June 18, 2006
FEELING THE HEAT
Japan, Croatia play to scoreless draw

NUREMBERG, Germany -- Under the oppresive Nuremberg heat and humidily, Japan and Croatia played to a scoreless tie at Franken-Stadion Sunday.

Both teams earned their first points in Group F, but Japan is in dire straits as they play Brazil in their final first-round match Thursday. Although they wasted a chance, Croatia can still advance with a win over Australia providing the Aussies also lose to Brazil.

If Croatia fails to make the second round, they can point back to the 21st minute Sunday when Japanese captain Tsuneyasu Miayamota tripped up Dado Prso in the box, prompting Belgium referee Frank De Bleeckere to point to the spot.

Darijo Srna stepped up to take the penalty kick but Japanese goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi dived to his left and got a hand on Srna's shot, pushing it away and keeping the game scoreless.

Six minutes later Croatia saw another chance slip away as Niko Kranjcar put the ball off the crossbar.

In the 51st minute, Japan should have gone up 1-0 with the ball at Atsushi Yanagisawa's feet in front of goal. But he flubbed his attempt at the open goal and put it wide.

With both teams exhausted, each had an opportunity in the final 10 minutes, but second half sub Ivica Olic rolled the ball wide of the far post in the 81st minute. And one minute from full time, Alex put a ball across the face of goal that was cleared away for a corner kick.

Japan
Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi; Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Alessandro Santos, Akira Kaji, Yuji Nakazawa; Hidetoshi Nakata, Mitsuo Ogasawara, Shunsuke Nakamura, Takashi Fukunishi (Junichi Inamoto-45); Naohiro Takkahara (Massachi Oguro-84), Atsushi Yanagisawa (Keiji Tamada-60).

Croatia
Stipe Pletikosa; Josip Simunic, Robert Kovac, Igor Tudor (Ivica Olic-69), Dario Simic; Darijo Srna (Ivan Bosnjak-86), Marko Babic, Niko Kovac, Niko Kranjcar (Luka Modric-77).

Goals
None

Discipline
Japan -- Tsuneyasu Miyamoto (yellow card) 21
Croatia -- Robert Kovac (yellow card) 32
Japan -- Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi (yellow card) 42
Croatia -- Darijo Srna (yellow card) 69
Japan -- Alessandro Santos (yellow card) 72

Attendance -- 41,000