Japan’s chances of making it to the 16th round in the World Cup may have been hurt when they lost to Costa Rica 1-0 in their second Group E game in Qatar on Sunday.
After a notable 2-1 win over Germany in the opening match on Wednesday, the Samurai Blue missed a great chance to get a foot in the knockout phase against Central America at Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium in Al Rayyan.
Hajime Moriyasu’s team was ahead for most of the game, but Keysher Fuller’s goal in the 81st minute, which went against the
The 28-year-old defender hit a beautiful left-footed shot that Shuichi Gonda of Japan saved after Hiroki Ito and Maya Yoshida fouled. Missed a ball in the danger zone.
Japan advances to round 16
Based on OKBET Live, Gonda gave Germany a penalty kick that led to their goal on Wednesday. He got the ball with the tips of both gloves, but he couldn’t get it around his far post.
After losing to Spain 7-0 in their first group game, Luis Fernando Suarez’s team got back on track with this win.
Yoshida said, “We had to get at least a tie.” “We couldn’t get through their defense, and our speed of play slowed down a lot.”
With three points, Japan can still make it to the round of 16. However, after giving Costa Rica and Germany a second chance, they will need more time to get a result against Spain, who scored many goals against Los Ticos.
“The only choice is to win,” Yoshida said. “We’ll rest and get ready well, change our focus, and give everything we have before the Spain game.”
Spain is in first place in their group because they have scored more goals than anyone else. If they beat four-time champions Germany later in the day, they will almost certainly move on to the next round.
Moriyasu rolled out against Germany.
Moriyasu rolled out five improvements to the group that played against Germany four days ago. For the game against Costa Rica, he put in Miki Yamane, Ayase Ueda, Ritsu Doan, Hidemasa Morita, and Yuki Soma.
But the changes didn’t make his team very active, and the first half was dull. Up front, Ueda was incredibly useless. He kept sending bad passes when Japan needed him to link up with another attacker.
Japan had more land, but in the first 45 minutes, neither team scored successfully, and they only tried five times in total. Most of Japan’s moves were to the left, where Soma and Morita were busy.
Soma sent a corner kick to the near post in the first few minutes, but Ueda missed a free header.
In the 12th minute, the 41,479 people in the stadium murmured when Doan sent a ball across the six-yard box, but he didn’t have any teammates nearby, so the ball went over Keylor Navas, who was diving, in the Costa Rican goal.
Japan vs. Costa Rica
The game got more interesting when Costa Rica pressed higher up the field in the 75th minute. It gave Japan several chances to move forward, but they couldn’t take advantage.
Then, Fuller made his mark when the Japanese defense attempted to play too coy with the ball in their box in the right place.
Japan threw everyone forward in the game’s final few minutes as their excellent start to the World Cup faded. Kaoru Mitoma and Daichi Kamada worked together to force Navas to make in the 87th minute, a desperate save, but the Paris Saint-Germain keeper won the scramble in front of the goal.
Mitoma, who came on as a substitute in the 62nd minute and looked like Japan’s most dangerous attacker, said that the Asian team should forget about their frustration and focus on Spain.
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