Soccer: Japan player tests positive, Vietnam game to go ahead

A Japan player tested positive for the coronavirus and departed the team ahead of their last World Cup qualifying game against Vietnam, the Japan Football Association said Monday.

The game on Tuesday at Saitama Stadium will go ahead as scheduled, with all of the other Japan members testing negative and none deemed as having had close contact with the infected player, who was asymptomatic, the JFA said.

Japan qualified for the seventh straight World Cup finals on Thursday after beating Australia 2-0 in Sydney in the final Asian qualifying round’s Group B.