Just Four Things: Japan Vs. Poland
Credits: Squawka Football
‘H’ For Horrible Ending
The start of this match was pretty much expected. Just the normal football match that everyone likes to enjoy. What everyone didn’t expect was how the match ended and goodness it was painful to watch. When news broke out Yerry Mina put Colombia one up against Senegal on the 74th minute, the match transcended to a farce.
With Japan knowing they will go through thanks to Fair Play points, all they did was passing around the ball between defenders and Poland also needed to be called out for allowing this to happen even though they were already eliminated. Senegal may have not did a whole lot better against Colombia and didn’t do better to score themselves, but they didn’t deserve to be knocked out because of this shambolic approach between Japan & Poland alone. Unsurprisingly, boos echoed throughout the Volgograd Arena. Japan may have advanced just barely, but how this match ended will be the biggest talking point.
Poland Made Things Complicated
First off, there is a reason why Poland deserved to be eliminated early: No one stood out from that squad of 23. Not even Robert Lewandowski did anything to carry Poland’s hopes. They showed no signs of magic and it was evident here. They only had a handful of chances where Kamil Grosicki’s header was barely scooped out of the goal by Eiji Kawashima in the first half.
Chances were few and in between for Poland. Against the run of play on the hour mark though, Poland did take the lead when Rafal Kurzawa swung a free-kick in and no one picked up Jan Bednarek as the defender scored past Kawashima. Japan chased the game for a bit but set their foot off the pedal when they knew they were going to advance 15 minutes to go if things stayed that way. Poland also didn’t help matters at all.
Changes Still Retain The Guile
It’s baffling that Akira Nishino made number of changes, dropping the likes Shinji Kagawa and Takashi Inui and starting the back-up players. Some of those back-ups include Takashi Usami, Shinji Okazaki and Hotaru Yamaguchi were given chances to impress Nishino and make their case. To give credit to Japan, they did start off brightly.
Japan looked comfortable in the opening 45 minutes. Japan looked lively and had a good sniffs around the opposition half. Okazaki and Yoshinori Muto had great chances that would’ve give Japan some breathing space. Japan can play the type of football we all love to see. They did that when they faced Senegal. Our only hope is that they wouldn’t do ‘that kind’ of football again.
All About Fair Play
Because of the events transpired, this was the first time fair play points was used as the tiebreaker. Japan and Senegal had the same number of points, number of goals and they tied each other so head-to-head couldn’t be used. What would be the deciding factor was who had the better discipline.
Heading into this game, Japan had -3 points and ahead of Senegal who had -5. Yellow cards to Tomoaki Makino and M’baye Niang in their respective matches saw the total to -4 & -6 to Japan & Senegal respectively. No team would imagine that their disciplinary record would be the key to their fate in the World Cup. We can’t blame Senegal for not considering this possibility.
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