On Sunday 10 November, the U-18 Japan National Team played their third match in Group J of the AFC U-19 Championship 2020 Qualification, where the team drew 0-0 against the U-18 Vietnam National Team. With this result, Japan finished the qualification round in first place, earning their spot into the AFC U-19 Championship Uzbekistan 2020, which will serve as the qualifiers for the U-20 World Cup.

With the two undefeated teams facing head to head, the highly anticipated match attracted over 3,000 fans to the stadium. The match kicked off under a completely away atmosphere for Japan, but the squad showcased great aggression from the start. An early chance was created in the third minute, when KATO Hijiri carried the ball upfront before releasing the ball to AYUKAWA Shun, who delivered a cross to SOMENO Itsuki, but the header struck by Someno missed the target. While Japan continued to seek for their opportunities by moving the ball around, Vietnam did well to block off the goal area and denied the Japanese players from creating major threats. In the 30th minute, Vietnam came close to taking the lead, when they broke through the right side from a counterattack and struck a powerful shot. Japanese goalkeeper, KOKUBO Leobrian, made a superb save to keep the score intact, as both sides displayed an intense battle to end the first half scoreless......

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