AUSTRALIA-JAPAN: Coaches' Quotes

12 June 2006

Guus HIDDINK (AUS)

In the end justice was done in this game. I'm not saying this out of arrogance, but we were sure that we were capable of (coming back). This team is nice to work with because they never give up, and this team tried to play good football. ZICO (JPN)
We did not do anything after taking the lead, but we had two clear scoring chances on the counterattack. However, if you do not put the ball in at one end, you sometimes concede a goal at the other. The way Australia turned the game on its head is hard to take.
Australia switched their formation to three up front and we could not win any second balls. I put (Shinji) Ono on in the second half thinking the trio of (Hidetoshi) Nakata, (Shunsuke) Nakamura and Ono could be effective but it did not work out.
We wasted a great opportunity. We had our chances but it was so hot today, which didn't help. It was 38 degrees but we lost concentration at a critical point and it cost us.