Daichi Kamada’s late equaliser for Japan against the Netherlands on Sunday did not merely mean that the scoreline more accurately reflected the game. It also extended to four the unbeaten run of teams from the Asian confederation against Europe at this tournament.
The tone was set on day one with South Korea’s victory over Czech Republic. The ease with which South Korea passed their way around the Czechs, who had been ponderous and lumbering, was striking. According to Guardian football writer Jonathan Wilson, if Son Heung-min had been the player he was three or four years ago, the Korean victory would have been far more emphatic.
“Japanese player Daichi Kamada's late equalizer extended Asian teams' unbeaten run against Europe to four at the World Cup.”
Australia added another win over Europe, beating Turkey. Wilson noted that Turkey had 30 shots but came up against an inspired goalkeeper in Patrick Beach, who made eight saves. Still, Australia had a smart gameplan that worked, and it wasn’t quite the smash and grab the stats may make it appear.
Qatar’s draw with Switzerland was less convincing. Wilson observed that Qatar sat in, seemed content to keep the score down and got away with it as Switzerland wasted chance after chance. Switzerland had 26 shots to Qatar’s six and, on another day, could have won by three or four. An injury-time own goal by Miro Muheim gifted Qatar a point, but it was not one they had ever looked likely to achieve.
The really intriguing game was the draw between Japan and the Netherlands, played without three key players. Wilson said there is a degree of contingency to the unbeaten record, and nobody should draw definitive conclusions from the first week of a World Cup. “But equally if there were a shift in the power dynamics of world football, it might look a bit like this,” he added.