The Black Stars of Ghana suffered a whopping 1-4 defeat to host Japan in the Kirin Cup Tournament on Friday afternoon at the Misaki Park Stadium in Osaka, Japan.
The four-nation tournament saw the Black Stars battle out their opponent to seek a ticket to the next stage of the competition but were humbled after Japan posted four goals in their net.
The opening minutes of the game was quite exciting as both teams went head to head with each other hoping to get an early goal to take control of the game.
Japan took charge of the game with their speed play, keeping the defense of the Stars on their toes. It was Miki Yamane who found the net in the 29th minute for Japan with a beautifully placed shot to the left corner of the net leaving the goalkeeper Lawrence Ati-Zigi in a state of confusion.
Otto Addo’s charges kept their heads up despite being down by a goal sealing their defense from conceding more goals with Daniel Amartey commanding the defence as usual.
Japan were still in control of the game till Jordan Ayew took advantage of a mistake in the Japanese defense and converted it to level the score line in the 44th minute but could not celebrate for long as Kaoru Mitoma put Japan back in the lead two minutes after.
The Stars came back into the second half looking much stronger than before as they missed out some crucial chances with Ayew pushing hard to get an equalizer for his side once again.
Unfortunately for the Ghanaian side, Japan extended their lead to a two goal margin in the 73rd minute through Takefusa Kubo to put the Black Stars under intense pressure.
The host nation kept on playing the game to their satisfaction, looking strong in attack with Liverpool’s Takumi Minamino being a threat to the Ghanaian defense.
Japan’s Daizin Maeda finally sealed the score line with an easy tap-in to extend to end the game 4-1.
The Kirin Cup is a four-nation tournament with Chile, Tunisia, Japan and Ghana. The competition forms part of preparations as Ghana readies for the 2022 World Cup tournament in Qatar.
