Soccer-Japan made to sweat for 1-0 win over UAE

Mike Havenaar spared Japan's blushes with a 69th-minute winner to give the Asian champions a 1-0 victory over the United Arab Emirates in a World Cup qualifying warm-up game on Thursday.

The Dutch-based forward powered home a close-range header from Yuichi Komano's cross just when the Japanese appeared to be running out of ideas in front of 42,000 in Niigata.

Midfielder Keisuke Honda blazed just over with barely a minute gone, but that was close as Japan got in a hugely disappointing performance until Havenaar's winner.

Shinji Kagawa was hauled off at halftime after annoying coach Alberto Zaccheroni with one too many stepovers, the last of which left him in a heap as he tripped over his own feet. Japan's big-name midfielders were overshadowed by frizzy-haired playmaker Omar Abdulrahman, the 20-year-old at the heart of the away side's best moves.

Captain Makoto Hasegawa and Honda were also substituted
early ahead of Tuesday's World Cup qualifier against Iraq in Saitama.