We need to improve on our defence: Teguramori

AFC – MUSCAT, Coach Makoto Teguramori has called on his Japan side to show greater defensive resiliency in the AFC U-22 Championship following a frenetic 3-3 draw with Iran on Sunday, starting with their Tuesday fixture against Kuwait.

In their Group C opener, Japan showed why their attack is deservedly reputed as one of the strongest in the tournament with impressive potency in front of goal shown by scorers Riki Harakawa, Takuma Asano and Shoya Nakajima.

Their defence, however, struggled to hold out an Iranian side that exploited gaps in the Japan backline to score three goals of their own.

“In the defensive areas, when the ball was in the critical areas, we weren’t ready,” said coach Teguramori.

“We must ensure to be in the right condition in those areas for the next game. While I’m pleased about the goals scored, in terms of goals conceded, we will need to make adjustments.

“Overall, though, my players have a good feeling and I’m sure they will improve the more they play.”

After Sunday’s 1-0 reverse against Australia in the other Group C game, Kuwait coach Jorvan Vieira is looking for his players to work harder to avoid repeating their poor second half performance which undermined a bright first period in which they dominated play against Australia.

“It’s a question of organisation: the way we organised the play in the second half was poor, it’s nothing to do with levels of fitness,” said Vieira.

“We played in Qatar last week (at the 2014 WAFF championship) in some very tough matches. Several of my players played over 520 minutes with two games going into extra-time, so we cannot talk about any lack of fitness. You have to maintain the same rhythm and play for both halves.

“We need to recover our style, the way we have to play, through hard work. We cannot make mistakes as we did against Australia in our next game, the players must learn their lesson.”

Australia will look to build on their opening day victory as coach Aurelio Vidmar has confirmed he will completely overhaul the make-up of his side for the match against Iran when they return to the Royal Oman Police Stadium on Tuesday.

“We’ll change possibly the whole team before the game against Iran, so as to give everyone a full 90 minutes,” said Vidmar, which may mean a start for late call-up Adam Taggart, the Newcastle Jets striker who is currently joint-second highest goalscorer in the 2013/14 A-League.

“That’s the reason for coming here, to give everyone an experience of international football.”

Iran coach Human Afazeli, meanwhile, will have defender Vahid Esmaeilibeigi and midfielder Morteza Pouraliganji eligible to return after missing the thrilling draw with Japan due to suspension.

“It’s a very tough group, Kuwait is a good team and, of course, Australia is always a competitor for any tournament they enter,” said Afazeli.

“The best thing is that after the first round of games we now have a tape to watch of Australia so we can make some special preparations and strategies for that game.

“Before the competition, we had nothing on the Japan team, so we had to focus on our own team and player preparations. But from now on in the tournament we can work on the opponents too.”