JAPAN-DEMO
It’s another seismic upset as super subs sink slack Germany
THE drummer buried within the small knot of Japanese fans behind the goal where the game was won was thrumming out his beat long after the whistle. It was entirely appropriate. He had not stopped all afternoon; neither had the team he had travelled to see.
This was a game won, an upset caused, not by superior skill nor an elevated sense of football intelligence. It was won by courage and persistence and by an impeccable sense of sporting timing.
Having been second best to Germany for so long, Japan had remained in the game on the back of some stout defending, some inspired goalkeeping and some errant German finishing.
But as time passed and the game entered its final 15 minutes, Japan sensed a waning of German industry. They sensed the fourtime World Cup winners easing off the throttle.
And when they struck twice in eight minutes nutes towards the end,, it was with a ruthlessness hthat surprised - Hansi Flick and his players just as much as it did everybody in this stadium.
The two scorers were known to this German team, m, too. Both Ritsu Doan substitutes, tiand and Takuma Asanoo play their football in the Bundesliga. Suffice to say it will be a while before anybody in Germany forgets their names.
This was an upset almost on the same scale as the one Saudi Arabia had inflicted on Lionel Messi and Argentina the day before. Just like that one, this one did not announce itself as a possibility for quite some time.
Germany were the better team in the first half by a distance and, just like Argentina, they led through a penalty. Keeper Shuichi Gonda pulled down German left back David Raum clumsily just after the half- hour and Ilkay Gundogan slid in the penalty. Flick would have known at halftime that his team should have led by more. Gundogan had come close on three other occasions and Joshua Kimmich had brought a save from Gonda. It was not easyeas for Germany but iti was straightforward.forw Japan had seb seen an early goal by Celtic’s Daizen MaedaM disallowed for offside and that had really been as good as it had gotg for a team rankedr No 24 in theth world. TheT second half ffollowedoll much the ssame pattern. Kimmich and Gundogan continuedtid tot run just about everything in the centre of the field while teenager Jamal Musiala started to influence matters further forward with the touch and vision so familiar to followers of Bayern Munich.
As Germany sought to kill the game, Serge Gnabry kissed the top of the bar with a rising shot. Then Gundogan struck the post after being set up by Musiala before the 19- year- old almost scored a sublime goal himself, taking out four defenders with a series of dummies in the penalty area only to shoot over with his right foot when he seemed to have done all the hard work already.
Germany were wasteful, but, crucially, they were in no danger. Or so it seemed. Indeed just before the whole show was turned upside down, Japan’s goalkeeper Gonda made four saves in a single minute. Three of them were to deny Gnabry alone.
So we could see the way this game was going, or so we thought. When Japan struck, it was just about without warning. They had grown into the game a little in the minutes before their goal.
Germany had started to look a little leggy and when Daichi Kamada worked keeper Manuel Neuer with a low cross-shot it was a moment that served to give life to something quite stunning.
The first goal arrived in the 75th minute and was not dissimilar to the incident that saw Kamada denied. Again the space was found on the left side of the German penalty area and again Neuer pushed out a low shot.
But this time the ball ran loose to a player in blue and Doan of Freiburg smashed it into an unguarded net.
Japan had never previously beaten Germany and Flick’s team had lost just once in 16 games since England knocked them out of the European Championship at Wembley two summers ago. So a draw would have sat quite nicely with coach Hajime Moriyasu.
But sometimes a single moment in a contest can change everything and that is what happened here. Japan were energised by their goal and with their supporters continuing with a level of support that never dropped for a minute, they began to sense something a little more special.
The winning goal was a terrible one for Germany to concede and will haunt Borussia Dortmund defender Nico Schlotterbeck.
A free-kick won deep inside the Japan half was launched forwards by Ko Itakura and caught Schlotterbeck half asleep. As the ball sailed over his head, it found Asano, of Bochum, with a yard of space. The touch to control it as it dropped over his shoulder was superb and he then allied that to the strength needed to hold off Schlotterbeck, desperately trying to atone for his error.
The angle was still against Asano and Neuer stood in his path. But the right-foot shot was ferocious and the ball was above and beyond the German goalkeeper before he could even see it.
By this stage, everybody here who was not German may as well have been Japanese. The noise that greeted the final whistle betrayed that.
Move over Saudi Arabia, there is room for one more.
GERMANY (4-2-3-1): Neuer 7; Sule 7, Rudiger 6.5, Schlotterbeck 5.5, Raum 6.5; Kimmich 7, Gundogan 7.5 (Goretzka 67min, 6); Gnabry 7 (Moukoko 90), Muller 6 (Hofmann 67, 6), Musiala 7 (Gotze 78, 6); Havertz 6 (Fullkrug 79). Scorer: Gundogan 33 (pen). Booked: None. Manager: Hansi Flick 5.
JAPAN (4-2-3-1): GONDA 8; H Sakai 6 (Minamino 74, 6), Itakura 7, Yoshida 7, Nagatomo 6 (Mitoma 57, 6.5); Tanaka 6 (Doan 71, 7), Endo 6; Ito 6, Kamada 7, Kubo 6 (Tomiyasu 46, 6); Maeda 6 (Asano 57, 7.5). Scorers: Doan 75, Asano 83. Booked: None. Manager: Hajime Moriyasu 8.
Referee: Ivan Arcides Barton Cisneros
(El Salvador) 6. Attendance: 42,608.