Itakura and Scally in comfortable friendly wins

Three Borussia players appeared for their national teams on Saturday. While Ko Itakura and Joe Scally celebrated clear victories with Japan and the USA respectively, Nico Elvedi’s Switzerland played out a 2-2 draw in European Championship qualifying.

Switzerland

Nico Elvedi did not feature for the national side in their 2-2 draw against Kosovo in European Championship qualification. Remo Freuler in the 14th and an own goal by Amir Rrahmani in the 79th minute both put the Swiss ahead, but Vedat Muriqi equalised with a double in the 65th minute and the fourth of injury time. Despite the late leveller, Switzerland remain top of Group I with 11 points from five games ahead of Romania (9) and Israel (8).

Japan

Ko Itakura’s Japan celebrated a comfortable victory. The Samurai Blue, for whom Itakura was named in the starting eleven and played the full 90 minutes, won 4-1 in a friendly against Germany in Wolfsburg. Junya Ito in the 11th minute, Ayase Ueda in the 22nd, Takuma Asano in the 90th and Ao Tanaka two minutes later scored the goals. Leroy Sané briefly equalised for the Germans in the 19th minute.

USA

Full-back Joe Scally’s USA won 3-0 in their friendly against Uzbekistan on Saturday night. Timothy Weah gave the USMNT an early lead in the 4th minute, while Ricardo Pepi and Christian Pulisic from the penalty spot confirmed the victory in the first and fifth minutes of injury time respectively. Scally however did not feature.