JAPAN STUNS WORLD CHAMPIONS SPAIN 1-0
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 27 Jul 2012
Japan stunned world and European champions Spain 1-0 in one of the biggest upsets in Olympic Games football history.
The aggressive and talented Japanese grabbed the lead through a first-half strike by Yuki Otsu and could have scored more goals if not for some poor finishing and brilliant goalkeeping by Machester United's Spanish keeper David de Gea.
It was clear that Spain's Under 23 side with three overaged players allowed by the rules were lucky to escape without a more severe beating at Hampden Park.
Otsu scored off a corner when he tapped the ball in from six yards out in the 34th minute of the match and Spain never recovered especially after Inifgo Martinez was shown a red card and banished for a bad foul just before halftime.
Spain's manager Luis Milla said ?We had to push forward and take risks and this is not our philosophy.?
Japan had never beaten Spain in any age group and the win will be remembered alongside their 1-0 victory over Brazil at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
The match will be telecast at 9:00 p.m. Saturday over Cignal pay-per-view and Hyper HD.
The three points put Japan on top of Group D with Morocco and Honduras sharing the spoils in a 2-2 draw from the first match.
Kyodo news agency reported that Japan delighted the near capacity crowd of 37,726 from the first half with an unexpectedly strong performance against one of the tournament favorites.
Spain fielded a stellar cast including three from this summer's Euro-winning team, Juan Mata, Jordi Alba and Javi Martinez but while they saw far more time on the ball, they could never penetrate Japan's rock-solid defense that limited Spain to just one shot on target before halftime.
Mata's solo effort in the 25th minute was parried away safely by keeper Shuichi Gonda.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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