Japan too strong for Canada

Head coach Miles Pinsent's squad was only behind one goal at half-time, but collapsed in the second half of the match, which was completely dominated by the Japanese team. Canada has now lost its first two games of the tournament and is still looking for a first goal.

“That was a very impressive Japanese side. They play the game the way it should be played,” said Pinsent after the encounter. The game took place under stormy conditions, and was even interrupted for half an hour after only 18 minutes of play. “We went into the locker room, made adjustments, and I actually thought that from the 20th minute on to the 40th minute, we were maybe turning the tide a little bit. And then we gave up that late goal in the first half and I think that took a little bit of the heart out of the boys.”

This goal was the work of Shintaro Nago, who deftly dribbled the ball to create space as he approached the penalty area where he took a perfect shot to open the Japanese tally. Germain Ryo, first with a penalty in the 50th minute and then following a mistake by the Canadian goalkeeper in the 65th, eliminated any hope of a comeback. From that moment, Japan seemed to be able to do whatever it wanted with the ball. Kai Shibato (75th minute) and Yasuto Wakizaka (90th) completed the scoring for the Japanese side.

Japan dominated Canada 12-2 in shots on goal, and controlled 65 per cent of possession.

“We’ll look at the video, and the boys are gonna feel sorry for themselves for about 10 minutes and we’ll get back in the locker room and the focus will be on getting ourselves ready to play as well as we can against Malaysia,” said Miles Pinsent.

The Canada-Malaysia duel on Tuesday, August 22 will be the last game of pool play for the red and white. The kick-off is set at 4:00 am EDT (Eastern Time).