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WORLD CUP RECORDS
Japan record historic win
Yokohama, June 9
Japan improved their chances of going through to the next round of the World Cup with a 1-0 win over Russia. The win is Japan's first in World Cup history.
The match got off to one of the most foul-ridden starts of the tournament with 36 fouls being committed in the first half. Chances at goal were few and far between with neither team looking too comfortable on the ball. Even the freekicks generated by the fouls generally came to naught with the Japanese in particular seeming to be aiming at some spot a few yards above the Russian goal. Russia on their part concentrated on attacking down the wings but rarely if ever got any decent crosses into the box.
Inamoto broke the deadlock when a Nakata pass broke through to him in the penalty area in the 51st minute. He had no one but the goalkeeper to beat and he did so with some aplomb. Russia came back strongly but Beschastnykh shot wide with the goal at his mercy in the 59th minute. For Japan, Nakata almost doubled Japan's lead in the 71st minute but his long range shot smashed into the Russian crossbar.
Russia kept pressing forward towards the end of the match but never really had a goo enough chance to put away with the Japanese defence standing firm. The referee's final whistle set off wild celebrations on the Japanese bench as this was Japan's first ever win in the World Cup. The result also boosts their chances of making it to the next round. As for Russia, they now have to beat Belgium in their final encounter to guarantee a place in the round of sixteen.
Match details:
Goals:
Japan: Inamoto (51st minute)
The teams:
Japan: Seigo Narazaki, Naoki Matsuda, Junichi Inamoto (Takashi Fukunishi, 85th minute), Hidetoshi Nakata, Takayuki Suzuki (Masashi Nakayama, 72nd minute), Atsushi Yanagisawa, Koji Nakata, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Shinji Ono (Toshihiro Hattori, 76th minute), Tomokazu Myojin, Tazuyuki Toda.
Russia: Rusian Nigmatullin, Yuri Kovtun, Yuri Nikiforov, Alexei Smertin (Vladimir Beschastnykh, 57th minute), Andrei Solomatin, Igor Semshov, Viktor Onopko, Valery Karpin, Egor Titov, Ruslan Pimenov (Dmitri Sychev, 46th minute), Marat Izmailov (Dmitri Khokhlov, 52nd minute).
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