Socceroos face Japanese challenge
The Socceroos good defensive record at this year's Asian Cup tournament will be tested by the Japanese side who have failed to score more than one goal just once.
The Socceroos have only conceded one goal and that was against South Korea in one-all draw.
For the Japanese they have scored two or more goals in every match apart from the one-all draw against Jordan in the group stages.
This will be the first time the two teams meet in an Asian Cup final but the teams met in the group stages of the 2007 tournament where the match finished one-all.
Japan has been involved in three Asian Cup finals and won in every instance and now they face a tough challenge against the Socceroos who would like to win on their first attempt.
Meanwhile South Korea finished third after beating Uzbekistan 3-2 in the third playoff match.
Its the second consecutive tournament that the South Koreans have won the bronze medal.
Here is some of the stats for Australia and Japan so far:
| Australia | Japan | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Played | 5 | 5 | |||
| Drawn | 1 | 1 | |||
| Won | 4 | 4 | |||
| Lost | 0 | 0 | |||
| Clean sheets | 4 | 1 | |||
| Failed to score | 0 | 0 | |||
| Goals scored | 13 | 13 | |||
| Goals conceded | 1 | 6 | |||
| 1st half goals scored | 6 | 6 | |||
| 2nd half goals scored | 7 | 7 | |||
| 1st half goals conceded | 1 | 3 | |||
| 2nd half goals conceded | 0 | 3 | |||
| Biggest win | Uzbekistan 0 - 6 Australia | Saudi Arabia 0 - 5 Japan | |||
| Biggest loss | No loss | No loss | |||
| Scored 3 or more | 2 | 2 | |||
| Conceded 3 or more | 0 | 0 | |||
| Scored 5 or more | 1 | 1 | |||
| Conceded 5 or more | 0 | 0 | |||
| Asian Cup Finals | |||||
| Played | 0 | 3 | |||
| Drawn | 0 | 0 | |||
| Won | 0 | 3 | |||
| Lost | 0 | 0 | |||
| Season | Round | Team | Goals | Team | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007/8 | 4 | Japan | 1 | Australia | 1 |
delicious | 
diggThe Socceroos should easily beat Japan. The Japanese defence is not that good, very leaky. Go Socceroos!
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I think its going to be a close match because Japan are a good team and they have shown that they can come from behind and win matches. Socceroos been good this far but I think they have to be a bit better to beat Japan. Will see
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