How did Japan fare in the group stage?
One of those great surprises of the world cup. Japan I was placed in one of the toughest groups of the entire tournament, group E, where they shared a gap with Germany and Spain.
On the first day they had to measure themselves against the four-time champions: the Teutonic team. As expected the Germans went ahead and dominated part of the game, until in the blink of an eye, the Asian team had turned the score around and left it at 2-1. The match ended like this and Japan announced that it was very serious.
The second game was a jug of cold water. They came from beating one of the greats but collided against a Costa Rica that was protected by their personal guardian angel: Keylor Navas. Everything was taking shape and in group E it seemed that the expected ones were going to qualify.
But in the third game, Japan threw their hearts out again and performed a feat similar to what they did with Germany. After going behind 1-0 against Spain in the first half, they started a frantic second half that allowed them to come back to La Roja in less than 10 minutes. After this they built a wall around the Japanese goal and managed to secure that result. This surprising victory supposed the elimination of Germany and that Spain was in second position.