Japan defeats lackluster Nepal in Asian Games

KATHMANDU, Aug 15: Nepal has succumbed to a narrow 1-0 defeat at the hands of Japan in football at the Asian Games in Indonesia on Tuesday. 

At the Wibawa Mukti Stadium in Palembang, Nepal had to face a defeat after Japan’s Kaoru Mitoma scored his side’s goal in the seventh minute of the match, and Nepal failed to equalize after that. 

Japan had fielded all the players under the age of 21, while Nepal had fielded U-23 players along with the senior players: captain Kiran Kumar Limbu, Bishal Rai and Rohit Chand. 

After getting a goal down within the first half, Nepal tried to squeeze through the Japanese backline, but failed to get past the team. Japan had kept Nepal under pressure throughout the game which made Nepal play defensively, and the team failed to create chances with the goal. 

In the first match of Group D, Nepal created only one chance, while Japan had 13. Japan’s youth team kept Nepal under the wire throughout the match with very little efforts, giving Nepal no chance at all to come back to the game. 

With the win, Japan is the second with three points as Vietnam beat Pakistan 3-0 to go to the top of the table on goal difference. 

Nepal will now take on Vietnam in its second match on Thursday to be played at the same stadium. It will also play against Pakistan in the third match of the group at the Bekasi Patriot Chandrabagha Stadium. 

Nepal had faced Japan in three previous editions, and had lost all of those matches. At the 1986 Asian Games in South Korea, Nepal lost 5-0, while it was defeated by the same scoreline at the 1992 Asian Games in Thailand. Nepal had also lost in the 2014 Asian Games in South Korea 4-0.  After completing a 10-day training camp in Thailand, Nepal had left for Indonesia. Nepal played two practice matches against an A-Division club of Thailand, and the Thailand U-23 team. 

Nepal has not reached beyond the first round of the Asian Games so far having played 12 games and losing all of them. Nepal made its debut in the tournament on 1982, which was the only time when Nepal scored a goal. Nepal has conceded 52 goals in a total of four editions it has played in the past 36 years.