Japan Goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima Believes Japan Are Constantly Improving

Japan goalkeeper says Japan are "growing game by game".
Eiji Kawashima believes that Japan's dramatic fight-back against Qatar, a game in which they trailed the hosts on two occasions and went on to win 3-2 with a dramatic late winner when they were down to ten men, shows that their young side is improving at a dramatic rate.

Alberto Zaccheroni's side ended the game with only ten men, after Maya Yoshida was shown two yellow cards, and were still able to progress. Kawashima believes that trailing the game with ten men made the game difficult, and was very proud of his compatriots for winning the game in such adverse circumstances.

“It was difficult because we lost the first goal to them, and that made it tough, then we lost a player with the red card but we were able to play as a team and it was really good that we could win.

“It was a really tough game but it was good that we won. We had a red card also against Syria and it happened again today. Playing with 10 players is really tough but it was so good that we have won this kind of game.”

Kawashima believes that it was the maturity and patience of the young side that ultimately led to the win.

“After we lost one player and we lost one goal we didn’t rush and we all were calm and we all knew what we had to do,” he says. “That was the reason we could do what we did.

“In this Asian Cup we are playing with a young team and we have to grow up game-by-game. We have to continue to show that.”

The victory took Japan to the semi-finals, where they will face the winner of the match between Australia and Iraq.