With the qualification to the round of 16 achieved, Spain was at stake to go first against Japan. The match plan for both teams was clear from the outset. On the one hand, a Japanese team that did not want possession of the ball at the offensive level and that defended with a low block with the lines very close together and orderly to be able to counterattack Spain once they recovered the ball.
On the other hand, our team wanted possession of the ball, but without any clear idea of the game to know how to attack that low block. In defense it was not their best game either, their players were not well positioned to stop their transitions or forceful to frustrate their perfect counterattacks. Soccer players such as Sandra Paños, María León or Patri Guijarro, who would have contributed a lot to this World Cup, were missed on the pitch.
Our team has shown that it only has one style of play, and that in current football is not enough. Spain needs to not be so predictable and so vulnerable against teams of a higher level. Japan has been a clear example because they have known how to adapt at all times to what they needed to win.
When you play a game like this as a footballer, you have a bad taste in your mouth and all you want is for the next one to come to change this feeling. Luckily, our players have a new opportunity to face the remainder of the championship more united than ever. It is clear that the defeat against Japan has been a hard blow along the way, but we have to get up and continue towards the goal because in five days we have a new game, in the round of 16 against Switzerland, in which we play to go to the quarterfinals .
