Japan beat Spain 2-1 and beat Germany for the second consecutive tournament.
This wasn’t just one game. It was two people. It was a permutation headache that could have gone through any of the four countries. If Japan won, Germany would be eliminated in another match, and if Costa Rica won and Spain lost, Spain would be eliminated in this match.
Spain looked spectacular in their first game, but against Germany they fell prey to the lethargy that caught nearly every team this week when Germany launched Niklas Hurkrug.
Japan hoped to revive the momentum of Germany’s glory, which had once again made a big impact, and in the end it did.
The game was played in the first and second halves, but surprisingly the ball was mostly behind the Spanish team.
Spain continued to work things out on several passes. Not that Japan was in the mood to calm them down. Williams and Gabi linked up and the ball came back when it came back, heading Morata for the first early goal.
For the remainder of the first half, Spain remove the threat by passing, moving the ball freely, and tiring out the Japanese chasers.
But then the second half saw a different story – the start of the Japanese attack. With tremendous force, the ball hit him outside the box. Unai Simon was guilty of first chasing the ball and then not making a save.
And a few minutes later, Japan put the ball in the net again! Doan again, the ball runs to the byline and knocks in.
This game then went to Piddle. I think they probably didn’t play properly because they were showing scores from other games on the scoreboard. was comfortably moving on to the next stage.
Spain continued to push for a goal, but Japan played very well in defense but couldn’t kick the ball because there was no one chasing it.
And Japan is officially the surprise machine for this tournament, they confirmed that Germany was eliminated from the World Cup in the group stage 2nd consecutive year of competition. Japan performed well from the start of the second half. Doan made all the difference, as did the second goal when the ball was deemed to have crossed the line. Controversy is dominated by his VAR, but so is Japan, who won the group.
