The Melbourne Rectangular Stadium for this match. It was a warm and balmy night and the sky was black by the end of the match. Pre-match there was some entertainment from the Wadaiko Rindo Japanese drumming group in the park. Entering the stadium itself proved a challenge as there was a large section on the southern side that was fenced off. Once inside there were people streaming in looking for their seats. Among them a number of Jordan fans banging on Arabic drums. Lo and behold, they were seated in the same area. In fact, they were seated directly in front of the Jordanian drumming squad and for the next two hours were treated to a display of drumming that did not convince everybody of its musicality. A young boy was encouraged by family and friends to maintain the beat throughout the whole match. When the players came out Honda was in his usual position at the back of the team. The crowd stood up for the anthems and it was game time. The hoardings around the ground bearing the names of the various sponsors mostly bore the names of big Japanese companies. Likewise most of the media contingent wore fluorescent jackets with the name NIKON emblazoned on the back. In the first half, which like the second half was dominated by Japan, the Jordanian goalkeeper encouraged the fans to keep up the drumming as they took a free kick at the other end. It didn't help. At the end of the first half it was Japan 1 to Jordan 0 courtesy of Honda. The Japanese had been denied a second goal by an off-side ruling.
The second half was tighter but essentially the Japanese maintained control of the game through clever passing and an ability to thread the ball through a fairly packed defence. They scored a second goal but were again ruled off-side for what would have been a second gaol for Honda. There was quite a lot of frustration on the pitch and a number of yellow cards were given out for pushing, tripping and jumper pulling. At one point Honda received the ball for a free kick disputed by the Jordanians but he stood his ground moving the ball around with his feet as two Jordanian players tried to take it off him. When the referee blew the whistle for play he calmly passed it off and trotted into position. Likewise, when play stopped for another foul he again stood his ground and watched as his team mates gathered elsewhere on the filed waiting for play to resume.
At the end of the match, the Japanese team made their way to where the large media contingent were standing behind the goal bowing to both the fans and the media. Some of the Japanese fans in the stands bowed back. Filing out of the stadium was easy enough until the aisles all joined up in one clogged corridor leading to the exit towards the M.C.G.. The crowd streamed out into the night and there were joyous scenes as Japanese fans in the team uniform with the names of players present and past on their backs such as Nakata, Honda, Endo and Ono, embraced each other. The lights were still on at the tennis. God knows what they had made of all the drumming, not to mention the trumpet playing!
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