{"id":28759,"date":"2024-10-14T15:39:15","date_gmt":"2024-10-14T06:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/?p=28759"},"modified":"2024-10-14T15:39:15","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T06:39:15","slug":"flawless-japan-coast-to-victory-in-jeddah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2024\/10\/14\/flawless-japan-coast-to-victory-in-jeddah\/","title":{"rendered":"Flawless Japan Coast to Victory in Jeddah"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Japan continued their flawless run in the 2026 FIFA World Cup AFC qualifiers third round with a 2-0 victory over Saudi Arabia at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah on Thursday. This win keeps Japan at the top of Group C with nine points, moving five points clear, while Saudi Arabia drops to third, trailing Australia on goal difference after Australia\u2019s come-from-behind 3-1 win over China earlier in the day.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Daichi Kamada opened the scoring in the 14th minute, converting a well-worked play involving Ritsu Doan and Kaoru Mitoma. Mitoma&#8217;s flick from the left side of the penalty area set up Hidemasa Morita, who headed the ball into Kamada&#8217;s path, allowing the Crystal Palace man to score from close range.<\/p>\n<p>Roberto Mancini&#8217;s Saudi Arabia tried to mount a comeback with Salem Al Dawsari testing the Japanese defense early. However, Japan&#8217;s backline, led by Koki Machida, Hidemasa Morita, and Wataru Endo, held firm. Japan goalkeeper Zion Suzuki made several key saves, including a spectacular one from Saud Abdulhamid\u2019s driven shot just before halftime.<\/p>\n<p>In the second half, Japan absorbed Saudi pressure and struck a decisive blow in the 81st minute. Koki Ogawa, a substitute, powered a header into the bottom corner from a corner delivered by Junya Ito, sealing the win and cementing Japan&#8217;s position at the summit of Group C.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Japan continued their flawless run in the 2026 FIFA World Cup AFC qualifiers third round with a 2-0 victory over Saudi Arabia at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah on Thursday. This win keeps Japan at the top of Group C with nine points, moving five points clear, while Saudi Arabia drops to third, trailing Australia on goal difference after Australia\u2019s come-from-behind 3-1 win over China earlier in the day. Daichi Kamada opened the scoring in the 14th minute, converting a well-worked play involving Ritsu Doan and Kaoru Mitoma. Mitoma&#8217;s flick from the left side of the penalty area set up Hidemasa Morita, who headed the ball into Kamada&#8217;s &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2024\/10\/14\/flawless-japan-coast-to-victory-in-jeddah\/\" class=\"tribe-more-link\">Continue reading &#8220;Flawless Japan Coast to Victory in Jeddah&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":27498,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,50],"tags":[926,2428,57,311,95,2429,480],"class_list":["post-28759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia","category-fifa-world-cup","tag-asia","tag-east-asia","tag-japan","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-slider","tag-west-asia","tag-world-cup-qualifiers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28759"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28760,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28759\/revisions\/28760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}