• Pirgüismo Teresa Portela achieves silver in K1-200 in her sixth Olympic Games

  • Sailing Joan Cardona, bronze in the Finn

  • Medal table Spain, with nine metals

  • Narration Result, goals and summary

The dream of gold needed the most misunderstood footballer, who appeared at the moment of glory, more

Asensio

than ever. He received in the area, turned inwards and launched the indecipherable diagonal for the Japan goalkeeper, a diagonal that leads to a place known only to some privileged footballers, such as

Guardiola

or

Luis Enrique

, such as

Kiko

, the man of that night in which Spain, made a feeling, invaded the Camp Nou. '92 was like discovering how much we loved each other. Asensio can feel, today, that way. [Narration and statistics: 1-0]

Others who came to that place,

Xavi

or

Puyol

, could not repeat it, in Sydney, although they sang the most celebrated goals of our football. Now it is different, another time in which something is cooked in the selection, and it smells good. The Eurocup proved it and the Games, with many of those, up to six, endorse it. Although the brilliance is made to wait, there is the resistance. Be that as it may, Spain competes, wins, advances. The final, on Saturday, will be something else: Brazil, which needed penalties against Mexico, is a summit.

Asensio could not be among those who played the Euro.

The uneasiness seized the footballer after an irregular season in Madrid.

ZZ

is leaving, Luis Enrique does not call me.

Bad business.

The Games were a hitchhiking pennant, but, once in Tokyo, he didn't feel chosen either.

Not always holder, replaced.

Against Japan he entered as an alternative.

It can be said that he took it in a big way, with his goal in extra time, now without

Olmo

, without

Pedri

.

Spain has a final.

Asensio, a piece of glory.

The job remains to be finished.

Rafa Mir, headline

Spain began to play the game that Japan wanted, forced to positional attacks, without space. It is a scenario that precautions tend to provide, crashes in which something important is at stake. Few things like the fight for a gold.

Cucurella

appeared on the left, in search of depth, and

Rafa Mir

started for the first time at eleven. The

hat trick

against the Ivory Coast left little doubt. Nobody has had that much goal. The sacrificed was precisely Asensio.

Rafa Mir had the goal in his boots in a ball thrown into space for his career, but, unlike in the semifinals, he lost hand in hand with

Tani

, the Japanese goalkeeper. Nothing clearer had the selection in attack, just a high shot from

Oyarzabal

, and would have nothing until after the start of the second half, when

Mikel Merino

fell in the area and the referee signaled a penalty. The VAR showed that

Yashida

, a great defensive mast, had deflected the ball cleanly, before both players hit. Start again.

The selection needed other things, more paths, more clarity and more verticality and punch. If the match resembled any played so far, it was the debut match against Egypt. It had clearly been the worst.

Carlos Soler

and

Puado

entered with that mission and someone very referential left the field at a key moment: Dani Olmo. Pedri would leave the field later, when Asensio entered, with everything to be decided.

Luis de la Fuente's

decision

, risky, would be key.

Japan, which played as much for

Kubo

as Argentina does for

Messi

, had not shown the high pace of play that Asian teams, such as the Japanese or the Korean, usually have. Not this time. The danger limited him to a few shots, but his ally was the clock. Between trying to play and trying to stop Spain from playing, they chose the latter.

Bringing the semifinal to a goalless denouement reinforced Japan in their arguments.

It was time to look for a space because a success meant the final, but without losing the formation.

Kubo made a place against

Vallejo

, who had replaced

Óscar Gil,

and tried

Unai Simón's

gloves

.

Those intentions did not hurt Spain, because it found options in the area, improved in intensity by the changes.

Rafa Mir lost again to Tani and Oyarzabal did not find the goal.

Another extension was waiting, under the threat of penalties, but the unexpected footballer prevented it.

The final should be your prize.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • sports

  • Soccer Olympics

  • Spain Olympics

  • Marco Asensio

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Tokyo GamesOyarzabal's goal, 170 minutes later, remakes the Olympic dream

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