Yuto Nagatomo asked the crowd to get behind Japan and two enclosures in blue on the lower tier and those in the colours of Blue Samurai everywhere else obliged by clapping and stomping feet. Seconds later, Nagatomo was haring down the left in a bid to break into the Costa Rica penalty box. It fetched a corner-kick and made clear to everyone at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium what Japan’s intentions would be in this Group E game.
The thought was embellished by Ritsu Doan fizzing a ball across Keylor Navas’ goal, one to which no Japan player could get a touch. Daichi Kamada and Miki Yamane tried to get a combination going on the right and there was no doubting which team had got off the blocks faster.
To think then that Japan lost 0-1 to an 81st minute goal felt like the kind of sucker punch they had dished out to Germany earlier in the week. Despite leaking seven goals against Spain and being on the backfoot for most of this early afternoon game, Costa Rica have ensured they are not going home.
That happened through Keysher Fuller’s goal, one that stemmed from two errors from Japan. First, they gave the ball away cheaply outside their penalty area and then goalkeeper Shuichi Gonda’s positioning meant he could get hands on the ball bit not enough to keep it from going in. They had scored with their first shot on target in this World Cup. On Sunday, they did not have a shot till the 36th minute when Joel Campbell tried one that really went nowhere.
On either side of the goal, Japan kept trying to breach Navas’ goal. Costa Rica seemed content to sit deep and earn a point from an encounter they needed to win to stay in the fray. They sat deep and tried to absorb everything Japan fired at them.
Encapsulating that was an 88th minute raid that had Kaoru Mitoma swerving in from almost on the byline on the left and finding Kamada whose shot was saved by an outstretched Navas leg. But though the ball pinged inside the area, it wasn’t close enough for any Japanese player to get a connection. Takuma Asano banging the pitch said it all.
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