YANGSAN, (South Korea), Sept 28: Pakistan made a disastrous start as they caved in against Kuwait 6-0 in their opening football match at the Asian Games thanks to a brilliant hat trick by Bashar Saturday.

Kuwait, the silver medallists of 1998 Games, gave their rivals an early shock when they found the target in the second minute of the match with Bashar converting a spot kick.

Kuwait went 3-0 up with Zadah scoring in the 27th minute and Al-Fadli slamming home the third two minutes before the half time.

Yet there was no respite for the green-shirted Pakistanis as Bashar rifled home the fourth in the 50th minute.

Al-Tayar had his name onto the scoresheet when he found the cage in the 66th minute, while Bashar sprang into action in the 78th minute to compete the tally and his hat trick.

Meanwhile, Japan’s inexperienced squad struggled against unfancied Palestine before securing a 2-0 victory.

Urawa Red striker Tatsuya Tanaka opened the scoring in the 66th minute after gathering a pass from Yoshito Okubo who had fluffed a penalty kick only a minute earlier.

Japan’s second goal came through Cerezo Osaka defender Yuichi Nemoto in the 79th minute when he picked up a rebound just inside the right side of the penalty area and flicked his finish past Palestine ‘keeper Ramzi Saleh.

Japan have picked a young squad for this tournament - which is restricted to Under-23 teams - with most of their members all under 21 as they build towards the 2004 Olympics.

For much of the first half their inexperience showed as they failed to knit together in defence and looked unimpressive in attack.

Their best chances came on 16 minutes, when a freekick from Hiroshima midfielder Kazuyuki Morisaki was punched away by Saleh.

Gamba Osaka striker Satoshi Nakayama also tested Saleh, dribbling up the right flank only to see his left-foot shot held by the Palestinian keeper.

Palestine, third in the Arab Games in 1999, could only manage one shot on goal in the first half, lacking their best strikers Ziad El-Kurd and Fady Lafy due to club commitments in Jordan.

On the heels of their 5-0 friendly away defeat against Thailand a week ago, the

Arab side found difficulty retaining possession long enough to threaten the Japanese goal.

In the 51st minute, a free-kick from Saeb Jendeya flew yards over the bar.

Japan, still smarting from their 1-0 under-21 away loss to China last month and a 0-7 drubbing at the hands of J-League powerhouse Jubilo Iwata, stepped up the pressure in the second half.

Tanaka was pulled down by Saleh as he forged ahead from the left on 64 minutes for the penalty shot which was squandered by Okubo before Tanaka and Nemoto made the game safe.

Afghanistan were shown no mercy on their return to the international football fold, suffering a crushing 10-0 defeat to reigning Asian Games champions Iran.—AFP

Kuwait 6 Pakistan 0

Japan 2 Palestine 0

Bahrain 3 Uzbekistan 0

Afghanistan 0 Iran 10

Lebanon 1 Qatar 1

Hong Kong 1 N. Korea 2