SOCCER - LATE GOALS GIVE JAPAN WIN OVER SYRIA .
AL-AIN , United Arab Emirates 1996-12-06
Two goals in the last six minutes gave holders Japan an uninspiring 2-1 Asian Cup victory over Syria on Friday .
Takuya Takagi headed the winner in the 88th minute of the group C game after goalkeeper Salem Bitar spoiled a mistake-free display by allowing the ball to slip under his body .
It was the second Syrian defensive blunder in four minutes .
Defender Hassan Abbas rose to intercept a long ball into the area in the 84th minute but only managed to divert it into the top corner of Bitar 's goal .
Syria had taken the lead from their first serious attack in the seventh minute .
Nader Jokhadar headed a cross from the right by Ammar Awad into the top right corner of Kenichi Shimokawa 's goal .
Japan then laid siege to the Syrian penalty area and had a goal disallowed for offside in the 16th minute .
A minute later , Bitar produced a good double save , first from Kazuyoshi Miura 's header and then blocked a Takagi follow-up shot .
Bitar saved well again from Miura in the 37th minute , parrying away his header from a corner .
Japan started the second half brightly but Bitar denied them an equaliser when he dived to his right to save Naoki Soma 's low drive in the 53rd minute .
Japan : 19 - Kenichi Shimokawa , 2 - Hiroshige Yanagimoto , 3 - Naoki Soma , 4 - Masami Ihara , 5 - Norio Omura , 6 - Motohiro Yamaguchi , 8 - Masakiyo Maezono ( 7 - Yasuto Honda 71 ) , 9 - Takuya Takagi , 10 - Hiroshi Nanami , 11 - Kazuyoshi Miura , 15 - Hiroaki Morishima ( 14 - Masayuki Okano 75 ) .
Syria : 24 - Salem Bitar , 3 - Bachar Srour ; 4 - Hassan Abbas , 5 - Tarek Jabban , 6 - Ammar Awad ( 9 - Louay Taleb 69 ) , 8 - Nihad al-Boushi , 10 - Mohammed Afash , 12 - Ali Dib , 13 - Abdul Latif Helou ( 17 - Ammar Rihawiy 46 ) , 14 - Khaled Zaher ; 16 - Nader Jokhadar .