Having paid a heavy price for defensive negligence in their last match, Japan will have to go all out for a win this time around to secure the
Successful advancement
Group F matches came to an end with Croatia coming in second and successfully advancing. If Germany wins, Spain will be able to advance to the second place in the group even if it loses, avoiding Croatia, which would not be a bad idea for Spain. Against this backdrop, the game has had its ups and downs.
In the starting lineup, Japan adopted a 343 formation with three center backs, adjusting the original left back Yuto Nagatomo to the center midfield, with Akihiro Taniguchi replacing the center back position, and Kenshin Kubo, Daizan Maeda, and Dai Kamada as the strikers, clearly showing their determination to win. However, at the beginning of the game, the Japanese team will be two of the four midfielders adjusted to the position of defender, Kamada and Kubo returned to the midfield, forming a 541 formation, Maeda became a single arrow, the game lined up strategy can be seen Mori Baoichi intention to imitate the tactics of the German team: the first half of the dead guard, the use of Maeda's running to consume the Spanish back line of physical, and then the second half through the substitution of the physical strength of the main players to impact the Spanish back line has been tired at halftime. The Spanish backline was tired in the first half of the match.
The first half was incredibly tough for Japan, who had to hold off a 45-minute Spanish onslaught to at least maintain a 0:0 or 1:0 scoreline to give them a chance to win the second half. Japan had only 14% of the ball in the first half, meaning Spain held at least 80% of the offensive chances. Only 11 minutes into the match, Japan made a mistake when a misplaced pass from Maya Yoshida and Hwang Itakura allowed Morata, who has been in good form this term, to capitalize and put Japan on the back foot.
Misplaced passes by Maya Yoshida and Itakura Hwang led to a leaky defense.
At the beginning of the second half, Japan immediately made personnel adjustments, and although the Spanish backline was not challenged much throughout the game, the error rate was extremely high. In the first half, the first to have a chance to break through the goal is not the mastery of the attack of Spain, but Japan. In the 7th minute, Spain's backline made a mistake and Japan had a great chance inside the Spanish penalty area, but unfortunately, the stopping error gave Spain's backline time to make up for it. In the 47th minute of the second half, Spain's return kick was misplaced and Japan pressed from the back to the front, keeper Simon cleared the ball and Balde's stoppage time error was seized by Yasutoshi Don to score a long range goal. For the second goal, Spain gave Maeda and Kaoru Mitaka the possibility of chasing the ball from the bottom line after a staring error, which reflected the Japanese team's attitude of not giving up the game, and eventually helped Japan to make a successful comeback.
force the goalie (in soccer)
Spain's backline leaks, creating chances for Maeda and Mitaniello
Sanfelt doesn't give up chasing the ball and creates a scoring opportunity
Pressure line save reversal (Photo credit: Understand the Ball)
Japan had already shown the posture of attacking against European teams in the last World Cup, but the physical problem caused them to be reversed in the end. Details can be found in the author's previous article Glorious Battle with a Smaller Team!!!! Japan vs Belgium match review? Under this year's five-man substitution quota rule, Japan was able to adopt an attacking mode against European teams with ample personnel scheduling, and it is believed that Supervisor Morihiro Ichi will adopt a similar tactic against the World Cup winners. However, Japan have conceded goals in every match they have played in this World Cup, and in order to win they will have to score at least two goals, and scoring two goals in 45 minutes is no easy task, so consolidating the back line is something Mori Bao'ichi will need to focus on at the moment.
For Spain, this loss in the preliminaries was not a bad one. First of all, to advance as the second in the group, the first game against Morocco, while avoiding Brazil. However, Spain's backline is a major concern, and in the games in Germany and Japan, once they encountered the opponent's high-speed pressing, they were prone to mistakes that led to turnovers. In the round of 16 meet Morocco may also appear such a situation, how to defense will be the key to Spain can continue to move forward.
