Takahara double shakes up the Germans

May 30th, 2006 | by: ShiLou |

A Naohiro Takahara double wasn’t enough to see of a stubborn German team who came back to level 2-2 in this entertaining friendly match.

Hidetoshi Nakata said before this game that his fellow team mates where too relaxed but they answered him with a good performance that will give the rest of the Group F teams something to worry about.

Before this game, their was concern about the Japan strikers not scoring goals but after this performance, I am sure the critics will be biting their fingers. Germany fielded a very strong side so you have to give the Japanese team a lot of credit for scoring two lovely goals against them.

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http://www.worldcupblog.org/world-cup-2006/world-cup-friendlies-rewind.html World Cup Friendlies Rewind – FIFA World Cup 2006 – World Cup 2006 Blog

[...] Japan 2 – Germany 2 …including Germany, who had a slightly harder time with Japan than they did last game against Luxembourg. Naohiro Takahara scored twice in the second half to put Japan up by two goals, but Germany stormed back to earn the draw thanks to goals by Miroslav Klose and Bastian Schweinsteiger. Neither keeper scored in this one. [...]
Chieko

Takahara`s two goals were faburous last night, but soon after that Japan was attacked by two goals . So at the moment Japan`s defence didn`t work very well. The defenders should make a plan how to defend further attack with tense.
Sayuri and Risa

Takahara did a good job,we couldn’t believe that two crept in!!!!!!!!!!! because Germany is stronger than Japan.
yumie

I think that Takahara could get two points and his scoring was very nice!! But Japan is not enough to score yet.
Chihaya Kawasaki

I hope the team Japan will go to semi-final.
So,why do not you sing CHAMPIONE for them together!!
Jan

How did Nakamura play? I’m a celtic fan and the guy has been playing great this year in the SPL. I genuinely believe Japan have a great chance with one of the best attacking midfields in the tournament…they just need some aggression in attack….come on Japan!
http://www.takeforum.com/forum/index.php?mforum=uaff Tokey

Zico made the mistake of keeping on 2 strikers. He should have realised that the win over the Germans would have been a huge morale booster, so after Japan went up 2-0, he should have brought on Oguro and a Defensive Midfielder. So from a 3-5-2 formation, he should have changed it to a 1-5-3-1 sweeper formation.