Suddenly they went wild and just as suddenly they stopped again. Japan’s players though would be given a second chance and so, it turned out, would Spain’s. Ao Tanaka had bundled the ball into the net, the World Cup was upside down again and a sprint had begun, squad and staff racing each other from bench to corner to join their colleagues on the pitch. Hajime Moriyasu’s side had scored twice in three minutes and so, for the second time at this tournament, they were now winning a match that had seemed way beyond them; that hadn’t seemed like a match at all, in fact.
Better still, 2-1 up out of nowhere, just as they went ahead out of nowhere against Germany, they were on their way through. Except the ball had crossed the line as it had been scrambled into the six-yard box for the finish. Or so it seemed. From one angle, it looked clearly over the line, but there were others, lines to be drawn and a drama to be drawn out. So now everything was on hold.
