Charity match

Newly-crowned German Bundesliga champions Borussia Dortmund hosted a one-off charity match against a Japan XI on Tuesday night, raising over 1 million euros ($1.4 million) for victims of the deadly earthquake and tsunami that hit the Asian country two months ago.

In front of a 10,000-strong crowd in Duisburg, the Dortmund team featuring many of its regular stars earned a 2-1 victory over a squad made up of Japanese Bundesliga players and former German footballers who had played or coached in Japan.

The Japan team included first-league mainstays Shinji Kagawa from Dortmund, Atsuto Uchida from Schalke 04 and Makoto Hasebe from Wolfsburg, as well as German old hands such as Guido Buchwald and Michael Rummenigge. Wolfsburg assistant coach Pierre Littbarski, who played over 90 games in the Japanese league, coached the team.

But the going was tough for the Japan XI against the team that dominated this year's Bundesliga. Midfielder Markus Feulner gave Dortmund the lead after eight minutes with a nice left-foot strike, and Daniel Ginczek doubled the lead four minutes later after being set up by Damien Le Tallec.

Ten minutes before the halftime break, referee Guido Winkmann awarded a penalty to Japan XI after a foul on Stuttgart's Shinji Okazaki. Kagawa stepped up and coolly slotted the ball home to cut the deficit, but the scores stayed that way for the remainder of the match.

The 1.2 million euros raised from the match will go towards various projects in Japan, such as the reconstruction of a children's home in Tohoku-Ichinosekishi which was destroyed by the natural disaster on March 11.

Author: Darren Mara (dpa, SID)
Editor: Martin Kuebler