Courtesy: - Futsal Net

by Yoshiki Kikuchi

In this seventh edition of the AFC Futsal Championship, Japan has finally managed a win over undefeated Iran! This struck me as an even better performance than when Japan defeated Argentina last year, and was in fact a comfortable win in which devoted players gave their all.

Japan started out with Kawahara in goal and Suzumura, Kanayama, Ono, and Kogure on the pitch. Iran had the services of ace Shamsaei, who was quite gung-ho.

The beginning of the match was pretty much what we have come to in Japan-Iran games in recent years: Shamsaei would attempt to dribble and shoot, only to be stopped by Suzumura and Kawahara, who howled with a vengeance with each little victory. This scene repeated itself over and over.

What was different today was Japan in defense. Apparently accustomed to Iran's rhythm and patterns of attack, the Japanese players looked very comfortable in defense. They were sliding far less for the ball
than before. It used to be that Shamsaei cutting on the dribble would leave Japan's defense a bit out out of place each time, but Shamsaei today only found himself more and more surrounded by challengers the
longer he held onto the ball.

And captain Reza Heidarian found himself unceremoniously stripped of the ball by Ono in the middle of one of his trademark feints, when he moves the ball back and forth between his feet. In fact, all of the Japanese stayed on top of this by carefully keeping an eye on the ball.

With Shamsaei and Heidarian under wraps and the other Iranian players not nearly as dangerous on the attack, Japan more or less had things under control.
Conspicuously common were Iranian shots that flew wide of the goal -- almost none were made point-blank, and those that reached the goal were calmly stopped by Kawahara.

But Japan did struggle to put together a cohesive attack. Twice in the sixth minute the ball was effectively squared from the left, but neither pass quite found its intended recipient. Iran made it tough
for Japan to string passes together by applying a press from the front. On numerous occasions Japan almost had the ball stolen in its own half, but the Japanese used this to their advantage by luring Iran
forward and preying on the space that opened up in front of the Iranian goal. Kogure and Ono led the charge here.

Toward the end of the first half, Iran started sending long balls up front to Shamsaei in order to force one-on-one situations, but Suzumura kept the Iranian pivot under lock and key, leaving the score 0-0 at the break. This duel between Shamsaei and Suzumura is becoming an anticipated highlight of the Asian championship.

Iran came back from halftime worn down by their unsuccessful first half, while Japan found itself creating more and more chances on the break. In the 25th minute, Kogure's dribble up the left culminated
in a shot on a somewhat tight angle that Iran's 'keeper did well to keep out. In that same 25th minute on a three-two break, Kogure fed Fujii up the middle.
Fujii lobbed the ball over the advanced goalie to Suzumura, whose headed assist met with Kogure driving in, but the shot was blocked by the body of one of the Iranian players.

Japan's opening goal came moments later when Kogure fed Ono long and drove in himself for a one-two return pass. This came as expected, unmarked Kogure teed up the shot and sent a bullet past the stunned Iranian GK!

It took but a minute for Japan to add another goal, when Kawahara threw far to Fujii on the left. An Iranian player anticipated the trajectory of the throw and put out a leg to make the interception, but Kawahara put enough of a spin on the ball to make it bounce away from the Iranian and on to Fujii, who drove in on the goalkeeper and touched the ball onto an advanced Kogure. All Kogure had to do was push the ball in.

With Japan up 2-0, the opposition turned up the heat. And whenever Japan plays a powerful team, it's here that the "Kawahara show" begins. Shamsaei and others rained down shots in succession on the Japanese goalie, only to see all turned away, one after the other. There were some scary moments, but it's the scariest of times when those you can count on come through.

And yet, Iran did manage to score in the 33rd minute. Heidarian drew a defender toward him on the right and laid the ball off to Hosein, whose powerful blast found its way into the upper right of the goal. Japan 2, Iran 1.

Things were getting tough for Japan, but about a minute later came the third and crucial goal. Fujii dribbled up the middle and found himself unmarked when his Iranian challenger slipped. A three-two break for Japan, Fujii took advantage by beating his man to the left, dribbling, and shooting home.

Though this put Japan on the way to a first victory against Iran, out came Heidarian in a shiny green 'keeper's jersey to start last-ditch power-play. This is the first time I've seen Iran try a power-play. Heidarian led the effort, in which the ball went back and forth, left and right, but fortunately for Japan Heidarian never seemed interested in shooting the ball. This enabled Japan to keep up with the passing and prevent any dangerous shots on goal.

But Japan had been in foul trouble, and this led to a crisis. Kawahara had gotten into the habit of punting the ball out of trouble and one time allowed himself to cross the penalty line with the ball still in hand. This was called as the sixth foul, giving Iran a
wall-less free kick from a 45-degree angle. Shamsaei stepped up and hit the ball with all he had, but Kawahara's right foot kept it out of the goal!

Japan then ran out the clock in defense and left with a 3-1 victory. Having achieved a historic victory, the Japan bench erupted in jubilation that was not quite as excessive as last year's victory over Uzbekistan that won a ticket to the world championship. It was
somewhat reserved jubilation because the greater objective of Asian champion has not yet been reached.

- Player & Coach Comments (courtesy of Kenichiro Kita)

Sergio Sapo (manager):
If you practice daily and keep moving forward, victory comes one day. Even though we won this match, the tournament is not yet over. The goal is to be champions of Asia. With a couple of players going down
to injury today, the games tomorrow and the day after are going to be tough. The road ahead is long.

Takuya Suzumura:
We won because we didn't force things in the first half. Since we knew they would slow down in the second half, we kept them under control in the first half and then went at them aggressively in the second. That's what worked. I was careful about the distance I kept
between Shamsaei and me. He always turns on you once he has the ball, so it's important to anticipate that. It's taken so long for us to beat Iran that I now just want to simply bask in the joy of victory.

Nagamitsu Kawahara:
We never got beaten on defense today. They knew it was a game they couldn't lose, so it was a tight contest. Once I stopped that free kick on the sixth foul, I knew we had won the game. I believed that we would do what we had to do in attack as long as I did my part to keep the goals out. I think that today's victory owed to the fact that we were finally able to do everything we wanted to do, and that was never the case before.

Kenichiro Kogure:
I'm expected to score goals, so I'm just very happy that my goals are what led to victory. Since Iran has such attacking flare and the skills, you can't just sit back on a lead when you play them. Since we had lost to them so many times before, I really wanted to win today no matter what. Still, we're not even halfway through, so I want to keep playing hard without letting up.

Kenta Fujii:
It's great that we won but it wasn't the final or anything -- and we've still got a pair of games to go in the group. We've got to keep our spirits up and tension high. I would imagine the next game will be
the most important one. Since we knew from the middle of our last group that we would be playing Iran, we mentally prepared, and that paid off today. That third goal was something I just knew I could do when the pass found me. Normally I might have passed in that situation, but I knew in my mind just how I wanted to score.