Chronicle Spain borders on a ridiculous capital against Japan, passes as second and will face Morocco in the round of 16
Luis Enrique "The photo of the ball cannot be true. Either it is edited or it is manipulated or something"
Spain still has fear in its body.
For three minutes she was eliminated from the World Cup, which would have been a smack similar to dating that are already nightmares (Spain'82, France'98 or Brazil'2014).
Fortunately, and
thanks to the pride of an eliminated Germany, she now looks to the round of 16 with relief
, but aware that she must take a good look at what happened at the beginning of the second half against Japan.
This Friday first thing in the morning, even last night, the coaching staff has watched the game again.
And it is to imagine that they stopped in the 178 seconds in which
Spain collapsed in a way that was not remembered
.
The team collapsed, reduced to ashes with only the self-sacrifice of Japan in suicidal pressure.
Here is the story, and the details, of a little less than three minutes that could have cost a embarrassing return home.
It is minute 47 and 18 seconds, as soon as he returned from the break, when
Dani Carvajal prepares to take the throw almost at the height of the Japanese area
.
The full-back looks for
Morata
from above , who tries a drop shot for
Nico Williams
, at that moment making an uncheck from outside to inside.
The header goes past Nico and ends up at the feet of
Pau Torres
, who, under pressure from Maeda, decides to play backwards, from midfield, to give it to
Unai Simón
and start the game as Spain always does.
And here comes the first mistake.
The goalkeeper makes a feint to play to his left, but the Japanese striker doesn't poke and jumps on top of him.
That's where the disaster begins.
Simón plays for Rodrigo and, this time, he hands it over to Carvajal first, a basic rule to break a one-on-one pressure like the one Japan was doing.
Carvajal, poorly profiled, locked up, miraculously saves possession against
Kamada
and
Mitoma
, but the ball from him to Rodrigo, again, comes out dirty.
With no margin for error, Rodrigo plays with Unai, who only has two passing lanes left.
One to Pau Torres, at the same height as him and with Maeda running towards him, and another, more risky since he has to go through the air, to
Balde
.
He opted, surely with good judgment, for the latter, but the Barça winger failed to control and lost the dispute with
Ito
.
The ball fell to
Doan
, the center backs, in this case Pau, did not shrink and the shot from the Japanese found Unai's soft hands.
It is minute 47 and 47 seconds.
Less than half a minute has passed since Carvajal took out the band.
"We have not been able to manage that moment of collapse. We should have stopped the game," Luis Enrique said afterwards.
And it is the most logical.
At that moment, perhaps a more experienced team would have stopped the game, someone had feigned a small injury, would have caused a small brawl to stop the inertia.
But no
.
Spain took a cross at minute 49 and 20 seconds and started an attack as if nothing had happened.
In fact, by chance it all ended in a
throw-in, once again executed in the same place, near the opponent's box, and by the same player, Carvajal
.
This time, the madridista chooses to play backwards, something logical, and Rodrigo hands it over to Pau, with all the field and the time in the world to think.
In a questionable decision, he plays long for Nico Williams, who started behind.
So much so that he came from an offside position.
There it is Japan that takes its time, curiously, and does not serve quickly.
That normally allows opponents to initiate defensive positioning, but Spain, for whatever reason, was out of the game.
Japan takes long, the easiest plays to defend because the ball comes from the face of whoever does it.
However, his pair wins the duel against
Dani Olmo
, who was returning, and then the play takes on an incomprehensible speed and disorder for the team.
Tanaka
drives, divides and
Balde
eats Doan's false uncheck, who threatens to go inside and stays outside.
He receives and puts the ball ahead of the four Spanish defenders.
With much more faith,
Mitoma
rescues the ball from the opposite bottom line and passes it behind him, with Spain dismasted, Tanaka (the one who had started the play) pushes him to Rodrigo's surprise.
It was minute 50 and 13 seconds.
175 seconds had passed since the team had a throw-in in favor on the side of the Japanese area.
The rest is history.
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Rodrigo Moreno
Daniel Carvajal
Luis Enrique
Spain Soccer Team
Japan Soccer Team