Japan V Poland World Cup 2018

Japan V Poland

(Synopsis in red)

Beers: Group E of Beer World Cup:

World Cup of Beer Group H

Asahi up against Tyskie to see who will qualify from Beer Group H, like the real football group, this group is also delicately balanced.

Close game but I will have to give the victory to Tyskie, as its a stronger beer and has more of a taste to it.

PreGame:

Colombia V Poland: Well well well, Colombia winning in style against Poland has certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons. Colombia have shown that they might be a dark horse in this years world cup, a team that can play good football, pass it on the deck and can score goals. Plus in James Rodríguez they have a truly world class star and play maker.

It was a big game for both teams, a win was needed, lose and you are out of the World Cup. The atmosphere was electric (mostly thanks to the Colombian fans) and the tension high. Poland started livelier but as the game went on there was really only one team in this game, Colombia!

Mojica from banging long balls up from defense, causing all sorts of problems on both wings, Barrios working hard as a defensive midfielder, while James Rod was doing his thing in the centre of the park. It was all Colombia and Poland had nothing to stop them.

From a short well worked corner, Mina headed home the first goal, put on a plate for him by Rodríguez, excellent. The second came from Falcao, on the 70th minute, just when I thought he was not doing much he pops up to score a real strikers goal, placing coolly beyond the Polish goalie, brilliant. Not even 5 minutes later we got the third, another great pass by Rodríguez to this time set up Cuadrado, who capped off a fine performance with a well taken goal, scoring with little difficulty. It is so easy for these Colombian fellas.

Poland have only respect to play for against a decent Japanese team today, and you would imagine they would want to go out with some pride.

Japan V Senegal: Well done to Japan, for coming behind twice to get back into the game, and I am sure if there were another ten minutes or so to the game they might have nicked it, as they had all the momentum near the end of the game. Also was great to see the old warrior Honda again on the score sheet.

Good start to the game from Senegal, and sure enough it didn’t take long for them to take the lead. A lucky goal but Mané wont mind, capitalizing on a bad mistake by the Japanese goalie, Kawashima, who palmed the ball straight into the path of the Senegalese striker. What a gift for Senegal to take the lead.

But Japan came back with a lovely goal by Inui, who placed it lovely into the back of the net, great goal and a nice run and pass from by Nagatomoto set it all up. Senegal were sitting on their lead by this time and deserved to be punished.

Osako had not one but two simple chances to put Japan into the lead. One was a free header, he hit straight at the goalkeeper, and the other was a complete sitter with the ball right in front of him and he missed it completely.

In the second half there really was only one team, Japan. Inui hitting the top of the crossbar with an unbelievable strike, unlucky. But against the run of play Senegal only just went up the field and scored another goal. Wagué with a nice goal from a tight angle from a lovely ball into the box from Sabaly.

But once again, Senegal decided to site on their lead and once again they were punished for some diabolical defending and play. A goal keeping mistake from K N’Diaye, where he completely missed the ball not once but twice, let Honda tap in for the equaliser.

A good second half, especially from Japan. Japan now play Poland today knowing a draw could be enough, and its certainly no less than they deserve for playing well so far in this tears World Cup.

A more detailed review on Japan here and on Poland here

Looked at the second half of this game:

Oh my word, Japan were so lucky, so, so lucky. Lucky that Lewandowski is muck and that he couldn’t put the game to bed when he should have scored. Tsk, tsk. If he had scored Japan would be going home and their clown of a manager would have egg on his face.

Leaving out Inui was crazy, relying on the score of the other game was a big decision and a really foolish one at that.

Game was not great, and Poland did enough to get the victory. Grosicki on the wing was playing some good football and set up Zielinski lovely to score, but the Japanese goalie was just first to the ball, unlucky. Grosicki also had another lovely cross just deflected wide for a corner in the box.

Poland got the goal from a lovely weighted cross from a free kick that was smashed home by Bednarek, nice and simple really.

With news coming through that Colombia were beating Senegal, Japan knew they were through by virtue of having less yellow cards, and Poland were happy to get the three points, so the last ten minutes was played at a walking pace with both teams mutually deciding to stop playing football. A bit surreal but there you go.

I thought Glik in defence today for Poland was very solid and put in some really crunching tackles, excellent.

Anyway Japan were lucky today, and I think they will be beaten easily by either England or Belgium in the next round. As for Poland, good riddance to a bad team.

Music to get you in the mood

Dragon Ash Life Goes On (Japan) V Tomasz Stańko – Droga (Poland)