It happened on November 28th, the second matchday of Group E of the World Cup, when Germany played Spain. It was a crucial game for both teams: Japan had lost to Costa Rica earlier in the day, and if Spain won, they would go into the third round with six points and a goal difference of at least +8, which would basically mean that they would be sure to finish at the top of the group!
advancement
up; the first round
an upset (esp. in sports)
Germany, who lost to Japan, will also be hoping to redeem themselves with this victory, otherwise they will be stuck at the bottom of their group and will have to look at Japan-Spain in the third round in addition to having to win themselves.
However, the match was not decided by the two sides. Although Germany had more offense, they had to wait until the 83rd minute to equalize with a goal from senior rookie Niclas Füllkrug. In the last minute of injury time, Germany had a chance to kill the game, and substitute Leroy Sané, the fastest man in Germany, made a precise run to create a one-touch chance for himself, but he took the ball out of the line and missed the game. but he took the ball off the line and missed out on the shutout. The final score was 1-1 between the two teams.
In terms of consequentialism, the goal also put paid to Germany's goal of making a comeback: while they beat Costa Rica 4-2 in the final round, Spain at the other end of the table
an upset (esp. in sports)
Losing to Japan, Japan ended up first, Spain second and Germany third in the group, writing a humiliating record of two consecutive World Cups out of the group for the first time in the team's history.
While Sané was (unavoidably) targeted, his opponent in this matchup, Spanish goalkeeper Unai Simón, was rarely mentioned. However, it may well have been Simón's bold decision to gamble on Sané that relegated him from hero of breaking the offside trap to bear of a missed finish in less than five seconds.
But the offense came together so quickly that I can't speculate 100% on the choices of the two players, so what follows will still be skewed towards my own personal guesses of what's going on in their minds.
Sané came into the World Cup with a right knee injury, something that even fans who hadn't been following the German team before the tournament probably knew a little bit about when they saw the patch on his knee.
It was not a serious injury-at least not as serious as the one he had received in
Bayern
With the kind of major injury that could have seen him miss the entire tournament - but not a minor one - teammate Sadio Mané missed the game against Japan. In the second match against Spain, the German, the fastest sprinter of the season, was supposed to be the key to breaking Spain's passing game, but Hansi Flick chose to keep him on the bench, again due to injury.
The only thing that wasn't so bad was that Sané hurt his right foot, but he's actually a left-footed player. When he came on in the 69th minute, he didn't look too badly bothered either - he made two of his three attempts on the ball in the match, made one key pass, and created three chances on goal, one of which indirectly led to Füllkrug's equalizing goal.
But as good as the stats are, they can't hide the fact that he wasn't able to build his team's success in the final moments.
Not being a party to it, we have no way of knowing how much the knee injury has affected Sané. But I think you've all had the experience of subconsciously trying to avoid putting as much force as possible on your injured limb when you've injured your hand or foot.
Sané's mindset, or rather, his subconscious in that moment, told him not to shoot with his injured right foot. What's more, although he has a good sense of the ball and a good shot with both feet, his right foot is still his non-dominant foot. At a critical moment when a goal is the difference between life and death, even a professional player as strong as Sané would subconsciously avoid using his injured non-dominant foot to shoot at goal.
However, Sané's first shot on goal opportunity really only had two options from the game footage: hit the near post with his left foot or the far post with his right foot.
Sané had an injury to his right foot, which Simón certainly knew, so he kept his weight on his left foot as he came out to meet him.
