Japan claimed what was perhaps the biggest scalp in their 20-year World Cup finals history on Tuesday with a shocking 2-1 victory over Colombia at Saransk’s Mordovia Arena to open Group H play.<\/p>\n
Despite a tumultuous two months of preparation which followed Akira Nishino’s appointment to head coach in the wake of Vahid Halilhodzic’s sacking, the four-time Asian champions entered the seemingly match in high spirits, boasting a lineup featuring overseas-based stars Shinji Kagawa, Makoto Hasebe, and Gaku Shibasaki.<\/p>\n
While many favoured the South American side despite Colombian ace James Rodriguez’s presence on the bench, no one could have predicted a chaotic third minute which saw midfielder Carlos Sanchez handed a straight red card for his handball in the penalty area. The kick from the spot was duly converted by Shinji Kagawa, giving the Samurai Blue a 1-0 lead as well as a one-man advantage.<\/p>\n
Japan were hesitant at times to press for a second goal, slowly giving way to Colombia’s rapid counters. The lead would not last until halftime, however, as Juan Quintero cleverly sent a 39th-minute free kick from close range under the wall and past aging veteran Eiji Kawashima to tie the match at 1-1.<\/p>\n
Nishino’s men were far more composed after the break, dominating possession and repeatedly pressuring Colombian goalkeeper David Ospina. Their efforts paid off in the 73rd minute when Yuya Osako headed in a well-targeted corner kick by Keisuke Honda, the talisman who came onto the pitch just three minutes earlier.<\/p>\n
A flustered Colombia were unable to find a second equalizer, making Japan the first Asian country to defeat a South American nation at a World Cup and silencing the sea of 20,000 fans in yellow.<\/p>\n
“We were able to create a good rhythm by scoring the opening goal. We didn’t react, we held the ball and looked for a goal,” said Nishino, who also orchestrated Japan’s famous ‘Miracle of Miami’ win over Brazil at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. “The players fought well and earned this result.”<\/p>\n
“The atmosphere amongst the squad is very good, and this win was a group effort,” defender Yuto Nagatomo commented. “It was tough to play against some of the best players in the world but everyone focused and defended well.”<\/p>\n
“They lost a player early, and we knew it’d be a difficult game but it’s great that we held on,” captain Makoto Hasebe added. “Greece also defended hard in 2014 when they lost a player, and it was the same today.”<\/p>\n
The result sent Japan to the top of Group H, with June 24 opponents Senegal and June 29 opponents Poland set to face off later in the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Japan claimed what was perhaps the biggest scalp in their 20-year World Cup finals history on Tuesday with a shocking 2-1 victory over Colombia at Saransk’s Mordovia Arena to open Group H play. Despite a tumultuous two months of preparation which followed Akira Nishino’s appointment to head coach in the wake of Vahid Halilhodzic’s sacking, the four-time Asian champions entered the seemingly match in high spirits, boasting a lineup featuring overseas-based stars Shinji Kagawa, Makoto Hasebe, and Gaku Shibasaki. While many favoured the South American side despite Colombian ace James Rodriguez’s presence on the bench, no one could have predicted a chaotic third minute which saw midfielder Carlos Sanchez handed … Continue reading “Kagawa, Osako goals push Japan to upset win over short-handed Colombia”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":13943,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,32],"tags":[637,1059,550,1579,95,470],"class_list":["post-13937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fifa-world-cup","category-japan","tag-2018-world-cup","tag-colombia","tag-japan-national-team","tag-makoto-hasebe","tag-slider","tag-yuya-osako"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}