In a game of two contrasting halves, Japan and Italy played to a 1-1 draw in an international soccer friendly in front of 61,833 spectators at the Saitama Stadium 2002 on Wednesday night.
Japan, playing its favored 4-4-2 formation, surprisingly left star player Hidetoshi Nakata on the bench to begin the game.
The way Japan started, it seemed as though he wasn't missed. Against its more fancied opponent whose goalkeeper, Gianluigi Buffon, cost twice as much as the value of the entire Japan squad, the locals opened the scoring in the 10th minute through Atsushi Yanagisawa.