Japan Ends Woeful Run Against Paraguay

Japan claimed its first victory of the year on Tuesday, coming from behind to beat Paraguay 4-2 and boost sagging morale a week before its opening World Cup Group H match against Colombia.

It was The Blue Samurai’s first win under coach Akira Nishino, who had lost friendlies against Ghana and Switzerland since taking over in April, Reuters reported.

Japan, one of the most successful Asian teams, having qualified for the World Cup for a sixth consecutive time, scored four times despite managing only three shots against Paraguay, which failed to reach the World Cup finals.

Takashi Inui set up the victory at the Tivoli-Neu stadium in the Austrian city of Innsbruck with two second-half goals, both assisted by Shinji Kagawa. Paraguay’s Federico Santander scored an own goal and Kagawa put the result beyond doubt with a stoppage-time effort.

“We held our shape in defense and contained them, and that was a concern for us, but you need balance as well,” Nishino said after his team ended a five-match winless streak, stretching back to December. “You need to break down your opponents and we finally did that in the second half.

 “Inui has a talent for dribbling in the box and I want more of that from him. We saw that with his second-half goals,” he added.

Fellow Group H side Poland ended its World Cup warm up fixtures on a high with a resounding 4-0 win over Lithuania as talismanic striker Robert Lewandowski netted twice in the first half.

The 29-year-old skipper took his tally to 55 international goals and also scored for the 36th time in 37 Poland games under coach Adam Nawalka.

Dawid Kownacki and Jakub Blaszczykowski were also on target for the Poles at Stadion Narodowy in Warsaw.

Poland begins its Group H campaign in Moscow against Senegal next Tuesday.

World soccer’s governing body FIFA announced on Tuesday that Argentine referee Nestor Pitana will take charge of Thursday’s opening World Cup match between host Russia and Saudi Arabia in Moscow.