2023-07-31 11:14:45
The good impressions that Spain had left in the first two games collapsed under the pressure and speed of the Japanese. The team led by Jorge Vilda dominated the ball, as usual, but forgot to protect his back. And there, on the counterattack, came the goals from Japan.
At 12 minutes Miyazawa had already put the Japanese ahead. He took the back of the Spanish defense and sent the ball soft but close to the post, where Misa, the Spanish goalkeeper, could not reach.
Something similar happened in the second goal, when Ueki finished off and Irene Paredes only arrived in time to deflect the ball to mislead Misa a little more.
Spain missed Ivana Andrés, the captain, who did not play due to injury. In her place was Rocío Gálvez, who lacked intensity to defend on the play for the third goal, which was born from an error in the pass from Irene Paredes and which Miyazawa once again finished off on goal.
In 40 minutes, Japan had liquidated Spain’s illusions of being first in the group. The faces of the Spanish players reflected the frustration generated by the result. The Japanese did not need the ball to hurt Spain. They had it on time, but they made the most of it.
Spain remained faithful to its style, so much so that it could not find alternatives to penetrate the Japanese defense. Salma Paralluelo tried from afar on occasion, but without success. There was no capacity for surprise in the Spanish team, in which there was also no center forward to turn to when ideas ran out.
That position was occupied by Jenni Hermoso, but the Pachuca player is something else, a goalscorer capable of playing anywhere, but not a specialist in the game of fixing rival central defenders in the area.
Vilda had that lead on the bench. And he called on her twice, first with Alba Redondo, who had shown her scoring ability in the last few minutes against Zambia. And later with Esther González. But at the same moment that Esther entered the field, Japan found the fourth goal surprising the Spanish defense again, this time from a throw-in. Now it was Tanaka’s turn to make a hole in the Spanish defense.
Esther was a disturbing presence in the area, but her only shot easily went into the hands of the Japanese goalkeeper.
Vilda gave Alexia Putellas the starting position again, but the midfield of the team did not work. The best player in the world in the last two years still does not have the rhythm of matches required by a team as physical and as pressing as Japan. In addition, her presence gives the sensation of limiting the importance of Aitana in the Red’s game. Something that already happened in the match against Zambia. Everything goes through Alexia and Aitana, who was the best player in Spain in the last Euro Cup, loses weight in the team’s game. Instead of multiplying her talent by playing together, she gives the feeling that she divides herself. And that Aitana had started well, looking for the surprise with an arrival in the area in which she was very close to take advantage of the ball that Mariona Caldentey put her in the small area.
The game promised more at that start, but the first blow did not take long to arrive. And with him, all doubts fell on the heads of the Spanish players. The worst thing was not the scandalous defeat but the feeling that La Roja lacked response capacity.
Spain receives a blow that it did not expect and now it will have to compose itself before playing against Switzerland in the round of 16. Especially emotionally.
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