Ghana’s senior male team ‘B’, the local Black Stars suffered a 3-0 thrashing at the hands of Japan’s Olympic team Wednesday.
The international friendly themed the “MS&AD Cup 2016” took place at the Best Amenity Stadium in Tosu to raise funds for victims of the Kumamoto earthquakes that happened last month.
A strong display from the Japan Under-23s in the opening half hour had the coach Maxwell Konadu side trail by three goals.
Winger Shinya Yajima opened the scoring as early as the 11th minute with a classy volley past Wa All Stars goalkeeper Richard Ofori.
GOOOOOAL!!
11' Shinya Yajima
U23 Japan 1-0 Ghana pic.twitter.com/lCFPYm0NMY— JLeague_special（Jリーグスペシャル） (@special_jleague) May 11, 2016
The Fagiano Okayama midfielder quickly registered his brace four minutes later as he latched onto a cross from the right.
AGAIN!!
15' Shinya Yajima
Japan 2-0 Ghana pic.twitter.com/zD3TK3Kkot— JLeague_special（Jリーグスペシャル） (@special_jleague) May 11, 2016
On 30 minutes striker Cayman Togashi was on hand to produce a delicate chip over an onrushing Ofori to record the third goal for the Samurai Blue.
GOOOOOAL!!
30' Cayman Togashi
Japan 3-0 Ghana pic.twitter.com/auJrAklBGA— JLeague_special（Jリーグスペシャル） (@special_jleague) May 11, 2016
Ghana produced only one shot on target in the opening half of the well-attended game.
The Black Stars improved their game after first half pep talks from Konadu and Avram Grant but however failed to bury the chances that came their way in the second half. Richard Arthur came close to scoring but a forced shot from in between two Japanese defenders in the penalty area just went wide.
https://twitter.com/dankai_kemari/status/730365849433997313
Before kick off, the Black Stars showed their support to the victims of the Kumamoto earthquake as they lined up to display an inscription on paper cards which read in the Japanese language as “Ganbatte Kumamoto”
Line-ups:
Ghana XI: Richard Ofori – Amos Frimpong, Abdul Bashir, Mohammed Kadri, Abdul Ganiu – Laryea Saban, Samuel Tetteh, Gockel Ahortor, Latif Blessing – Sadick Adams, Richard Arthur
Japan U-23 XI: Kushibiki; Ito, Ueda, Nara, Kamekawa; Notsuda, Hashimoto, Oshima, Yajima; Togashi, Asano