ROUND OF 16: PARAGUAY 0 JAPAN 0: (After extra time. Paraguay win 5-3 on penalties)IT OFTEN seems the games we least want to last last longest. This one felt as though it might go on forever. Few of the 36,742 strong crowd will have left Loftus Versfeld Stadium feeling exhilarated by a scrappy encounter between ordinary looking sides, and if you'd waited around outside, you'd probably have spotted the scouts from Spain and Portugal by the smiles on their faces.
Such was the poor quality of the attacking play over the 120 minutes that preceded the penalty shoot-out that a prolonged bout of spot-kicks during which both sides would struggle to hit the target seemed possible. As it turned out, though, both suddenly remembered where the goal was and eight out of nine went in. The exception was the attempt by Yuichi Komano who saw his chipped shot clip the top of the crossbar and fly over.
As these things inevitably are, it has hard on the 28-year-old defender who hadn’t been the worst of his side’s performers.
Paraguay’s progression, however, was no more than the Japanese generally deserved, for they abandoned the counter-attacking style that had served them well during the group stages and replaced it with a far more conservative approach that robbed them of what had looked a decent opportunity to make the quarter-finals.
Takeshi Okada, however, maintained his team’s game-plan had remained positive, and, while the Japanese coach assumed responsibility for the loss, he did suggest his side just lacked that extra touch of class to go a stage further.
“In terms of how we played,” he insisted, “I’ve no regrets. No regrets at all. The players were wonderful and they are truly proud of being Japanese and representing Asia as a whole.
“That I wasn’t able to let them win is my responsibility.
“It is very difficult to narrow down to one single reason why we did not succeed today,” he continued glumly.
“When it comes to football, though, we are not a team that can make numerous scores, although we should have made more opportunities.
“What we have done has not been really sufficient, that’s the feeling I am having now.”
His opposite number, Gerardo Martino, an Argentine who has guided the Paraguayans to the quarter-finals of a World Cup for the first time, was at least fractionally more upbeat.
“We are having a party,” he observed, while looking like he was in fact the parent of teenagers who were having the party, right then, in his house somewhere back in South America. We are celebrating with the rest of the people. Let them enjoy it.
“I see the players made a huge effort and it’s too early to analyse the match. It was very narrow match and we, of course, celebrate the fact we’re now in the quarter-finals. Everybody knows this is unfair to have it decided by penalties, but that’s the way it is.
“We know we are among the best eight of the world. Yes, there was a lot of fear, a lot of tension during the match and I think we were lucky during the penalty shoot-out. That made the difference.
“Both teams had solidarity and enthusiasm on the pitch, they wanted to make it into the history books. Maybe it wasn’t good to view then, but both teams should be beyond reproach.”
A dreadful fear of losing on the part of both sides had been a major factor all right, for neither side had found goals, or chances for that matter, quite so hard to come by before yesterday.
This time, however, 120 minutes passed during which they could manage no more than a handful of half-chances.
The South Americans edged things slightly in terms of possession and amount of threat posed, but both sides were fairly awful once they got anywhere near goal.
Japan may have been hampered by the fact Keisuke Honda had done enough during the group stage games to ensure he would no longer be a surprise package here. As expected, the 24-year-old striker played along up front and the Paraguayans marshalled him well, closing him down at the first sign of danger and preventing him from winding up that lethal left leg of his, at least until the 99th minute when a fierce free flew close enough to the target that Villar felt the need to get down to it.
The Paraguayans had the better of things in midfield where Nestor Ortigoza won or mopped up a lot of possession as he roamed in front of his back four. Going forward, Cristian Riveros didn’t look bad either, but the final ball always seemed misjudged, ill-timed, over-hit or a combination of the three, so a defence built around Marcus Tulio Tanaka and Yuji Nakazawa had to do no more than shield the ball out of play when danger lurked.
Roque Santa Cruz was, once again, anonymous, and it was left to Lucas Barrios to muster a couple of half-decent shots on goal, neither of which took a whole lot of saving by Eiji Kawashima.
Left-back Yuto Nagamoto, who looked strong in the air at set-pieces, proved as potent a threat as anyone for the Asians, and the lack of enterprise shown by those in front of him rather than Komano’s miss from the spot should be seen as the real reason for their defeat.
So, the Japanese head home. But on the strength of what they showed here, you can rest assured the Paraguayans won’t be far behind them.
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