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The Japanese national team will begin preparations for their 2010 World Cup with a friendly against Venezuela on February 2.

Venezuela haven’t qualified for the Cup, but Japan manager Takeshi Okada feels it would be a good test as “teams from South America always approach matches wanting to win”. and also added that the game “will help toughen Japan up”.

Japanese players celebrate their goal

Right now Japan have no more friendlies in store, however, they will face China, Hong Kong and South Korea at the East Asian Championships in February.

Japan’s Asian counterparts- South Korea have left an option open to include veteran striker Ahn Jung-Hwan in next year’s World Cup.

Coach Huh has also stated that another veteran from the 2002 World Cup, Lee Chun-Soo may also get a chance. Huh said:

“Ahn Jung-Hwan and Lee Chun-Soo will not be ignore. They have much experience between them. The players are special assets to Korean football. They’re players who can adjust and do their share of work even if they are called upon later. They are still on the reserve list.”

Ahn, is famous for scoring a golden goal against Italy at the 2002 World Cup. Lee, also a key part of that South Korean team, currently plays his club football at Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia.

India U-23 have managed to book a place in the SAFF finals which is to be held on Sunday, versus Maldives.

The young Indian squad beat Bangladesh 1-0 on Friday, thanks to skipper Sushil Kumar Singh’s goal, scored in the 63rd minute. India started the game well and created a lot of chances, the earliest being in the second minute.

The Bangladeshi’s got their act together in the second half and added pressure on the Indian defense. But were unable to deal the final blow.  The home supporters were getting highly frustrated and started throwing bottles at the Indians.

India now face Maldives in the final, which is a repeat of last year. India managed to win the trophy, but Maldives are in devastating form beating Sri Lanka 5-1 in the second semi-final.

The Indian U-23 team have qualify into the semi-finals of the SAFF Champions Cup,being played in Bangladesh.

India managed to win over an in-form Nepali team. The Indian team just needed to win another match to qualify to the last four.  Whereas Nepal needed to win to stay alive in the tournament.

The Indian team performance was similar to the one against Afghanistan, where they couldn’t put together decent passes, but of course both teams were struggling in the start.

The only goal of the match came when  Robert Lalthamuana took a  free kick, but it was too close to the keeper. However, the Nepali defender Malla mistimed his jump and guided the ball into his own net, giving India the lead.

The Nepalese increase their attacks but like Afghanistan couldn’t get their finishing in place and were quite unlucky in some attacks.

The game went into a hibernating state as both teams struggled to make any clear opportunity to score. Nepal had most of the possession but still did not manage shots on target. Indians on the other hand already seemed content defending the lead rather than go for a second. Making a positive move though, Sukhwinder Singh brought on Jeje, the man who scored the winner against Afghanistan.

The Nepali’s played really well, stringing some beautiful attacks but didn’t manage to break the young Indian defense.

India 1-0 Afghanistan

India U-23 took on Afghanistan in the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship at the BangaBandhu National Stadium, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

India have won the tournament 4 times already and are favourites this time round as well, but are fielding their U-23 squad this year.

India hadn’t created as many chances as Afghanistan in their opening game of this year’s tournament. Both teams ended on 0-0 at half time and were struggling to keep the ball.

Afghanistan put together better chances as compared to India, in the second half. The Afghani’s looked strong contenders to upset India.

Skipper Sushil missed some really good opportunities to put India ahead. The passing by the Indian squad got better as the game progressed but were physically less capable than their Afghani counterparts.

Je Je came to the rescue for India, scoring in the 85th minute. The 18-year-old, Pune FC player came on as a substitute and made a world of difference for India in their attack.

Afghanistan will be mortified with themselves, they played really well and could have easily won the game, or at least deserved a draw. But they were not able to convert their opportunites. Afghanistan had a penalty shout early in the match but the referee didn’t agree to their appeals. Later in added time, the Afghani’s had another decent opportunity but were unable to finish the job off.

The Indian youngsters have shown they have the ability, but we’ll have to wait and see how they perform against the tournament favourites, Maldives, in their match coming up on December 7th, 2009.

Pohang Steelers have won the AFC Champions League, defeating Al Ittihad 2-1 in the finals held in the National Stadium in Tokyo.

Al Ittihad had a string of chances in the first half but didn’t manage to take the lead. The Steelers weren’t able to match Al Ittihad in the first 45.

However, after the break the South Korean Club started playing much better and took the lead through Byung-Jun’s free-kick in the 57th minute. They added another from a set piece, Kim Hyung-Il headed home from a free-kick.

Al Ittihad pulled one back in the 74th when skipper Mohammed Noor netted the ball in. The Koreans kept trying to add to the lead but missed a few chances. In added time Al Ittihad had at least 3 takes at a free-kick; two Pohang players were booked for charging towards the ball during the free-kick, but the 3 takes also didn’t help Al Ittihad to equalize.