Jamaica's Ricardo Fuller (second right) celebrates with teammates Linval Dixon (left) and Craig Ziadie after scoring a goal to tie the game with Japan during the second half of their international friendly match at Tokyo's National Stadium yesterday. The match ended 1-1. - ReutersTOKYO (AP):
STRIKER RICARDO Fuller equalised in the 80th minute yesterday as Jamaica fought to a 1-1 draw with Japan, spoiling the international debut of new Japan coach Zico.
Fuller, who came on in the 61st minute, pulled Jamaica even when he took a pass in the area, headed off defender Toshihiro Hattori and then fired the loose ball over the outstretched hands of Japan goalkeeper Seigo Narazaki.
"We didn't have much time to get ready for this game," said the 49-year-old Zico. "We could have been a little more aggressive in the second half, but I'm still satisfied with the way we played."
Japan opened the scoring in the seventh minute when Jubilo Iwata forward Naohiro Takahara fed Shinji Ono and the Feyenoord midfielder beat Jamaican 'keeper Aaron Lawrence cleanly with a right-foot blast into the far corner.
Hattori almost put Japan up 2-0 when he hit the crossbar in the opening minutes after the break, but Japan failed to capitalise on numerous chances before Fuller silenced the capacity crowd at Tokyo's National Stadium.
It was Japan's first match since reaching the second round of the World Cup and first under Brazilian Zico, who took over from Philippe Troussier as manager.
Zico opted for a 4-4-2 system for yesterday's match and made full use of European-based stars Shinjo Ono, Hidetoshi Nakata, Junichiro Inamoto and Shunsuke Nakamura.
Japan have one win and one loss from their previous meetings with Jamaica, including a 2-1 loss in their first encounter at the 1998 World Cup in France.
Japan defeated Jamaica 4-0 two years later at the King Hassan Cup in Morocco.
The Jamaican squad was made up of 11 foreign-based players including 22-year-old defender Craig Ziadie of the New York-New Jersey MetroStars in US Major League Soccer and midfielder Andrew Williams of the New England Revolution.
Coach Carl Brown did not have injured England-based stars Ricardo Gardner, Onandi Lowe and Deon Burton in his squad, and he praised the attitude of the team in coming up with the draw.
"I am really happy to say the attitude was great, I believe we saw that from the training sessions that we had, the two sessions were very lively, the players were very enthused," Brown said.
"It took that sort of attitude for us to survive the initial onslaught from the Japanese and then to settle down and literally take command of the game in the latter part of it," said Brown, who is leaving his attachment with Bolton Wanderers in England soon to return home.
Japan: Seigo Narazaki, Yutaka Akita, Akira Narahashi, Toshihiro Hattori, Naoki Matsuda, Hidetoshi Nakata, Shunsuke Nakamura, Junichi Inamoto (Koji Nakata 82), Shinji Ono (Takashi Fukunishi 82), Takayuki Suzuki, Naohiro Takahara (Atsushi Yanagisawa 76).
Jamaica: Aaron Lawrence (Donovan Ricketts 74), Ian Goodison, Marco McDonald, Claude Davis, Omar Daley (Ricardo Fuller 61), Robert Scarlett, Craig Ziadie, Micah Hyde, (Jermaine Johnson 71), Paul Hall (Fabien Taylor 77), Andrew Williams (Linval Dixon 61), Barry Hayles.
Referee: Kim Young-jool (South Korea).
