Japan team fails to score for the first time in 2026 World Cup qualifiers

Immediately after officially winning a ticket to the 2026 World Cup, the Japanese team had the idea of ​​​​keeping the players. Before the match against Saudi Arabia, coach Moriyasu also announced to change many positions and in fact he did this by putting on the field reserve factors such as Nakamura, Takai, Maeda, Tanaka...

These changes made Japan's playing style lack the connection and flexibility it had always had. They still controlled the game to the maximum, constantly pressuring their opponents, but Japan's final moves lacked any breakthroughs and when they had the chance, they could not beat the Saudi Arabia goalkeeper. Japan accepted a 0-0 draw in the first half.

Saudi Arabia only knew how to defend the whole match

In the second half, the same situation was maintained. Even Japan's attack was not as strong as in the first half when they only had one clear chance, which was Endo's shot. However, in this situation, the midfielder who plays for Liverpool was denied by the Saudi Arabia goalkeeper.

At the end of the match, Saudi Arabia seemed to not dare to attack. They just passed the ball back and forth and kicked it far away from the goal. For the West Asian representative, perhaps 1 point in Japan would be enough to satisfy them because Saudi Arabia could break away from China, Indonesia and Bahrain.

The match ended in a 0-0 draw. This was the first time in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers that Japan failed to score. But it was understandable because they had completed their goal of qualifying.

Both teams had reason to be satisfied with the 0-0 result as Japan kept their full squad for their clubs and Saudi Arabia pulled clear of their pursuers, especially given China's home defeat to Australia.

Dang Lai

Source: https://tienphong.vn/tuyen-nhat-ban-lan-dau-tien-tit-ngoi-o-vong-loai-world-cup-2026-post1728177.tpo