NEWS

Defending champions Japan suffered a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Korea Republic in the semifinals of the AFC Under-16 Championship at MHSK Stadium in Tashkent on Wednesday.

Japan, who qualified for next year’s FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Nigeria by reaching the semifinals, started well with Tatsuya Uchida heading in the opener from a corner in the second minute.
But the Koreans cancelled out Japan’s goal two minutes later when Kim Dong Jin latched onto a ball behind the Japan backline and slotted home the equalizer.
Boosted by the goal, Korea went on the attack and took the lead in the 26th minute when forward Lee Dong Nyck fired home a loose ball following a free-kick.
The Japanese players rallied hard in the second half and pressured their opponents, but the young Boys in Blue couldn’t produce a goal.
“The semifinal today was the start to our ‘world’ campaign, and we found many things that need fixing. Our players couldn’t do what they were supposed to do,” Japan Under-16 coach Yutaka Ikeuchi said.
“We knew our opponents would start to run out of steam in the second half, but we weren’t able advantage of that.”
Ikeuchi noted, “We have to have more options for scoring or we will be in trouble on the world stage. We’d like to keep on working on our problems.”
Korea Republic will play Iran in the final on Saturday at Pakhtakor Stadium in the Uzbek capital. Iran beat the United Arab Emirates 3-0 in their semifinal.