Uzbekistan shocks Japan with 1-1 draw

The rebuilding of Uzbekistan continued as they shocked Japan with a 1-1 draw at Saitama Stadium. Takeshi Okada’s forces dominated the overwhelming majority of the match but whether through a poor final touch or Uzbekistan ‘keepers Ignatiy Nesterov play they were able to only net a single goal.

With Japan playing inspired attacking Football, they appeared to be on the verge of filling the goal from the beginning but it was the visitors who shocked the highly supportive crowd at Saitama with Dynamo Kyiv’s Maksim Shatskikh scoring against the run of play twenty-seven minutes into the match. With supporters urging them on, they returned to their attacking ways and finally after “knocking at the door” on a number of occasions, Shunsuke Nakamura slid a perfect ball through the mouth of the goal which Nagoya Grampus‘ Keiji Tamada re-directed into the back of the goal. Throughout the balance of th match the Japan had numerous opportunities to score the winner including Ignatiy Nesterov turning away Keiji Tamada with a stunning save at seventy minutes and a Marcus Tulio Tanaka header from inside the box being saved by Uzbekistan ‘keeper with only a minute remaining but it was not to be found and the match ended as a 1-1 draw.

The impact of the draw leaves Japan in second-place, two points being Australia who thundered to an overwhelming 4-0 defeat of Qatar.

Japan
Seigo Narazaki,Marcus Tulio Tanaka,Yuji Nakazawa,Atsuto Uchida,Yasuhito Endo,Makoto Hasebe,Shunsuke Nakamura,Yuki Abe,Shinji Kagawa (Junichi Inamoto 73′),Keiji Tamada (Shinzo Koroki 82′),Yoshito Okubo (Shinji Okazaki 63′)

Uzbekistan
Ignatiy Nesterov,Anzur Ismailov,Asror Aliqulov,Anvar Gafurov,Vitali Denisov,Odil Ahmedov (Aziz Haydarov 73′),Timur Kapadze,Jasur Hasanov,Ildar Magdeev (Ruslan Melziddinov 58′),Server Djeparov,Maksim Shatskikh (Aleksandr Geynrikh 73′)