Riffa: Coach Atsushi Uchiyama was delighted with Japan’s 4-0 win over Tajikistan in their AFC U-19 Championship Bahrain 2016 quarter-final match on Monday, as the team qualified for the semi-finals for the first time since 2006.
A brace from striker Koki Ogawa and goals from Ritsu Doan and Yuto Iwasaki either side of half time gave the Samurai Blue an unassailable lead in a game they dominated.
The result ends a run of four editions without a semi-final appearance in the competition, and with it a ticket to the FIFA U-20 World Cup Korea Republic 2017.
“I’m really happy with the players’ performances tonight,” said Uchiyama. “We haven’t passed this stage in the last four tournaments, but today we not only passed this stage but the players did really well. It was a really good game.
“I just want to thank all my players and I want to say congratulations to the whole team. I’m just really happy right now."
Uchiyama also spoke of his experience in previous years and the lessons learnt from those failures to get past the quarter-final hurdle.
“As an assistant coach at the last tournament, although we didn’t qualify I learnt a lot from that experience,” said the Japan coach. “We didn’t just quit there but instead we continued playing the same style of football and I think this laid the foundations for our success today.
“The turning point in this competition was probably the last game against Qatar where we played a good game and it was exactly what we’ve been trying to do all along.”
Defensive midfielder Mizuki Ichimaru also drew praise from his coach after a stellar showing in the middle of the park breaking up Tajikistan attacks and spraying accurate long passes to his teammates up front.
“Our two defensive midfielders had a good game, especially our No17 Ichimaru,” said Uchiyama. “He was giving good balls to the strikers and this is important, especially against teams like Tajiikistan that play on the counter.
“Ichimaru was making good decisions by giving balls to everyone and he really gave a good performance tonight.”
MATCH REPORT
Tajikistan on the other hand were never really in the game after conceding an early goal and coach Vitalii Levchenko admitted they were second best on the night.
“After the first goal, we tried to attack but our defence did not play well,” said the Tajikistan coach. “Japan is a very organised team and one of the best in Asia. My congratulations to the Japan team for qualifying for the U-20 World Cup.
“It was a big lesson for us to participate in this tournament. Only by playing such tournaments can our players gain more experience and improve.
“We must not forget that we played with many strong teams like Australia and China. After all this we know what we must do next.”
Photo: AFC
Source: the-afc.com