FRANCE 98 – General Media News Template
A 78th minute penalty by Alberto Garcia Aspe sealed a 2-1 win for Mexico over Japan in a World Cup warmup match played before an empty stadium in driving rain in Lausanne. Spectators and the media were refused access to Sunday’s game, according to Japanese reports Monday from the Swiss city. The result was another disappointment for Japan, and head coach Takeshi Okada’s defensive strategy remained unconvincing as the squad remained winless from five straight warm-up matches.
“We fought on equal terms. We were not overwhelemed either on the offensive or defensive,” Okada told reporters after the match. “It was fruitful.”
Mexican forward Luis Garcia opened the scoring in the first minute when he hooked in a fumble off Japanese goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, and Japanese defender Naoki Soma fired a 23-metre equaliser in the 43rd minute, a Japanese media briefing was told.
Japan, testing their three-back defense line, controlled the ball in midfield in the second half but had difficulty containing Mexico’s fast breaks.
In the 78th minute, midfielder Aspe scored the winning goal for Mexico from a penalty when Eisuke Nakanishi was charged with tripping. Japan, about to make their debut in the World Cup finals against two-time champions Argentina on June 14 in Toulouse, are aiming for a win, a draw and a loss to make the last 16.
Mexico’s first World Cup match is against South Korea on June 13. Result of the Japan-Mexico World Cup warm-up match in Lausanne on Sunday:
Mexico 2 (Garcia 1, Aspe 78-pen) Japan 1 (Soma 43)
Teams
Mexico: Campos – J. Sanchez, Davino (Lara 60), Pardo, Ordiales (Blanco 61) – Suarez, Aspe, Garcia, Luna – Palencia (Hernandez 61), Arellano
Japan: Kawaguchi – Ihara, Akita, Nakanishi – Narahashi (Ono 75), Soma, Yamaguchi, Nanami (Ito 60), Nakata, Morishima (Nakayama 89) – Jo