Japan beat Socceroos 4-3 on penalties
Saturday Jul 21 23:33 AEST
The Socceroos have bowed out of the Asian Cup at the quarter-final stage, beaten by defending champions Japan 4-3 on penalties at My Dinh National Stadium in Vietnam.
Japanese goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi was the hero, saving the opening two Australian penalties from Harry Kewell and Lucas Neill to give his side the advantage.
Yuji Nakazawa banged home the final Japanese penalty to seal the win.
The scores were left at 1-1 after 120 minutes with the Japanese having the better of the match and several chances to win but failing to take them.
Japan will now play the winner of Sunday's Saudi Arabia-Uzbekistan match in a semi-final in Hanoi on Wednesday while the Socceroos are eliminated.
After weathering heavy pressure from Japan from late in the first half through much of the second, the Socceroos scored the opening goal when John Aloisi banged home from close range in the 69th minute.
A Kewell corner found its way through a forest of legs in the penalty area with Aloisi on hand at the far post to give Australia a 1-0 lead.
But the Japanese were back level three minutes later when Australia's Mark Milligan failed to clear a ball in his box and striker Naohiro Takahara gathered the ball, turned him and shot home off the post.
Australia were forced to battle bravely for almost 45 minutes with a man down as midfielder Vince Grella was sent from the field for elbowing Takahara in the 76th minute.
With no resolution inside 90 minutes, the match went to 30 minutes extra-time with Japan looking far more likely to score but not managing to do so.
A combination of desperate Australian defending, goalkeeper's Mark Schwarzer's intervention and poor Japanese shooting in extra-time conspired to send the match to penalties.
Both Nakazawa and Hisato Sato had golden opportunities to win the match in the second period of extra-time.
Nakazawa's goal-bound header from a corner was stopped by Jason Culina's header off the line.
Then Sato fluffed his left-foot shot when bearing down on goal when he should have done better.
Australia then had to rely on a remarkable Schwarzer save from Shunsuke Nakamura with a minute left of extra-time to send the match into penalties.
Schwarzer somehow stopped Nakamura's point-blank range shot to keep his side alive before a goalmouth scramble seconds later also went in Australia's favour.
But Japan's goalkeeper Kawaguchi came up with two fine saves from Kewell and Neill to give his side the shootout advantage and ensure they would avenge their World Cup loss to Australia last year.
Despite a nervous moment when Takahara blasted Japan's fourth penalty over the bar, Nakazawa kept his nerve to settle the match.
A deflated Socceroos coach Graham Arnold praised his troops for their efforts.
"I can't be more proud of the players, I thought they put in a huge performance and a huge effort," he said.
"The whole of Australia should be very proud of them because it is not easy here in these conditions."
