DOHA, (Reuters) – Late goals by substitutes Ritsu Doan and Takuma Asano gave Japan an incredible 2-1 comeback victory over Germany in the World Cup yesterday in another emotional fillip for Asian soccer after Saudi Arabia’s shock win over Argentina.
Four-time champions Germany had looked to be cruising to a routine victory via Ilkay Guendogan’s first-half penalty but paid a fatal price for profligacy in front of goal.
The shock result was a repeat of their 2018 World Cup nightmare when, as defending champions, they lost their opener to Mexico and, after another defeat by South Korea, were condemned to an unheard of group-stage exit.
The Asian team, half of them who play their club football in Germany, had shown almost nothing in attack until a series of second-half substitutions injected some energy into their first competitive fixture against a country that did so much to develop the game in Japan in the middle of the 20th century.
Doan equalised in the 75th minute before Asano smashed home the winner in the 83rd for a stunning turnaround.
“We wanted to start playing aggressively, we wanted to dominate the game,” said Japan coach Hajime Moriyasu, whose second-half changes changed the whole feel of the game. “But Germany are very strong so we needed to defend persistently and take our chances.”
Japan are playing in their seventh successive World Cup, having never qualified before 1998, but have never claimed such a high-profile scalp. “It’s a big surprise. We saw the Saudi victory over Argentina – the Asian countries are reaching the global standard,” Moriyasu added.
It was an outcome that looked unlikely in the extreme as Japan struggled to get any foothold for most of a game played against the backdrop of FIFA’s threat of sanctions if German captain Manuel Neuer wore a “OneLove” armband. In response to that act of protest being effectively banned, the German team covered their mouths in a “silenced” gesture for their team picture.