DMeanwhile, Japan’s spectacular opening victory over world champion Germany led to spontaneous celebrations on the streets of Tokyo. After the final whistle, which blew at midnight in the 2-1 (0-1) victory Japanese time, fans and enthusiasts met with flags and golden World Cup trophies in the metropolis and celebrated one of Japan’s biggest surprise coups in the popular Shibuya nightlife district footballers have succeeded so far.
And the local media were also enthusiastic. “Japan shocked the world,” said the sports portal Nikkansport after the success that the jokers Ritsu Doan and Takuma Asano had shot out in Al-Rajjan on Wednesday.
The Kyodo news agency wrote of a “shocking defeat” for the 2014 world champion at the hands of the two substitutes brought on by coach Hajime Moriyasu in the second half. On Sunday (11:00 a.m. CET, in the FAZ live ticker for the soccer World Cup, on ZDF and on MagentaTV), Japan could already make it through to the round of 16 against Costa Rica.
Freiburg’s goalscorer Ritsu Doan was also overjoyed after the spectacular Japanese coup. “I told myself when I came on that nobody could score that goal but me,” Doan said. And that’s how it happened: He scored the equalizer, Takuma Asano the winning goal and the false start of the DFB team and the picture-book start for enthusiastic Japanese were finished on Wednesday in Qatar.
When coach Hajime Moriyasu appeared at the press conference, the journalists present applauded. In the stands, the completely euphoric Japanese fans cleared away the rubbish as usual and helped to clean the stadium in al-Rajjan.
Moriyasu, who had openly announced that he had reached the World Cup quarter-finals for the first time, raved about his team around Bundesliga professionals Doan, Daichi Kamada and captain Maya Yoshida. “I think it was a historic moment, a historic victory,” said the head coach.
And, like Saudi Arabia’s 2-1 win over Argentina and Lionel Messi the day before, it was an amazing afternoon in world football.
Japan’s advancement and Germany’s end can be sealed after just two matchdays. “We wanted to advance, it was our first step, so we’re very happy,” said Shuichi Gonda.
The goalkeeper first blundered with a foul on David Raum which resulted in a penalty goal from Ilkay Gündogan, but then grew in strength and eventually became the player of the match. “We want to get to the quarter-finals,” Gonda reiterated.
On Sunday (8 p.m. CET, in the FAZ live ticker for the soccer World Cup, on ZDF and on MagentaTV), Germany will face favorite Spain, who will go into the game with a lot of self-confidence after beating Costa Rica 7-0.
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