Aug 7, 2004, 8:25 PM

Nakata Hand Hands Japan Asian Title By Kambakhsh Khalaji

TEHRAN, August 7 (MNA) – Koji Nakata steered home a Shunsuke Nakamura corner with his hand in the 65th minute to retake the lead for Japan, which beat host China 3-1 in the tension-filled, politically-charged final showdown of the 13th Asian Cup in Beijing Saturday.

Japan scored the opener on 21 minutes when Nakamura’s diagonal free-kick was headed by Takayuki Suzuki for Takashi Fukunishi, who made no mistake and nodded in from close range.

Playing on home pitch at the Workers Stadium chockablock with over 66,000 partisan fans, China secured the parity nine minutes later as Li Ming sent a neat pass from Yan Song past Japan keeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi.

The defending champion Japan, which was booed and jeered throughout the tournament scored a controversial goal 20 minutes after the restart when Nakata used his hand as video confirmed to scoop in the ball.

Keiji Tamada poured cold water on China in injury time when he cleared the keeper in a man-to-man challenge to find the empty net.

Japan had already won the title in 1982 and 2000.

KK/IS

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MNA

News ID 7245