Japan line-up: Kawashima, Abe, Komano, Tanaka, Nagatomo, Endo, Matsui (Okazaki, 69'), Okubo (Yano, 82'), Hasebe (c) (Inamoto, 88'), Honda, Nakazawa
Cameroon line-up: Souleymanou, Assou-Ekotto, Nkoulou, Bassong, Eto'o (c), Makoun (Geremi, 75'), Choupo Moting (Idrissou, 75'), Webo, Enoh, Mbia, Matip (Emana, 63')
The first half again as has been for many of the matches so far in this year's World Cup wasn't great. Passing wasn't magnificent however there were some decent chances at either end. It was definitely one of those games that needed a goal, and with Matsui proving a real threat for Japan down the right it looked on the cards. Eto'o had a quiet game and most of Cameroon's possession failed to have an end product with Kawashima not needed to do much. after 39 minutes of cagey play the goal everyone was waiting for came; Matsui provided a lovely through ball for Honda who drilled the ball past Souleymanou for the Japanese to be on the verge of creating history.
The second half was a little better as Cameroon looked for an equaliser and Japan wanted to finish the game off, neither happened. The closest came from Mbia whose late shot rasped the crossbar and Japan created a piece of history for themselves. Matsui and Honda looked very good for Japan and seemed a good replacement for the shock omission of Nakamura in the line-up. Cameroon's best player was arguably Tottenham's Assou-Ekotto who had some decent spells with the ball at his feet while Eto'o was very quiet.
No comments:
Post a Comment