Milan Macala finally coached a side to victory over Japan after five attempts. (AFP)

MANAMA - Bahrain coach Milan Macala was delighted to finally get the better of Japan as his side claimed a 1-0 victory on Wednesday to go top of Group Two in the Asian qualifiers for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Aala Hubail’s header 13 minutes from time sealed a memorable win for the home side at the Bahrain National Stadium and gave the Czech his first win in five attempts against the three-time Asian Cup winners.
Macala coached Saudi Arabia when they were trounced 4-1 at the 2000 Asian Cup and was in charge of Oman for three 1-0 losses in 2004 in the Asian Cup and World Cup 2006 qualifiers.

“After this game, I’m very happy because this, personally, is my fifth match against Japan and we have previously lost all of the games,” said Macala.

“We finally beat Japan today but it was very, very tough. I saw some very good moments from our side while Japan had nothing.

“At half-time, I told our players to be careful because both sides were waiting for their moment.

“The most important thing for us is the final result and I’m very happy that we scored the winning goal.

“It was very difficult but our players worked very hard for 90 minutes and now we’ve got six points.

“We cannot say we have already qualified because we still have a long way to go but having six points is a very good beginning.”

Takeshi Okada was disappointed to see his team suffer their first defeat in his second spell as Japan’s national coach.

“I feel very disappointed because it into the worst situation I could have imagined,” said the 51-year-old.

“I knew that anything could happen when it was still goalless midway through the second half, and I wanted to avoid that. However, we went into that situation and gave up the goal on a mistake.

Despite the setback, Okada remains confident Japan can continue along the road to a fourth consecutive appearance at the World Cup.

“It is a disappointing result but this is an away game and we can still win at home.

“The World Cup qualifiers will carry on and we still have time and I believe that we are still capable of qualifying.

“I’ve learnt many things about our players from today’s game and even if we had won or drawn today, we would still have to win at home anyway in our remaining games.”