Uzbekistan 1 - North Korea 0; Japan 4 - Tajikistan 0

Tajikistan came home looking to flip the script on Japan after having lost 8-0 against Japan in their previous meeting. The pitch in Dushanbe was balding in many places, so the lack of a smooth surface seemed to slow down the Japanese playing style for the first half hour or so. The impetus to break the deadlock came from left back Yasuyuki Konno (pictured, blue). Konno slid tackled a ball away from a Tajikistan player and started a break up the left side of the pitch. Konno followed the play though he was never involved on the attack. Eventually, a shot was fired, and Konno alerted put away the rebound for his first career goal for the Blue Samurai. The half ended at 1-0, but Japan were supremely confident of adding more.

In the next forty-five minutes, Japan showed their superiority. Shinji Okazaki notched a brace on the second and fourth goals with the third coming from Ryoichi Maeda. The final strike came from Okazaki in stoppage time, resulting in a muted celebration. Japan win 4-0. After the match, Japan waited for the result in Tashkent to see if they had clinched advancement.

Uzbekistan played host to North Korea in Tashkent knowing that a win over their visitors would give them an early ticket to the next phase of Asian qualifying. Per their modus operandi, North Korea sat back and defending, waiting to spring a counterattack that never came. Uzbekistan were unable to break the North Koreans down before the halftime whistle, which blew with the score 0-0.

Four minutes into the half, and Alexandr Geynrikh corner kick found the head of Timur Kapadze who redirected the ball for the match's only goal. Uzbekistan, who have scored exactly one goal in each of their four matches, win the match 1-0 over North Korea. As a result of today's action in Group C, Tajikistan and North Korea find themselves eliminated as Japan and Uzbekistan have successfully navigated their way into the AFC Fourth Round.

Japan 10 pts - IN

Uzbekistan 10 pts - IN
North Korea OUT
Tajikistan OUT

Goals:

Japan

Yasuyuki Konno 36

Shinji Okazaki 61, 90+2

Ryoichi Maeda 82

Uzbekistan

Timur Kapadze 49

Match Reports:

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=1541127/index.html

http://news.bostonherald.com/sports/soccer/general/view.bg?articleid=1380166

http://uza.uz/en/sport/2264/

Match Highlights:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaNzgTARyog (Japan v. Tajikistan)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tjNAWjvHGFM (Uzbekistan v. North Korea)