Ryunosuke Sato’s brace powered defending champions Japan to a 5-0 win over Syria in their AFC U23 Asian Cup 2026 Group B opener in Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, fellow East Asian side Korea and Iran settled for a goalless draw in their opening Group C match.
Japan led from start to finish with Yuto Ozeki opening their account in the first half, Sato pitching in with a superb double with Sena Ishibashi and Yutaka Michiwaki completing the emphatic win.
Japan controlled the narrative from the start with Ozeki and Sato pulling the strings in midfield with Haruta Kume seeing his shot from distance sail over the bar following a counter-attack.
The duo combined beautifully in the 10th minute to break the deadlock with Sato setting up Ozeki, who had the time and space inside a packed box to drill his shot into the bottom left corner.
Syria almost conceded again two minutes later when Kume came knocking but Maksim Sarraf was on top of his game, dropping low to deflect the Wasada University midfielder’s shot from a tight angle.
The West Asian side had a glimpse at goal in the 39th minute with Mahmoud Nayef threading a long pass to Muhannad Fadel who, however, failed to get a shot off as Japan went into the break well in control. The West Asian side ramped up the pressure in the second half with Ayham Kranbeh almost finding Hozan Osman in the 54th minute with a through ball, only to be thwarted by Ryotaro Araki, who rushed off his area to clear the danger.
Araki was put to the test again three minutes later when he kept out Fadel’s stinging shot from distance, after the ball had looped off the back of Kosuke Ogura.
Syria, however, lived dangerously at the back with Brian Nwadik forcing Sarraf to deflect his shot in the 62nd minute before seeing his glancing header sail over the bar following Yumeki Yokoyama’s cross.
The pressure was enough to force Syria into another mistake in the 66th minute when they failed to clear Shusuke Furuya’s cross into the box, leaving Sato free to finish into the bottom right corner.
Sato doubled his tally 11 minutes later following a neat buildup which saw FC Tokyo midfielder thump the ball from the edge of the area past a sprawling Sarraf.
The Japan midfielder turned provider with three minutes left, setting up substitute Ishibashi, who curled his shot past Sarraf from inside the box before Michiwaki sent the Syrian keeper the wrong way from the penalty spot in stoppage time to complete the win.
Japan meet United Arab Emirates next on Saturday, while Syria take on Qatar.
Meanwhile, Korea and Iran started strongly but play soon turned scrappy, with Korea thinking they had opened the scoring in the 19th minute but midfielder Bae Hyun-seo was ruled to have scored from an offside position.
Iran could have broken the stalemate in the 35th minute but an unmarked Reza Ghandipour – with only keeper Hong Seong-min to beat – fumbled his close range header.
Lee Chan-ouk headed over the bar in the last minute of time added on as Korea Republic failed to turn their dominance into goals with Iran not having a single shot on target going into the break.
Chan-ouk again started the second half by heading over the bar from the edge of the box after latching on to a cross from Kim Do-hyun.
Korea strike force seemed unable to get their game together, with an unguarded Kim Tae-won ballooning his shot from outside the area in the 66th minute.
At the other end, Ghandipour found space in the middle of the 18-yard box but his diving header to the right was way off target before Mohammad Khalifeh pulled off a superb save from Hong Seong-Min in the dying minutes to close out the match.
