More from the AFC Asian Cup

Last night I went to watch my favourite Asian team, Japan play against Qatar in Hanoi. During my trip to Japan during the WC2002, the enthusiasm and love for the game of football the Japanese displayed was amazing and has kept me watching them whenever possible since. So a chance to see them live in Hanoi could not be missed.

The turnout was sadly pretty low, over half were Japanese, there were a handful of Qatar fans with what looked like some Oman fans backing them up, the rest local Vietnamese and the occasional non-Asian who seemed to consist of British and Ozzies.
It was defending champions Japan who made all the early running and it was the two Nakamurus were controlling the game in midfield for the Japanese, picking up the ball all over the pitch and spreading the play out wide to the flanks from which Japan caused the Qatar defence a few problems, but despite their dominance, they struggled to put away any chances and it was still goalless at half-time.
In the Second half it was more of the same until eventually after around an hour Japan found the net through Takahara who turned in a cross that for once found a blue shirt in space. While Japan missed more chances and Qatar created few threats it looked like it would finish 1-0 until defender Abe - who appeared to have a few female admirers wearing his number 6 shirt amongst the Japanese fans - gave away a free-kick on the edge of the box (looked like it could have been a dive, but not sure) with just three minutes remaining. The resulting free-kick was blasted towards the wall and deflected past ex-Pompey keeper Yoshi Kawaguchi, giving him no chance at all. The best chance of the match was still to come, but with a minute remaining Japan failed to convert a great chance when they put a close range effort over the bar.

At the far side of the stadium, there was one Qatar fan, standing with a Qatar flag, wearing a typical middle eastern, long, white robe and holding a mega-phone. At various stages, especially during the second half, he started singing through the megaphone. They weren't football songs that I had heard before, they were very middle eastern songs/chants and caused some grins amongst the Japanese, whose own musician, who had started playing earlier, responded by playing his trumpet. At one point a familiar chant came from the Qatari man, to which the Japanese trumpeter responded by playing it back to him, backed up by the estimated 600 Japanese fans it was all good fun. The wonderful thing about Japanese fans is their female following, a very excitable lot who are frequently seen at matches on TV. The majority of these seemed to be sitting in one corner of the stadium last night and it was great when some chanting of 'Nippon, Nippon' coming from the mainly male groups to my right and around me, was then repeated and continued by the mainly female contingent to the left, but at a range two octaves higher! (Len will remember this when we watched some Japan games in bars in Japan 2002, it's fantastic). It's something not often heard around football grounds, but great to see their real enthusiasm and support for their team, top marks to the Japanese girls, they're just adorable.