On Monday evening, the Laos U20 soccer team played its second match against Japan at the national football stadium in Vientiane and was defeated with a score of 0-4.
Since the start of the game, according to the coach’s instructions, the Lao team stuck to their own side of the field, keen on doing a counter-attack whenever possible. However, much to their dismay, Japan played exceedingly well and dominated the whole game, giving Laos no opportunity to even score a goal.
In the first half, Laos was mainly attacked from the left wing and failed at its first and second goal attempts because Laos’s right-back player couldn’t keep the ball from Japan’s left winger. Isa Sakamoto from the Japanese team scored the first goal in the 21st minute, and Kiku Yamane’s second one in the 44th minute.
In the second half, at the 63rd minute, Japanese player Sota Kitano made the third goal. And in just another six minutes, the fourth goal was scored by Issei Kumatoriya, which gave Japan ample advantage to win over Laos.
Lao Head Coach Michael Weiss spoke to the media about the team’s performance at the post-match press conference, “The match went as expected but I think we did play quite well. Japan punished us on the left wing, which was our right side because we didn’t close the gaps well enough.”
He acknowledged that Japan is fantastic in crossing the ball; and they scored two goals because of it.
“Going ahead, I need to make some changes in the team. For this match, I had taken out the more experienced players and gave a chance to new players, so that I get more perspective to select the best team for the next match,” he explained.
Finally, he added that Laos vs Yemen (happening today) will be the next most important match, and Lao players have to recover quickly to aim for a win.
“Hopefully, many people will come and cheer for us. If we can win that game, we will get to play the final match against Palestine. That’s our target,” he concluded.
