Head coach Yutaka Ikeuchi was impressed by the performance of hat-trick hero Takumi Miyayoshi in Japan's 6-1 hammering of the UAE.TASHKENT – Coach Yutaka Ikeuchi lauded the performance of hat-trick hero Takumi Miyayoshi after the striker helped Japan book their place in the last eight of the AFC Under-16 Championship with a convincing 6-1 win over UAE at MHSK stadium.
Miyayoshi scored the first three goals in Tuesday’s Group D encounter before Tatsuya Uchida and Kenyu Sugimoto, who notched a double, completed the scoring for Japan. UAE’s consolation goal came courtesy of Fahad Salim’s spot-kick.
Ikeuchi, however, was full of praise for Miyayoshi’s display.
"Miyayoshi scored wonderful goals today and he had a nice game," he said.
"Miyayoshi made his debut earlier this year in the J.League and that's why he scored such wonderful goals.
"He was on target in the previous match after coming on as a sub so I decided to give him a chance in order to see his performance and he showed his true talent in the game.”
Ikeuchi also had words of encouragement for midfielder Takashi Usami who was the architect behind four of Japan's six goals and produced an impressive performance.
"Usami had a wonderful game as well today," added Ikeuchi.
"He is a skillful player and he has a lot of ability and we tried to use his talent, which has improved recently having trained with a J.League team."
UAE assistant coach Salem Al Arfi admitted his side were unable to cope with the powerful attacking style of Japan but also lamented the chances spurned by his own charges at crucial moments during the game.
"Japan are a very strong team and they play great football," said Al Arfi.
"They have a strong and coherent squad as they have played together for more than three or four years.
"There is no doubt that the defeat is heavy but we had some chances when we were 2-0 behind and things could have been different if our striker scored from these chances," he added.
"We were optimistic that we could put in a good performance before the game but we had some problems as one of the players couldn't play due to the fact he was ineligible while we had two injured players who also missed the game."
Source:The AFC.com
