by Talek Harris
JINAN, China, Aug 3 (AFP) - A superb extra-time goal from Keiji Tamada saw Japan through to the Asian Cup final as the defending champions battled back from twice going a goal behind and a controversial red card to beat minnows Bahrain 4-3.
Tamada's second of the thrilling semi-final, three minutes into extra time, came after Japan defender Yuji Nakazawa had equalised with a diving header with just seconds remaining of normal play.
The Kashiwa Reysol forward went past Mohamed Juma and Bahrain captain Faisal Abdulaziz before shrugging off defender Hussain Baba to plant a right-footed shot past keeper Ali Saeed, sparking wild celebrations on the Japan bench.
Japan now have the chance to defend their title in Saturday's final, their third in 12 years, against the winners of China and Iran who were playing in Tuesday's later game.
Japan coach Zico praised his players' persistence to come back against the odds and in the face of continued booing from members of the 32,000 crowd heckling the Japanese for war-time atrocities.
"You have to keep on playing until the final whistle. All the players have to play harder when a player gets sent off -- they did that today," said the Brazilian, adding that it was one of the most exciting matches of his career.
"I've been in soccer 40 years and I've seen some very exciting matches," said Zico, a key member of Brazil's legendary 1982 World Cup team.
"This was an exciting match."
Bahrain, population 680,000, had looked to have one foot in the final when substitute Duaij Nasser pounced for his second of the tournament with just five minutes remaining.
However, Nakazawa's header earned 10-man Japan a reprieve, allowing Tamada to finish off a roller-coaster encounter which saw the lead change hands four times.
Tournament top-scorer A'ala Hubail, who had already netted twice, went agonisingly close to taking the game to penalties but inexplicably mistimed his tap-in to an empty goal.
Bahrain coach Srecko Juricic, who has overseen a fairytale run for the unheralded Gulf side, said his "exhausted" team had been too tired to finish off the Japanese.
"We ran out of luck today," he said. "Very near the end we had the advantage 3-2 but we wasted it, so we're not happy.
"At half-time it was 1-0 and in the changing room we agreed we would go for the second goal and not to sit on our lead. But fatigue set in because our players didn't start the second half the way they had played the first.
"They only started playing again when Japan had scored two goals."
Hubail had earlier ignited an incident-packed match after burying a right-footed shot past Japan's keeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi on six minutes.
The goal stung Japan into action, with most of their moves coming through Alex Santos down the left wing. Striker Takayuki Suzuki missed an open goal from an Alex cross and Shunsuke Nakamura should have done better with another dangerous ball from the Brazilian-born wing-back.
Japan's cause was dealt a serious blow when Yasuhito Endo was given his marching orders after brushing past Mohamad Salmeen, who went down clutching his face.
But the title-holders, severely weakened by injuries and Olympics call-ups, hit back after the break when Koji Nakata rose at the near post to head in a corner.
Tamada was given space to rifle a right-footed shot past Ali Saeed just minutes later.
Bahrain pressed their man advantage with Mohamad Al Wadaei setting up Hubail for his fifth of the tournament with just 20 minutes to go.
Substitute Nasser, the Bahraini league's top-scorer, notched his second of the campaign to spark joy on the Gulf team's bench with five minutes to go.
However, the celebrations proved premature as defender Nakazawa put his diving header past Saeed with just seconds remaining of normal time.
Bahrain, playing in just their second Asian Cup, were also reduced to ten men when Al Wadaei was red-carded for a foul on Nakamura in extra-time.