Japan scored a late equalizer to salvage a 2-2 draw with the Netherlands in their group opener at the men’s soccer World Cup.<\/p>\n
Japan’s squad, 18th in the world ranking, took on the top-tier team on Sunday at Dallas Stadium in the southern US state of Texas.<\/p>\n
The Dutch, ranked eighth, have finished runner-up three times in past World Cup tournaments, while Japan’s squad is said to be the strongest ever in its history, and is aiming to win the title.<\/p>\n
Japan was put under constant pressure from the outset, with Donyell Malen threatening to score. But goalkeeper Suzuki Zion made a brilliant save, and the first half ended in the goalless draw.<\/p>\n
In the 51st minute, Japan fell behind after the Netherlands captain Virgil van Dijk scored on a header. But six minutes later, Nakamura Keito tied the game with a right-footed strike from outside the penalty area.<\/p>\n
Japan then allowed the Netherlands to take the lead again in the 64th minute, when forward Crysencio Summerville netted a goal with a close-range shot.<\/p>\n
But Japan equalized in the 89th minute. A corner kick was met by substitute Ogawa Koki’s header, which deflected in off Kamada Daichi to earn a 2-2 draw.<\/p>\n
Japan failed to start the tournament with a win for a third consecutive World Cup. But the squad showed its resilience. The team came from behind twice against the Netherlands to secure a point with the draw.<\/p>\n
Japan will face Tunisia, 45th in the rankings, in the second group stage match on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japan scored a late equalizer to salvage a 2-2 draw with the Netherlands in their group opener at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7569,9035,1057,9037,6,131,9036,9040,9041,9042,9039,2375,9038,9043,3547,612],"class_list":["post-22789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-netherlands","tag-asia","tag-biz","tag-japan","tag-japan-broadcasting-corporation","tag-netherlands","tag-news","tag-nhk","tag-nhk-world","tag-nhk-world-premium","tag-nhk-world-tv","tag-nhkworld","tag-nuclear","tag-public-broadcaster","tag-radio-japan","tag-tech","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}