On February 6, the East Asian Football Championship 2010 Finals Competition commenced with the women’s game between the Chinese and Japanese in Japan, followed by the men’s game. Being the host country for this tournament, Japan has high expectations of getting the championship. The last match between these 2 countries was back in 2005 where China PR emerged as the victor. However, the result this year was a 0-0 draw and 1 point was awarded to each team.

This coming June, Japan (FIFA ranking 40th) will compete in the FIFA World Cup, held in South Africa. Even though China PR(FIFA ranking 87th) will not compete, they succeeded in gaining 1 point from this match. The Japanese formation was comprised of 3 forwards, OKUBO Yoshito, OKAZAKI Shinji, and TAMADA Keiji. On the other hand, Chinese formation was made up of only 1 forward, GAO Lin, with a 4-2-3-1 formation. From the start of the game, Japan is dominating the game with their quick movements. Japanese players tried to overcome the Chinese defense line by sending the ball from the side of the field towards the goal. In the 19th minute, midfielder, NAKAMURA Kengo, passed a direct ball to OKAZAKI Shinji, who in turn passed the ball to TAMADA Keiji. In the 43th minute, OKAZAKI Shinji passed the ball to NAKAMURA Kengo from the right side of the field.

The AFC Player of the Year 2009, Japanese midfielder, ENDO Yasuhito, was dominating the game, which prevented China PR from having any lead. Chinese head coach, GAO Hongbo, commented that Japan has all along an outstanding and strong advantage in their midfield formation and players. Not surprisingly, today’s game was also dominated by the Japanese midfielder. However, inside the penalty area, Chinese players were able to display their defense skills even though they might have lost possession of the ball in the midfield. With an average height advantage of 184.5cm, the Chinese players can easily pass the ball back to their frontline.

Chinese players are not only strong on the defense side, they are also skillful on the attack side as well. GAO Lin displayed his strong offensive prowess by quickly switching from offense to defense. Midfielder, JIANG Ning, received a free kick and in the 32nd minute, defender, RONG Hao, shot the ball with his left feet after receiving a pass from the right side of the goal. The average height of Chinese players, which is 5cm more than the Japanese players, gave them an advantage throughout the game and enhanced the excitement level among their supporters.

In the beginning of the second half of the match, both teams became more aggressive in their offensive strategies. In the 9th minute of the second half, midfielder, INAMOTO Junichi, sent a pass from the middle to the right side of the field to defender, UCHIDA Atsuto, who then attempted to shoot with his right foot but the ball ended up hitting the left post. However, Chinese right side defender, ZHANG Linpeng, shot the ball with his left and in the 10th minute of the second half, the left midfielder, YU Hai, almost led to a Japanese own goal from his last pass. In the 17th minute of the second half, forward, HIRAYAMA Sota was sent to the field to raise the excitement level of the Japanese supporters. The centreback, TANAKA Marcus Tulio, joined the offense in the front line. In the last 5 years in the 6 matches between Japan and China PR, Japan won 4 games and drew in 2 games. However, Chinese defender, DU Wei, standing at 189cm as the key defender to block the Japanese team with his height advantage.

In the 37th minute of the second half, China PR gained a penalty kick. Midfielder, YANG Hao, took the shot with his right foot but Japanese goalkeeper, NARAZAKI Seigo, managed to save the goal by jumping to the right. In the 39th minute of the second half, HIRAYAMA Sota headed a pass to OKUBO Yoshito, who then attempted a shot with the right foot but was blocked by a Chinese defender. Japanese head coach, OKADA Takeshi, commented that Japan was unable to overcome the Chinese defenders even though there were numerous chances for offense in the game. As a result, the quality of the skill today was not up to his expectations and it was a disappointing scoreless draw to the 90-minutes game.

Picture: Chinese player, DU Wei(left), Japanese captain NAKAZAWA Yuji(middle) during the match