Forward SUZUKI Musashi and midfielder NAKAJIMA Shoya scored four goals apiece as the Japan national U-22 team routed the Myanmar U-22 national squad 9-0 at Fukuda Denshi Arena in Chiba Prefecture on 11 March. The lopsided win gave Japan, who look to make the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, a boost toward the qualifying for the AFC U-23 Championship, which that will begin later this month. The qualifier also serves as the first qualifying for the Olympics.

Prior to the game, the players of both teams and match officials took a moment of silence on the pitch for the victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred on the day of four years ago.

Japan, who have been in their tuning up phase for the qualifying in Malaysia, which will start on the 27th of this month, dominated the ball and mercilessly attacked on their opponents from early. On 9th minute, midfielder Harakawa Riki received a pass from the left side and fired a shot, and Myanmar's goalkeeper fumbled it. Suzuki put it into the net to get Japan on the scoreboard first.

On 13th, Nakajima made it 2-0 capitalizing on a pass from Suzuki, and defender Iwanami Takuya headed a corner kick on 21st to make it 3-0. Four minutes later, Suzuki scored another with a cross from Yamanaka.

In the 41st minute, Japan robbed the ball with three to four men in the middle, and then connected it to Nakajima and forward ARANO Takuma. Then Suzuki cut in the box and netted another with his right foot for a hat trick. One minute later, Nakajima scored one and then added another in the stoppage time of the first half, also having a hat trick. Japan led 7-0 to enter halftime.

Japan entered the second half substituting five members and would not loosen their offensive effort. On 51st minute, defender MATSUBARA Ken launched a cross and Suzuki made it into the net to extend the lead. On 60th, Nakajima headed a cross of midfielder NOTSUDA Gakuto, who came in from the latter half, into the goal to make it 9-0.

Myanmar tried to stabilize their defence by substituting their goalkeeper and a pair of back line players on 65th minute. Like Japan, Myanmar is also in their preparation phase for the qualifying, and would not play defensively though it was an away contest for them. They attempted to connect passed capitalizing on their swift moves, and attack around midfielder Nay Lin Tun and forward Shine Thuya, both of whom have speed and ability to keep the ball, but were not good enough to have shots against the Japanese defenders.

Yet on 83rd minute, forward Kaung Sat Naing ran into the box and fired a shot. But Japan's goalkeeper NAKAMURA Kosuke saved it and the game ended as Japan won 9-0.

The U-22 Japan team will be assembled again on the 15th and fly down to Malaysia, the site for the first qualifier, to enter their tune-ups. Japan is in Group I and will face Macau on the 27th, Vietnam on the 29th, and Malaysia on the 31st.

In the qualifying, the 43 participants are divided into the 10 groups and the top finishers of each group and the top five teams among the runner-ups will advance to the AFC U-23 Championship, which serves as the final Olympic qualifier, along with host Qatar.

Head Coach and Players'Comments

TEGURAMORI Makoto, Head Coach (U-22 Japan National Team)
We entered the game to try to perform to our concept that we've tried to establish since last year, play with better judgements, and present the potential of Japanese football, and we tried to do the best we could. Also, while there are still so many people that are suffering in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake of four years ago, we told our players that we have got to give them a ray of hope for those people and showed a specially-edited film to them as we got in the game.

The game ended up being a one-sided, but I'm satisfied that our guys didn't get loose until the end. They showed the attitudes to keep going forward to score. They had better accuracy in the first half, but lacked quality a little bit as they tried to have more speed in the second half. I felt that the members that we used for the second half needed to improve their knack for the game, and as for scoring, I thought that it would be better if other guys outside the scorers today get involved in scoring plays more, and it would be our issue for the first qualifying. We would like to improve on those parts that we lacked some qualities toward the first qualifying.

FW   SUZUKI Musashi (Albirex Niigata)
As we played on the 11th of March, and because what we could do to those who are fighting for the recovery is to encourage them with football, so we wanted to give everybody hope. Of the four goals, one that I scored from a cross was the most impressive in me. I got a good ball. That was a header that I was practicing and I'm relieved that I came up with a result, but once the level of our opponents get better, it's still going to give us hard times. I would like to raise my level and practice more so I can score with more varieties. Both as an individual and team, there were some moments that we were making mistakes, so we need to correct them and play a better football of our own in the first qualifying.

MF   ENDO Wataru (Shonan Bellmare)
Putting the quality of the opponents aside, I think we can think positively of our scoring. It would have been better had we scored even more in the second half, but we've built some positive offensive images through our Singapore game and today. We want to move forward continuing that, and want to work in our daily practices, assuming tougher opponents. We are going to have to play consecutively in the qualifier, so it's important for us to get all of us involved and win three points in every game. More than we worry about our opponents, we have got to do what we are supposed to do, otherwise we are not going to earn the results we want. So we would like to get in the games, thinking of what I have to do as well as what we as a team have to do.

MF   HARAKAWA Riki (Kyoto Sanga FC)
On the scene that led to the first goal,it was a misfire of a shot. It was an angle I usually practice, so I wanted to make it, but it was great that we were able to score after that. In myself, I made many mistakes and wasn't able to have a game-control as well as I wanted to, so as much as the 9-0 outcome was important, I would like to look more closely at the content. Once we get in the site, we are going to have more tense of the qualifying. It will have been a while to play along with forward Kubo (who will join the team there), so I'm excited about it.

MF   NAKAJIMA Shoya (FC Tokyo)
It was great to win the first-ever game that we played inside the country. As much as I am happy about scoring four goals, which is rare to me, I feel like I still have lot more to increase what I can do, and I have a long way to improve. I made a lot of mistakes on passing, and individually I was slow on my plays, and I wasn't fast enough on passing and dribbling, so I felt those are my issues. The qualifying is really important, so it will be important how much I will have grown by that point.

Kyi Lwin, Head Coach (Myanmar U-22 National Team)
I would like congratulate the victory for Japan. We came in the game with offensive tactics, assuming that we'll face countries like Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia and beat them. After all, we wound up losing badly 9-0, but we learned a lot to make us feel that we'd need to prepare ourselves, toward the qualifying of the AFC Under-23 Championship and the East South Asia meet. I think that we earned previous experience.

JFA-TV (Japanese version only)

International Friendly Match　U-22 Japan National Team v Myanmar U-22 National Team

Wed. 11 March 2015     Kickoff 19:10
Fukuda Denshi Arena, Chiba

Ticket Information(Japanese version only)