AFC Futsal Asian Cup
The win took the four-time champions with six points ahead of a mouth-watering clash with Uzbekistan, who are two adrift, on Sunday.
Cheered on by a small but vocal group of fans, Japan started with Takehiro Motoishi and Shunta Uchimura fluffing their efforts before Shoto Yamanaka forced the first save of the match from Firuz Bekmurodov.
Japan keeper Hiroshi Tabuchi then moved upfront to have a crack, forcing his counterpart to use his legs to clear his effort. Bekmurodov had to move fast to deny Ryoto Kai with another fine save, the latter trying again moments later but finding the side netting instead.
Tajikistan were kept on the back foot for the better part, with their first notable effort coming in the 12th minute from Bekmurodov, who saw his rising shot punched away by Tabuchi. Samandar Rizomov made a second attempt four minutes later, letting loose a shot that spun just wide of the right post.
Despite their dominance, the East Asian side’s first goal only came in the 18th minute when Uchimura collected a pass from Motoishi and hammered the ball from distance past a hapless Bekmurodov.
The Central Asian side almost forced the equaliser a minute before the break when Berkmurodov again ventured forward and forced Habuchi into another punching save, with skipper Dilshod Salomov then sending the rebound into the left netting.
Group C: Tajikistan v Japan
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Kazuya Shimizu kicked off the second half for Japan by sending his shot wide of the left post while Tajikistan’s Bakhtiyor Soliev, who took advantage of a defensive fumble, saw his close-range attempt denied by Habuchi.
Japan intensified their efforts in search of a second goal, but were foiled by shoddy finishing and Berkmurodov, who proved a stumbling block time and time again.
The keeper, however, came undone in the 35th minute when he came out too far to intercept the ball and instead lost it to Kaito Yamada, who gleefully tucked it into an empty goalmouth before Yamanaka wrapped up the match in the dying seconds with their third to give Kensuke Takahashi’s men a hard-fought win.
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