Tokyo 2020 | Soccer: Spain wins the medal in extra time

Minute 115. Oyarzabal went with the ball at his feet. None could stop him. Spain vibrated with the emotion of seeing the two play. To both. Oyarzabal and Asensio, the magicians of the ball. Asensio and Oyarzabal; champion dreams. Oyarzabal and Asensio; soccer is his passion. Thus they scored the goal. Asensio’s goal that leads Spain to the final of the Olympic Games, where Brazil awaits him, after eliminating the host, a serious and ambitious Japan (0-1) in extra time.

Before you had to suffer and endure. The 115 minutes prior to both and the almost ten in which the Japanese tried to close the wound. But the Red will be for the fourth time in the Olympic final. The three previous ones, when the team was not called like that, were those of 1920, 1992 and 2000. Only the one in Barcelona won. Now he has a new opportunity on Saturday against the canariha of Dani Alves. If in the Eurocup the semifinals curtailed the illusion, in Tokyo they multiplied it.

Spain won as almost always and suffered, also, as almost always. He decided to try De la Fuente a new recipe so that the goal would curdle, but the souffle does not rise either. Rafa Mir entered, the guy with the three goals against Ivory Coast, instead of Asensio, which threw Oyarzabal to the right wing, an unusual position for him.

All to besiege a Japan sheltered in a 4-1-4-1 that also made changes, with Daichi Hayashi at the top to serve as a beacon for the additions of Doan and Kubo. But above all with a very well-armed defense in which Sakai and Yoshida, two of the older than 23 years, accustomed to European football served as leaders.

An inconsequential start left only the attempts to look for the Japanese back of a Spain that with Mir in attack was castling less in the circulation to look for quick combinations and uncheck. But footballers, like humans, are animals of habit, and in the end La Roja always ends up going back to their manual, although this time they did it in its most vertical version. It’s a good thing, because it means he has his style. But it is bad for the goal problems.

Half an hour had to wait for the first occasion worthy of the name. A combination between Pedri, Óscar Gil and Oyarzabal that the San Sebastian impaled with a right pot soon, although his difficult shot went high. Take Kubo responded with a slightly dangerous ambush, but that showed that Japan was there.

Rafa Mir was about to overtake Spain in ’39, also demonstrating a hypothesis: that at the first touch and vertically, the Red could do more damage to very organized and disciplined hosts, but above all attentive to the counter; to the inspiration of Doan and Kubo. Two good partners who reminded Unai that he was playing a game.

Vallejo entered after the break for an Oscar Gil admonished; It was not a question of looking for problems, but of rounds to make the Japanese run, who chose to lower the pressure line to regulate, but without leaving gaps in the rear to wait for theirs. For example, the powerful shot by Hayashe in the 52nd minute after a counter-spy gestated in a 30-meter deep pass.

A penalty from Yoshida to Merino that Ortega Pimentel pointed out and later annulled at the request of the VAR preceded another request for a maximum penalty, this one in 62, the slalom of the recently entered Carlos Soler in 68 and the combination of Oyarzabal and Puado. Spain dominated a lot, but with the same old plot; without outcome. Nor when Mir stood alone before Kosei Tani with a quarter of an hour to go. On the contrary, the one who came closest to scoring was Kubo.

You can’t win only with rounds, a Luis de la Fuente must have thought, who withdrew Pedri for Asensio to enter. Puado, Zubimendi and Oyarzábal then fired successively on the same play, as did a Rafa Mir later who did not want to give in to a completely unmarked Puado, but the game was already headed for extra time and Tani, very sure.

Kubo and Doan stayed on the bench for added time in a surprising decision that gave the hosts more muscle and containment. Ambition in both teams, but more fear of losing than forays to win until suddenly Japan went kamikaze against an exhausted Spain. And then, just then, Asensio’s boot appeared to take Spain to the final.