Group E. This is the classification
Narration.
That's how we told it
Spain touched one of the biggest ridicules in its history and was on the point of being eliminated in the first phase of the World Cup where it began to amaze.
In five grotesque minutes at the start of the second half, the team that had marked the first phase of the competition with their thrashing of Costa Rica and their tough match against Germany dissolved, becoming a very small team, overwhelmed by the atmosphere and by The anguish.
It was not eliminated - it was eliminated for three minutes - because Germany took pride against Costa Rica, but the blur is just as big with the pass in hand.
On Tuesday they will face Morocco, another team without a pedigree, like Japan, and theoretically they will go to the comfortable side of the draw, although, after what has been seen, with this team it is no longer known which is better.
In Russian roulette - it is a way of writing, the expression that nothing is done by improvisation does not insinuate - which are Luis Enrique's line-ups, probably nobody expected five changes, three of them in defense.
Because the coach demolished another myth, or cliché as he calls them, the one that points to the defensive line as the area of the field that should be touched the least.
Three out of four are 75% of the defense, in which, curiously, only the last to arrive, Rodrigo, remained.
But Azpilicueta left Carvajal on the bench, Pau Torres left Laporte (perhaps the most striking) and Balde Jordi Alba.
Another challenge to the presumed logic was to keep Busquets with a card in the eleven and Gavi after not having been able to train two of the three previous days.
Above, only Dani Olmo remained, the man who is always there,
In Japan, a dynamic and disorganized team when it lets its hair down, the premature resignation of the fight drew attention.
With a defense of five, he let Spain do everything.
The good and bad.
The team, owner of the ball for an exaggerated 80% of the time, turned the night into a monologue, with the risk that monologues entail of forgetting that there is someone in front of them, even if that someone is an audience or a team presumably asleep.
Spain did not start badly, getting up early to discover the loopholes left by the Japanese block, defending the eleven in their own field and running a lot, because nothing else, but the Japanese run, run.
That lucidity of Spain ended, curiously, when they took the lead thanks to Morata's goal, which culminated, more alone than one in the small area, a good play by the whole team,
But from then on Spain's light went out.
He didn't have any trouble other than a somewhat surprising loss by Busquets in his own area, or an oversight by Pau Torres.
Nothing was even a chance for the rival, but the first part became a succession of bad deliveries that led Luis Enrique down the street of bitterness.
More imprecise than usual, the selection was losing confidence and no longer reaching Gonda's domain.
Without continuity in the game due to those failures in relatively simple passes, Spain was diluted.
It is true that there was no trouble, since Japan was never able to break the first line of pressure to arrive with some relief.
The only thing he could do is take advantage of some mistake to generate some 'oops'.
But little more.
It happens that in this game everything changed in a minute, and that was exactly what happened in an inappropriate start to the second half of a team that claims to have come here to play seven games, something that it can still achieve, but which is in question for those first five minutes after the break.
In a flash, after two changes by the Japanese coach (one of them removing Kubo), Japan pounced on Spain, which was diluted as a minor team.
In the first play, once again an unnecessary fidgeting when leaving the ball, and a contemplative attitude by Pau Torres allowed Doan, one of the newcomers, to shoot from the edge and fold Unai Simón's hands, who could do more , it seemed.
Emboldened, Japan did everything that was presumed in the previous one and had not done in the first part.
They kept pressing like wolves and lost their fear.
That, plus how small Spain became, allowed another combination on the front end finished on the same line by Tanaka.
Spain claims that the ball had gone over the end line just before, and it certainly seemed so, but the VAR, after two minutes, awarded the goal.
At that moment Costa Rica scored and Spain was one goal behind the Central Americans from being eliminated from the World Cup.
Luis Enrique gave the reel to Asensio and Ferran instead of Morata and Nico, overwhelmed by events.
Spain recovered the ball and some pause, but it was difficult for them to step on the area.
He redoubled the bet, he had no other choice, the coach going to Ansu Fati and Jordi Alba.
In these, Costa Rica scored, and for three or four minutes the team was eliminated in what would have been ridiculous.
During the last 20 minutes, and having tied Germany, Spain crashed against the Japanese wall, already in its own field without regard.
With Ansu and Asensio as false forwards, with Olmo also playing inside on the right to leave the entire lane to Jordi Alba, the team, a prisoner of nerves, crashed again and again with the defense.
He lived by the thread of a goal from Costa Rica until the end, something unthinkable after the first two games but which, after all, is also part of the DNA of this project, he lived by a miracle in the World Cup where he began to sweep.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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Articles Eduardo J. Castelao