Japan Defeats Colombia 2-1 in World Cup

 

An early penalty goal by Shinji Kagawa helped lead Japan to a surprising 2-1 win over Colombia in the 2018 FIFA World Cup on Tuesday. The victory marks the first time an Asian team has beaten a South American team in a World Cup match.

Soon after the match began, Yuya Osako of Japan won a bouncing ball to begin a series of actions that led to a penalty. Colombia’s Carlos Sanchez received a red card for blocking Kagawa’s shot on goal with his extended right arm. Japan took a 1-0 lead after Kagawa scored on the resulting penalty kick.

Colombia had to play with 10 men for the rest of the match against Japan’s eleven.

They evened the score late in the first half on a rolling free kick by Juan Quintero. But Osako scored the second goal for Japan with a header from a corner kick.

Japan became the latest team to pull off an upset at the World Cup. The team joins Mexico, Switzerland and Iceland in earning surprising results. The score was especially unexpected because Japan had changed coaches shortly before the tournament. And no Asian team had ever defeated a South American team in 17 World Cup meetings.

Colombia defeated Japan 4-1 when the teams played in Brazil four years ago.

I’m Jonathan Evans.

Words in This Story

upset – n. an occurrence in which a game, contest, etc., is won by a person or team that was expected to lose