Japan’s Ryuji Bando (right) is challenged by India’s Sanjeev Maria in Bangalore on Wednesday. (AFP)

Bangalore: India dished out a more cohesive performance than what they did in their last four matches, but that proved hardly enough to avoid a 0-3 defeat against continental giants Japan in the Asian Cup qualifiers at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium here on Wednesday.

After an erratic show in the first half when they conceded two goals, the Indians organised themselves well both in the midfield and defence to keep Japan at bay for most of the second session before the visitors struck their third goal off a booming 30-yarder by Kango Nakamura.

Having conceded 19 goals in their last four outings — including a humiliating defeat against Yemen at home — no one really expected India to perform a miracle against Japan, who won their home match 6-0 in February. And the way the Indians started, an encore looked very much on the cards.

The Japan team was effectively a second-string one as it was bereft of Europe-based players. The coach had said on Tuesday that he would prefer to concentrate on juniors, who could be useful for the 2010 World Cup qualifiers.

But even the juniors, with World Cupper Alessandro Santos taking the lead in the attack from the flanks, left the Indian defenders clueless for most of the first half.

To add to India’s woes, stopper Deepak Mondal twisted his right ankle when the match was less than 15 minutes old. Anupam Sarkar was hurried in by Indian coach Bob Houghton, whose mounting tension could be judged from the fact that he stood at the bench throughout the 90-minute period.

The Japanase then were toying with the Indian defence. At times, they were playing at least dozen passes at a time. The Indian fort looked extremely vulnerable and it was finally raided in the 22nd minute when Santos’ cross from the left was swung in by Ryuli Bando. It could have been avoided but the defence stood on the same line that left a big gap in the danger zone.

Things did not change for the rest of the first half except a minute before the lemon break when Steven Dias nearly scored for India.

Rennedy Singh sent a perfect flag kick at the goalmouth and Dias rushed in to take the opportunity. The Japan goalkeeper and skipper Yoshikatsu, another World Cup hero, displayed superb reflexes to thwart the Indian midfielder. That was the only time an enthusiastic crowd of 8000 in the stands had something to cheer about.

A couple of minutes before this, India conceded the second goal. This time, Santos floated the ball from the right and Bando’s flying header beat a diving Sandip Nandy under the bar.

Overall, Nandy had a good day in office. Time and again he came out to thwart the Japanese strikers, who looked error prone in the second session. With the Indian defence finally knitting themselves properly, the midfield too found time to concentrate on attack.

Venkatesh, who had to play a defensive role in the first session, was seen moving up to provide more passes to Bhaichung Bhutia and Manjit.

While Manjit tried his best, Bhutia was his usual self, trying to break into the box whenever he had the ball. He did manage to do it a couple of times, but was bogged down by a physically superior opponent.

TEAMS

India: Sandip Nandy; Surkumar Singh, Deepak Mondal (Anupam Sarkar, 15th), Sanjeev Maria and NS Manju; Steven Dias, S Venkatesh (Alvito D’Cunha 81) NP Pradeep and Renedy Singh; Manjit Singh (Sunil Chhetri 68) and Bhaichung Bhutia.

Japan: Yoshikatsu Santos; Alessandro Santos, Yuichi Komano and Hiroki Muzomoto (Makoto Hassebe 46); Yuki Abe, Kango Nakamura, Koita Suzuki, Satoshi Yamagishi and Yasyuki Konno; Seichiro Maki (Kazuki Ganaha 66) and Ryuji Bando (Hisato Sato 69).

Referee: Fiukeechan (Hong Kong)