Zi Rong's Personal Blog

Sunday, August 01, 2004

Exciting Penalty Shootout

The penalty shootout of the Japan-Jordan match was pure excitment. The match ended 1-1 even after extra-time and went into penalty shootout.

The first penalty was taken by a Japanese and shocked the entire stadium. He kicked the ball over the crossbar, just like how David Beckham kicked it during the Euro 2004 Q-Finals. Jordan scored their first penalty and were 1-0 up.

To everyone's surprise, Japan beckhamed their second penalty too! It was amazing, incredible and shocking. The Japanese captain argued and requested for a change of sides to take the penalties. His request was granted by the referee.

This time, Japan was not to be denied. They scored all their remaining penalties except for one which was saved by the Jordanian keeper. The jinx was now on Jordan. Jordan missed 3 penalties, either hitting the post or missed completely. The Japanese keeper pulled off two magnificent one-handed saves to put the Japanese through to the Semi-Finals of the Asian Cup.

You all should watch the re-telecast of the Jordan-Japan match, the penalty shootout is incredibly dramatic!

Japan will face Bahrain next, and China hosts Iran in the Semi Finals.
I predict the Final match to be Japan vs China. Good luck to all the four remaining teams, may the best team win the tournament. :)

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