Umpires:
 

GOALS

Japan earned their first 3 points of the tournament in an exciting, if not particularly high class, match. With both teams at the bottom of Pool A, today's match was about obtaining a good position outside of the Semi-finals.

Japan had most of the possession at the beginning though Argentina were able to create more scoring opportunites, finding two short corners through Paredes and M. Vila.

Japan found the opening goal in the 7th minute in perhaps their first good chance of the match. A Ito, wide open in the D, received a pass from Tsoubouchi in the middle, and had no problem finding his target. Just 5 minutes later, Yoshida missed his opportunity to extend Japan's lead with a penalty stroke.

In the minutes to follow, Japan was clearly the stronger team. However, Argentina were still able to take the lead before half time. Paredes, first, played the ball in to M. Vila in the D, who was able to find the equaliser from his second shot on goal. Then, after just 3 minutes, R. Vila was able to deflect the shot from a short corner into the back of the net.

So, Argentina went into half time in the lead, despite barely finding a way into the match through much of the first half.

The Japanese, again, started the second half as the more aggressive of the two teams. They duly found their equaliser in the 44th minute with captain Ozawa's reverse hit to the bottom left corner of the goal.

However, the Argentinians were able to regain their lead after just 3 minutes when Cammareri was able to pick up the deflection from Orozca's strike from the short corner, and push it over the line.

Japan now looked for another equaliser, keeping Argentina on the defensive. They found it in the 61st minute after a short corner. Ozarwa's initial hit was saved by the keeper Vivaldi, but the deflection found Tsoubouchi on the right post, who guided the ball into the goal.

With both teams hungry to win this match, each fought for possession in the last 10 minutes. Japan failed to capitalise on two short corners but finally found their winning goal in the 69th minute, and deservedly so. Kawakami passed to A. Ito in the middle who took two attempts to beat Vivaldi on the goal line.

With a good performance in their penultimate match in the group stage, Japan really earned this victory. Though Argentina were the favourites going into this match, they could not make the most of their scoring opportunities and can, therefore, rank no higher than 5th place in pool A.