Doha. In football, the line between genius and foolishness is thin.
Hajime Moriyasu leans more towards the latter.
This is what happens when a WC match gets eliminated against one of the weakest teams in the tournament.
– 10-0 to Japan it will be! exclaimed a young man with white bands on his cheeks splattered with red paint.
At the same time, his friend turned around and pointed to the back of his shirt.
– Ueda!
He was clearly delighted to be able to field a player Hajime Moriyasu picked in his starting line-up on a saturated Sunday afternoon in Doha. A more difficult task than it should reasonably be. The captain made five changes compared to the emphatic win over Germany, a match he won after a tactically clever change when Arsenal’s Taikiru Tomiyasu tackled.
There was no doubt that confidence was burning among the Japanese ahead of the second game. After all, they weren’t chopped and crunched at the premiere like today’s opponent Costa Rica.
Not a good soccer team
I felt for Keylor Navas that night. The goalkeeper stood there in the autumn of his life and was forced to let seven balls pass him in front of the Spaniards who were in some cases as young as 17 years old. Costa Rica is a beautiful country and they blew us all away at the World Cup in Brazil eight years ago. But at the moment it is not a good football team.
Was Japan a little better in the first half at Ahmed Bin Ali Stadium? yes. Is it 45 minutes that I will remember for the rest of my life? Nothing caught Retina apart from the outstretched arms of his teammates as Wataru Endo played the ball backwards despite multiple forward passing options.
Moriyasu may have overestimated the ability of second division players to break down the defensive-minded Costa Rica. Or the captain of the national team would love the opportunity to change the picture of the game with a few early changes. The poor man in the Ueda shirt had to enjoy himself for 45 minutes before he was joined by striker Yuto Nagatomo. Hiroki Ito and Takuma Asano came out against Germany.
Inefficient, but harmless
Japan slowly started asking questions. Another substitute, Junya Eto’o, made a well-timed run on a deep ball with twenty minutes remaining and would have scored had it not been for Francisco Calvo not pulling his arm.
The thing about showing up after the first half is always risky. Costa Rican players may be inept at many things, but that doesn’t mean they’re completely harmless.
Keysher Fuller Spence’s finale home run from outside the box shocked both sets of fans inside the air-conditioned arena. A stronger goalkeeper will probably be able to keep the ball out of the net. Now Shuichi Gonda had to see himself get beaten up and no one seemed to understand how that happened. Moriyasu quickly popularized one of his most popular players, Takumi Minamino.
Maybe worth a shout out
10-0 to Japan? No no, 1-0 to Costa Rica. Keylor Navas was responsible for a very important tackle in the final minutes when the ball bounced like a pinball into the penalty area reducing the humiliation against Spain.
Whether it be the English, the Argentines, the Copper or whatever, it is not impossible that loud boos would resound from the Japanese part of the stand at the final whistle. Of course, the Japanese don’t act that way. But maybe I can think that Moriyasu deserves some rejection after getting rid of this.