SOCCER

Japan coasts to 5-0 win over Togo

Thursday 15th October, 03:50 AM JST

SENDAI —

Shinji Okazaki scored a hat-trick as Japan coasted to a 5-0 win over Togo in an international friendly Wednesday.

Okazaki put Japan ahead in the fifth minute, redirecting a cross from Yasuhito Endo, then doubled the lead just two minutes later. Catania forward Takayuki Morimoto scored his first goal for Japan in the 10th minute to give the hosts a comfortable 3-0 lead.

Okazaki headed in his third of the game in the 64th and VVV Venlo’s Keisuke Honda closed out the scoring five minutes from time.

After losing to Cameroon 3-0 on the weekend in World Cup qualifying, Togo arrived in Japan without many of its top players and rarely threatened Japan’s defense.

Okazaki also scored a hat-trick for Japan in a 6-0 win over Hong Kong in last week’s Asian Cup qualifier.

› Login to comment

9 Comments

aintgottimetobl at 07:15 AM JST - 15th October

I'm sure coach Okada would dearly love to play a team with some ability..
Pukey2 at 09:04 AM JST - 15th October

Next up for Japan - Fiji, Swaziland and Greenland.
browny1 at 09:42 AM JST - 15th October

I thought the Hong Kong game was a mis-match, but this game went to new heights of disparity.

The Togo A team after losing most of its players, sends a team that many amateur teams here would have dismissed. I've never seen a weaker international game.

But still the media crow. Why?
ratpack at 11:24 AM JST - 15th October

Togo ranked 71 in the world. Hong Kong ranked 128 in the world. Wow!!!! Impressive win boys!!!!! Gonna do real good when you face the big guns if you can't win by at least double digits against these sides!!!! Japan should create their own 5 team championships against Aruba, Tahiti, Macau and Afghanistan. That way when they win the trophy they can further believe they are better than they aren't.
fatboysosa at 01:00 PM JST - 15th October

Japan is aiming for the last four of the World Cup. This is a joke, right?
ihavearrived at 02:45 PM JST - 15th October

What a great win for Japan. They have handed out 2 big thrashings in the last week. They are really getting ready to peak at the right time. You can see how well they are playing now. They have some big stars who play in Europe now, so they will do very well next year in South Africa.
roomtemperature at 05:57 PM JST - 15th October

"Togo ranked 71 in the world. Hong Kong ranked 128 in the world. Wow!!!! Impressive win boys!!!!!"

This week Greece (ranked 12) booked a narrow win over Luxembourg (ranked 116). Russia (ranked 6) drew with Azerbaijan (ranked 139). Still some here wine over the fact that Japan didn't beat Togo with double digits!! Funny.....

8 players of Togo refused to play at the very last moment because of a financial dispute with the Togolese football association.
ratpack at 10:47 AM JST - 16th October

roomtemperature lets see how they go against class opposition hey. I wish they would get out of the fake make believe thinking that they are world beaters when they defeat teams that would struggle to beat a high school side and start trying to beat the worlds best.
suzuki09 at 08:11 PM JST - 16th October

japan need to get serious by playing strong and better teams. Playing teams with B & C teams will expose them at the world cup. Anyway, what channel is showing ghana-brazil u-20 world cup?