AINO, Shizuoka Pref. -- A confident Japan team cruised past Australia 3-0 Wednesday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium to take the inaugural AFC/OFC Challenge Cup between the champions of Asia and Oceania.
Goals from Atsushi Yanagisawa, Toshihiro Hattori and Masashi Nakayama delighted the 46,404 fans watching the first international match at the new World Cup stadium.
On a hot and humid night, Australia found it difficult to match the fitness and finesse of the Japanese players and rarely looked liked breaking down the excellent defensive trio of Naoki Matsuda, Ryuzo Morioka and Koji Nakata.