Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Sapporo: Javier Aguirre's reign as Japan coach began in far from spectacular fashion on Friday as his new charges began their preparations for January's AFC Asian Cup title defence with a 2-0 defeat to Uruguay.
On a night marred by Japanese defensive lapses, goals from Edinson Cavani and Abel Hernandez proved Japan's undoing, and left Aguirre acknowledging that there is most definitely room for improvement.
"Uruguay are a very strong team and you can't afford to make defensive errors or they will punish you," Aguirre, who replaced Alberto Zaccheroni following the Samurai Blue's poor FIFA World Cup display in Brazil, told reporters.
"We made two mistakes, they scored twice, and it was all over. There are many areas we need to improve, but clearly we need to work on our concentration in defence," the Mexican added.
Japan fell behind on 34 minutes when Diego Rolan made the most of debutant Tatsuya Sakai's defensive lapse before finding Paris Saint-Germain striker Cavani who expertly fired home past goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima.
Japan, captained by Keisuke Honda, failed to make any inroads of their own, and were made to pay in the 70th minute when substitute Hernandez reacted quickest to convert a rebound after Kawashima had saved from Nicolas Lodeiro.
FC Tokyo's Yoshinori Muto did hit a post late on, but it was a case of too little, too late for a lacklustre Japan who are now scheduled to face Venezuela in Yokohama on Tuesday.
Japan have a host of other friendlies arranged – including October's clash with Brazil in Singapore – before beginning their AFC Asian Cup 2015 campaign against Palestine on January 12.
Photo: AFP
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