1-0 scoreline flattered 2007 winners Iraq, who were under immense pressure and could have conceded a hatful if Japan had converted their many chances.
Honda was guilty of a glaring miss when he hit the post in the second half with the goal begging — the third time he hit the woodwork.
However, he managed the decisive kick of the game with his well-taken penalty, when he sent Jalal Hassan the wrong way and rolled the ball into the opposite corner.
Japan’s movement off the ball was superb, with Honda and Takashi Inui constantly finding space in the center of the pitch.
After Shinji Kagawa shot across the face of the goal in the 11th minute, Honda should have put Japan ahead seven minutes later when his point-blank header cannoned off the post.
However, he made amends when he won the penalty after Kagawa’s strike was parried by ’keeper Hassan.
The Japanese began the second half in the same way they ended the second, with their midfield dominant and their defenders largely untroubled.
Iraq had a good 15-minute spell from the 50-minute mark, but Japan weathered the storm and they began to turn the screws once again.
Substitute Hiroshi Kiyotake had two chances in quick succession he could not convert, but the misses did not prove costly as Japan ended with a comfortable win.
JORDAN 5, PALESTINE 1
Hamza al-Daradeh scored the first hat-trick of the tournament as Jordan hammered Palestine 5-1 to keep themselves alive in the competition.
Al-Daradeh finished with four goals, helping Jordan end a miserable run of 11 games without a win.
Yousef Ahmad scored with a superb curling effort after 33 minutes, before al-Daradeh doubled Jordan’s advantage moments later.
The striker grabbed his second in first-half stoppage-time to leave Palestine with a mountain to climb and completed his treble with a clinical strike in the 75th minute. Adrenalin pumping, he piled on the misery for Palestine with another goal from point-blank range.
However, Palestine carved out a little piece of history for themselves from a pulsating match when Jaka Hbaisha smashed home a consolation goal five minutes from time.
The result will give Jordan coach Ray Wilkins a huge lift with the Englishman under fire after failing to arrest the team’s slide since taking over in September last year.
Wilkins, robbed of star striker Ahmad Hayel after he collapsed from dehydration during a dope test following Jordan’s 1-0 defeat by Iraq earlier in the week, endured a nervous opening as Hisham Salhi’s viciously dipping effort was tipped onto the bar by goalkeeper Amer Shafi.
Confident and cohesive where they had been awestruck in their 4-0 thumping by Japan on their Asian Cup debut, Palestine paid the price for their gung-ho approach, however, as Ahmad scored with a peach of a goal against the run of play.
Al-Daradeh then ran riot, his whirlwind display making him the competition’s top scorer and giving Jordan a chance of sneaking into the quarter-finals.
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