AL RAYYAN, Doha – Pre-tournament favorites Japan are out of the Asian Cup, beaten 2-1 by Iran at Education City Stadium on Saturday afternoon. And Samurai Blue fans can have no complaints.
They were vastly outplayed by the best team they have played with in the entire tournament; Japan coach Hajime Moriyasu could not find an answer for the furious buzzsaw that was Iran as they recovered from a goal down and dispatched his much-hyped team thanks to a 55th-minute goal from Mohammad Mohebi and a Alireza penalty in the 96th minute. Jahanbakhsh.
There was a feeling (now proven false) throughout their Asian Cup campaign that we were waiting for the real Japan to arrive. That, eventually, the heavyweights would find their footing and annihilate the rest of the competition. Until then, they could use their luck and sheer talent to win, without looking convincing or keeping a clean sheet, but doing enough.
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But now that their luck has run out, Hidemasa Morita's goal in the 28th minute seemed to shake the last drops of fortune from the bottle they had drank during their stay in Doha.
Fate smiled twice on the Sporting CP midfielder when he scored his crucial goal in the 28th minute at Education City, but such was the intention with which he launched himself forward to create it, even if these strokes of luck were accompanied of a determined feeling that the goal was well deserved.
Continuing to run forward after passing the ball to the feet of Ayase Ueda, who in his third consecutive start appears to have become coach Hajime Moriyasu's designated forward, Morita left Saeid Ezatolahi in his wake as he dove into position to receive the ball from his teammate. Lay off.
His wayward control could have bounced off Shoja' Khalilzadeh, who had gotten off Ueda's back to compete, but the rebound still allowed him – magnificently – to take Khalilzadeh, Hossein Kanaanizadegan and Omid Ebrahimi out of the play by dragging the ball from return to the center.
What followed was a shot from the top of the box that Alireza Beiranvand managed to get in with his foot, only for it to bounce in the other direction and into the back of the net to give Japan the lead. Morita shook off the much less intense impediment of Ritsu Doan and Takefusa Kubo as he ran towards the corner flag to celebrate his first international goal in more than two years, and his first against an opponent of Iran's magnitude.
But once again, Japan couldn't press their advantage and close out the match without making things difficult. For the fifth game in a row, their defenses were breached. And when the goal finally came, no impartial analysis would have declared that it didn't look like it hadn't come.
Jahanbakhsh and Ezatolahi had already shown signs of danger before Morita opened the scoring and now Team Melli moved forward with a renewed sense of purpose, having conceded the only shot on goal Japan had been able to muster up to that point.
Saman Ghoddos dropped the ball as he lost his marker and turned towards goal only for his half-volley effort to fail to find the target and Roma's Sardar Azmoun then failed to stretch his leg enough to convert a cross. of Ghoddos at the back post.
However, ten minutes into the second quarter, Iran achieved their deserved equalizer when an attempted long forward pass was taken advantage of and sent straight back from where it came: Azmoun lost Takehiro Tomiyasu on the turn and made a surgical pass along the way. from Mohebi for the finishing touch.
At times, Japan's best defender ended up being the assistant's flag, as several promising Iranian attacks were thwarted by one-inch offsides, none more notable than an Azmoun goal-of-the-tournament candidate who was ruled out for his armpit in an offside position as the ball that launched him forward was played over the top.
Daizen Maeda fed Morita into the box for a rare and promising Japan breakthrough in the 66th minute, only for the goalscorer to fail to pull the trigger before he was mobbed and the shot was hotly contested. A penalty appeal was filed, seeking a hand in the preparation, but it was unsuccessful. That was only Japan's second shot on goal in the match and their last.
And Iran kept coming.
They would finish the game with 17 shots to eight, four on target to two and an expected goal (xG) of 1.73 to 0.79, according to Opta.
Mohebi headed into the side netting in the 61st minute and Azmoun forced Zion Suzuki into a spectacular save moments later (although, guess what, the flag was up again). Azmoun failed to find the goal with a shot in the 73rd before Iranian appeals for a penalty for handball against Morita were rejected in the 80th.
Ezatolahi attempted a spectacular volley from the top of the box in the 84th minute, but he sent it straight at Suzuki and Jahanbakhsh fired wide seconds before four minutes of added time were called.
Then what seemed inevitable happened. Iran appeared again and Japan's suspicious defense once again asked to answer a question.
This time, they failed in a rather fitting way: the architects of their own demise. With the ball in the air, Ko Itakura and Tomiyasu got in each other's way as they tried to pick it up. As he fell to the ground, Itakura punched him in an attempt to clear him, only to encounter Kanaanizadegan's legs as he did so.
Jahanbakhsh stepped up to take one of the sweetest penalties you'll ever see.
What went wrong in Japan will inevitably be the subject of a major inquisition at home.
The saga surrounding Junya Ito's departure from the team had to have played some role in distracting the team, but that still can't fully explain a team that was forced to resort to penalties just a few days ago, hours after Japan achieved a 3-1 victory over Bahrain, being able to finish so completely above them.
Meanwhile, Iran move on, having avenged their 2019 semi-final loss to Japan and now having a chance to compete for a fourth continental crown – but first since 1976 – if they can defeat the winner of the quarter-finals of Qatar and Uzbekistan in Al Thumama. Stadium on Wednesday night.
They will have striker Mehdi Taremi back for that match and, perhaps, having beaten 'the man' in Asia in Al Rayyan, they should now be considered favorites for everything.
