Japan lift AFC U-16 Championship title for third time

KUALA LUMPUR: Japan lifted the Under-16 (U-16) Asian Football Confederation Cup for the third time after a narrow 1-0 win against Tajikistan in the final match at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium here Sunday night.

For the record, Japan won the cup in 1994 and 2006.

Jun Nishikawa turned hero for the young Blue Samurai squad in the match when he scored the solitary goal in the 62nd minute.

It was sweeter for Nishikawa when he was announced as the Most Valuable Player in the championship while the Japanese team received the ‘Fair Play’ award after collecting only four yellow cards throughout the championship.

In the Sunday match night, Japan was clearly in control of the ball with relentless attacks on the Tajikistan defence but the strong defence put up by the Tajikistan players and goalkeeper Mukhriddin Khasanov saw the match ending the first half without any goal scored by both teams.

As soon as the match resumed for the second half, the young Blue Samurai squad redoubled their efforts to score the opening goal.

They eventually found the goal in the 57th minute through Ryuma Nakano who was fed by Keita Nakano, but the goal was disallowed as another Japanese player, Shoji Toyama was alleged to have been in an offside position when the goal was scored.

Nishikawa ensured the championship for the squad managed by Toshiyo Moriyama when he scored a grounder after being fed by Ryuma Nakano in the 62nd minute and the 1-0 result remained until the final whistle.

For the record, Japan and Tajikistan qualify for the U-17 World Cup in Peru next year after advancing to the semifinals of the U-16 AFC Championship.

They will be joined by Australia and South Korea who lost in the semifinals stage earlier.