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Both Indonesia and Japan were in action for the second time in the qualification, and a significant result from the other match in this group, played the evening before, was Hong Kong 1, North Korea 2. This saw to that a win for either of today’s combatants meant they would be joining the Koreans atop the group with four fixtures left.

Japan had failed to see off Hong Kong earlier in the week, and were surely realizing that they were once again up against home opposition which would receive plenty of vocal support from their fans, meaning that they would need to maximize their effort to return back home with both points. For Indonesia to have drawn against North Korea a week earlier had been a terrific result, and they must have felt optimistic ahead of the visit of the Japanese select.

Indonesia (4-5-1)

Player	Notes	Age	Club
1 Eddy Harto		27	KTB Palembang
3 Jaya Hartono		25	Petrokimia Putra
6 Robby Darwis		24	Kelantan
9 Ricky Yacobi		26	Arseto Solo
10 Jessie Mustamu		26
11 I Made Pasek Wijaya		19	Pelita Jaya
12 Maman Suryaman		25
13 Mustaqim	sub 61′	24
14 Rully Nere		32	Persipura Jayapura
15 Herry Kiswanto		34	KTB Palembang
18 Lubis Hamdani

Substitutes
8 Agusman Riyadi	on 61′

Manager: Nirwan Bakrie

Japan (3-5-2)

Player	Notes	Age	Club
1 Shigetatsu Matsunaga (c)		26	Yokohama Marinos
2 Katsuyoshi Shinto		28	Mazda
5 Tetsuji Hashiratani		24	Nissan Motors
6 Takumi Horiike		23	Yomiuri
7 Masami Ihara	45+1′	21	Yokohama Marinos
9 Masaaki Mori		27	Fujita Industries
10 Masanao Sasaki		26	Honda
13 Satoru Mochizuki		25	Nippon Kokan
16 Mitsunori Yoshida		27	Júbilo Iwata
17 Osamu Maeda	sub 82′	23	Yokohama Marinos
23 Kenta Hasegawa	sub 86′	23	Nissan Motors

Substitutes
8 Takashi Mizunuma	on 81′	29	Yokohama Marinos
21 Hiroshi Kurosaki	on 86′	21	Honda

Manager: Kenzo Yokoyama

Tactical line-ups

Match report

First half:

While we do not have any information on the attendance figure for Indonesia’s opening qualifier the previous weekend, the Jakarta national stadium is pretty well populated for the visit of Japan. The number is given as 80 000, although the arena was said to hold in excess of 100 000 at the time. Since our video from the game has no display of all corners of the stands, we can’t verify the figure. There is no reason not to find it credible, as views of some of the sections reveal how well populated they are.

Indonesia’s manager Nirwan Bakrie had decided to go with precisely the same eleven starters as last time around. Unfortunately, we do not possess any video material from the 0-0 draw against North Korea. Bakrie was said to run a pretty organized and strict regime for the national team players, and later in the year, they would go on and win the football tournament of the South East Asian Games, on that occasion held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for the sixth time in seven attempts since 1977. However, to have to make do without ‘the Indonesian Maradona’, Zulkarnain Lubis, must have been a set-back to the management team. Still, the select contained players who appear to have been held in very high regard at the time.

Japan had hardly impressed in their qualification opener in Hong Kong, and a draw had been just about the fitting result six days earlier. Their manager, Kenzo Yokoyama, had made to changes to his starting eleven, with defender Tomoyuki Kajino and midfielder Kasumi Oenoki giving way to Katsuyoshi Shinto and Satoru Mochizuki respectively. They retained their 3-5-2 formation. Were they to retain a serious hope of making it through to the final qualification round, they could certainly not afford a defeat here.