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Wednesday, 31 May 2006 |
World Cup hosts Germany draw with Japan
World Cup hosts Germany bounced back from two goals down to draw against Japan.
Japan reaped the benefit of German lack of focus as the host nation experimented with a new formation and this gave Naohiro Takahara the advantage of scoring two fine goals on 57 and 65 minutes.
Germany, who had player Michael Ballack back after injury, pushed ahead and were successful when Miroslav Klose bundled in a Bastian Schweinsteiger free-kick.
And just four minutes later, Bastian Schweinsteiger headed in a Bernd Schneider free-kick to make sure of a draw.
"Obviously it feels better to equalise after being two goals down," said Germany coach Jurgen Klinsmann.
"A defeat would have been irritating but not the end of the world. We let them have too many chances."
Jurgen Klinsmann began with Michael Ballack on the right of midfield with Tim Borowski given a free role in the centre, however the change was not a good one and backfired.
Atsushi Yanagisawa managed to slip in an early reverse pass to Hidetoshi Nakata, who then forced goalkeeper Jens Lehmann to save with his feet.
Jens Nowotny came on as replacement for Christoph Metzelder at centre-back and to win his first cap since Euro 2004 but the veteran player was almost straight away caught badlyly out of position when Japan broke from a corner, leaving Naohiro Takahara to take advantage of the situation and lift a shot into the top of the net.
Eight minutes later, Naohiro Takahara again scored a second goal, scoring in off the par post.
Germany managed a comeback but supporters will expect to see an improvement in their final warm-up game against Colombia on 2 June before they start the World Cup against Costa Rica in Munich on 9 June.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 02 June 2006 )
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