NEWS

Japan outplayed Belgium 4-0 at the National Stadium in Tokyo on Sunday night to win the Kirin Cup friendly tournament for the third year in a row.

Fullback Yuto Nagatomo and midfielder Kengo Nakamura scored in the first half, while forward Shinji Okazaki and substitute Kisho Yano struck in the second half.
Japan, with three World Cup matches scheduled for June, finished the three-nation round-robin tournament with six points from two wins. Belgium and Chile both had one draw and one loss to finish with one point each and a share of second place.
Japan coach Takeshi Okada made several changes from the Chile match, which the hosts won 4-0, after several of his players recovered from injury and sickness.
One of them was Nagatomo, who played aggressively on the left side to help the home team create chances against a defensive Belgian team, and he scored the opening goal in the 21st minute. The FC Tokyo fullback controlled a Kengo Nakamura pass on the left side of the box and fired home from a tight angle.
The hosts could have taken the lead three minutes into the game when Kengo Nakamura had back-to-back headers from close range, but Belgium center-back Thomas Vermaelen blocked his attempts.
Japan also came close with efforts from Makoto Hasebe, Yuji Nakazawa and Yasuhito Endo. In the 16th minute, forward Shinji Okazaki hit the woodwork while a Kengo Nakamura attempt went wide after hitting a Belgium defender.
Kengo Nakamura then made it 2-0 by blasting home an Okubo feed from the edge of the box.
The inexperienced Belgium lineup came close around the 30th-minute mark after Kevin Roelandts stole the ball from Tulio and faced Seigo Narazaki one on one, but he hit his shot wide.
In the 39th minute, Hasebe hit the bar with a skillful shot, before Okazaki came close with a header two minutes before the break.
Okazaki, who scored twice for Japan against Chile in Osaka on Wednesday, got himself on the scoresheet again in the 60th minute when he dived to head home a sharp cross from Okubo.
In the 78th minute, substitute forward Kisho Yano found the target by thumping in a Nagatomo cross from close range.
Japan coach Takeshi Okada said, “We played with good rhythm for the first 20 minutes, but after that, our players slowed down the pace and played at around 80 percent of their ability. I had to remind them of the purpose of this game, which is to prepare to beat Uzbekistan.
“We played very aggressive football in the second half and produced goals in good ways. That makes me happy about this game.”
Japan can secure a World Cup berth by collecting three more points from their remaining three matches in the qualifiers, against Uzbekistan on June 6 in Tashkent, Qatar on June 10 in Yokohama and group leaders Australia on June 17 in Melbourne.
“We scored goals while keeping a clean sheet in these last two matches [in the Kirin Cup], but that doesn't give us any guarantee in the Uzbekistan match. We should reset our focus to make sure we come home with a win.”
Belgium coach Frankie Vercauteren commented, “There was too much distance between the quality of Japan and our quality today.
“There were maybe some excuses that there were more players used with less rest between the two games, but those excuses are not enough to say the quality they have was much bigger today. They deserved this result, but we did our best.”

Teams:
Japan—Seigo Narazaki, Yuji Nakazawa, Marcus Tulio Tanaka (Satoshi Yamaguchi, 74th), Yuto Nagatomo, Atsuto Uchida, Shunsuke Nakamura (Keisuke Honda, ht), Yasuhito Endo (Yuki Abe, 62nd), Kengo Nakamura (Shinzo Koroki, 67th), Makoto Hasebe (Hideo Hashimoto, ht), Yoshito Okubo, Shinji Okazaki (KishoYano, 70th). Coach, Takeshi Okada
Belgium—Stjin Stijnen, Toby Alderweireld, Sebastien Pocognoli (Jelle Vossen, 69th), Timmy Simons, Gill Swerts, Thomas Vermaelen, Faris Haroun, Kevin Roelandts (Moussa Dembele, 82nd), Ritchie De Laet, Maarten Martens, Bia Mujanji (Stein Huysegems, 62nd). Coach, Frankie Vercauteren
Goals—Yuto Nagatomo (21st min), Kengo Nakamura (23rd min), Shinji Okazaki (60th min), Kisho Yano (77th min) for Japan
Cautions—Toby Alderweireld (Belgium), Thomas Vermaelen (Belgium)
Expulsions—None
Attendance—42,520
Referee—Rob Styles (England)