And that just about wraps up this MBM. Another fine match at this enjoyable World Cup. Colombia, quarter-finalists in 2014, now have a battle on their hands to get out of the groups this time, while Japan will hope to repeat their feats of 2002 and 2010 by making it to the last 16. Thanks for reading!
Meanwhile Sid Lowe has been talking to the president of Panama, ahead of some game or other on Sunday.
And if for some reason that doesn’t slake your thirst for all things Baz ... there’s the latest edition of our award-winning podcast!
The other match in Group H, between Poland and Senegal, kicks off at 4pm. And then we’ll have seen every team at this World Cup. Barry Glendenning is your warm, cuddly, avuncular host for that one.
Rate the players. Deliver your verdict on Group H’s opening game. It’s unlikely that Carlos Sanchez or Davinson Sanchez will come out top, but you never know.
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Here’s the match report. An instant take, with Stuart James’s dispatch from Saransk to follow.
That’s Japan’s first World Cup win in Europe, and their first against South American opposition. Colombia fought brilliantly in the first half; if you didn’t know they were down to ten men, you might not have guessed. But Japan turned the tide marvellously in the second period, and were deserved winners in the end. This result really throws Group H open, with Poland and Senegal to come next.
FULL TIME: Colombia 1-2 Japan
The red card cost Colombia in the end. Unfancied Japan are off to a flier!
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90 min +4: Bacca is sent romping down the left. Japan are light at the back ... but Bacca shanks his cross straight into the stand. That was appalling.
90 min +3: Colombia are on the attack. But then Arias needlessly shoves Inui in the back, and the pressure is off.
90 min +2: Colombia push Japan back, but only to the edge of their final third. They can’t find the pass that would turn Japan around.
90 min +1: There will be five added minutes ... and one of them has already passed without incident.
90 min: Japanese hearts are in mouths as Colombia play a little head tennis in their area. Falcao and Rodriguez knock it back and forth, but eventually the former is caught offside.
89 min: Mojica embarks on a gloriously persistent run down the left and nearly breaks free. But he can’t find a team-mate when he decides to offload. For a second that looked promising. Colombia really haven’t created much.
87 min: Japan continue to hog possession. Sakai is doing a lot of work up and down the right. Japan have worked the flanks well in this second half.
86 min: James Rodriguez is booked for a late lunge on Haraguchi. A frustrated clip on the ankles. He doesn’t bother arguing about it.
85 min: More keepball from Japan. After that brief burst from Colombia, Japan are running down the clock in a very fuss-free style. Osako is replaced by Okazaki of Leicester City.
83 min: Osako chases after a long ball down the middle. Davinson Sanchez does extremely well to barge him out of the way and snuff out the danger.
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82 min: Japan play a bit of keepball. Sakai curls into the Colombia box from the right, but Osako can’t get a meaningful header on target this time.
80 min: Yamaguchi comes on for Shibasaki.
79 min: Colombia continue to press. They’ve taken it up a notch now they’re behind and desperate. The ball’s thrown into the mixer, but nobody in yellow can get a head on it and Kawashima comes off his line to claim.
77 min: Bacca slips a pass down the right flank for Falcao, who hesitates on the edge of the box. But Haraguchi comes back to poke the ball out for a corner. That leads, after a fashion, to Lerma backheeling brilliantly to Rodriguez from a tight spot on the right. Rodriguez bursts into the area and shoots hard, but Osako sticks out a toe to block. What an intervention!
75 min: That had been coming. Japan have been in control for nearly all of this second half. Do Colombia have any sort of answer?
GOAL! Colombia 1-2 Japan (Osako 73)
Honda takes from the left. Osako rises highest, getting the better of Arias, and flicks a header into the top right! Ospina, having got back on his line after a brief walkabout, was rooted to the spot. So simple!
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72 min: Japan are a whisker away from regaining the lead. Osako, on the edge of the six-yard box but with his back to goal, tees it up for Sakai, who sends a low screamer inches wide of the left-hand post. But there’s a deflection, and it’s a corner. From which ...
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71 min: Honda is immediately in the action, cutting in from the right and sending a pea-roller towards the bottom right. No Quintero he. Ospina smothers.
70 min: A change for Japan, as Kagawa is replaced by Honda. Then Colombia make a switch, hooking Izquierdo and sending on Bacca.
68 min: It’s all Japan right now. But it’s sterile possession. Inui tries to step it up, and causes momentary bedlam in the Colombian box after dribbling down the left. But he can’t get a shot away.
67 min: Corner for Japan down the right. It’s a waste of everyone’s time.
66 min: A brilliant dribble by Inui down the left. He glides past a couple of lame Colombian challenges and makes it into the box. He tries another curler towards the bottom right, but Davinson Sanchez stoops to head clear.
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64 min: Barrios is booked for managing to stand on Kagawa’s toe from behind.
63 min: This has gone properly scrappy, for the first time in the match. Colombia are really struggling to piece together anything coherent in attack. For the first time, they look like a team playing with ten men.
61 min: The busy Shibasaki finds Sakai in acres of space on the right. Sakai strides into the box and unleashes a low hard shot across the face of goal. It’s harmless. He apologises to Osako in the middle.
60 min: Shibasaki loops the free kick into the box. Yoshida rises highest, but can only send his header, meant for the top left, harmlessly over the bar.
59 min: A free kick for Japan out on the right. They load the box. But before it can be taken, Colombia make another surprising substitution: Quintero is replaced by ... James Rodriguez, who was supposed to be unfit. Could this be a risk?
57 min: Shibasaki romps down the middle, then slips inside for Osako, who shuttles the ball further wide for Inui. That’s a lovely passing move. Inui drops a shoulder to step back in from the left, then sends a curler towards the bottom right. Ospina parries at full stretch. Great shot, and a save to match.
56 min: Japan have taken the sting out of this game. It’s still an enjoyable watch, but it’s not a wild, out-of-control ride like the first half. Not yet, anyway.
54 min: Kagawa slips a pass down the inside-left channel for Osako. He spins Davinson Sanchez and is one on one with Ospina, albeit from a tight angle. He shoots low and hard. Ospina parries. Corner, which the keeper plucks from the sky with confidence. A decent chance, that.
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52 min: Colombia haven’t put a single move together since the restart. Japan will be very happy with their new, reinvigorated approach.
50 min: Osako dribbles his way down the left and earns a corner off Lerma. Shibasaki takes. Yoshida stuns a low ball with a perfect touch on the penalty spot, but isn’t able to swivel and get a shot away. Japan look much better since the restart: they’ve been given the hairdryer treatment by their veteran coach Akira Nishino, I’ll be bound.
48 min: Nagatomo looks up for it. He tears down the left again, reaching the byline at speed and whipping a cross into the centre. Murillo heads clear under pressure from Osako.
46 min: Nagatomo tries to get Japan on the front foot early in the second half, with a burst down the left. He lays off for Inui, who was asleep. There goes that move. But it already looks as though Japan have been told to look a bit more lively. They were very passive for much of that first half against ten men.
We’re off again! No half-time changes. Colombia get the party restarted. Meanwhile Kári Tulinius responds to Charles Antaki’s pre-match assertion that Japan’s nickname isn’t likely to inspire anyone to musical heights. “There’s at least one Samurai Blue song, by the band ZZ, who might or might not be named after Zinedine Zidane. I suppose it’s alright if you like that sort of thing, but I don’t.” No, it doesn’t quite have the slinky sass of cumbia, does it. But each to their own.
Top-notch half-time entertainment ... courtesy of the ever-magnificent David Squires.
HALF TIME: Colombia 1-1 Japan
And that’s that for the first half. It’s been superb fun. Colombia responded brilliantly to going a man and a goal down so early; they’ve been the better team so far. It promises to be a cracking second half. No flipping!
45 min: Some more midfield faff. It’s been a brilliant half of football, the players are allowed to take their foot of the gas a little.
43 min: Japan appear perplexed at events. They ping the ball around the middle of the park, but have no idea how to advance. Eventually their move fizzles out. “Absolutely bonkers game and the mood in Bogotá is weird,” writes our man in Colombia, Joe Parkin Daniels. “My neighbours were making a right racket until the second minute (kick off was at 7am here) but were understandably silent for the last 30 minutes. Now the revelry is back in full flow.”
41 min: Japan are livid about that, though no idea why. It was clearly over the line. Unless they’re protesting the award of the free kick itself: that was a bit more questionable, the wily Falcao buying a cheap one by clanking into Hasebe. But here we are. And on the balance of play, ten-man Colombia are deservedly level.
GOAL! Colombia 1-1 Japan (Quintero 39)
This is a wonderful piece of improvisation! Quintero takes the free kick. He waits for the wall to jump, and rolls the ball underneath it, trundling the ball towards the bottom right. Kawashima thinks he’s saved it on the line, but it’s clearly gone over. What a wonder goal!
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37 min: Falcao goes down in the extravagant style as Yoshida slides in on him. The referee isn’t conned into booking the Japanese player, but it is a free kick. From which Falcao is brushed to the floor by Hasebe. He want a penalty now, but he’s not getting that either. What he does get, third time lucky, is a free kick just outside the area as the same two players contest a ball that’s been shanked high in the air by a Japanese boot.
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34 min: Quintero and Falcao attempt the Gerrard-Cisse 2006 FA Cup final thing again. And once more, Falcao does well to connect to the ball dropping over his shoulder, but can only poke it straight at Kawashima.
33 min: Osako busies himself down the left. First he forces a mistake and shanks a shot across the face of the box, then he earns a corner that’s easily cleared by Colombia. After a quiet period, Japan suddenly look a bit more dangerous in attack.
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31 min: A tactical switch by Colombia: Barrios comes on to bolster the midfield ... and surprisingly, it’s Cuadrado who makes way.
30 min: In fact, Colombia have seen more of the ball since the early drama. Though they’ve yet to create a serious chance. It’s nicely balanced.
28 min: For the first time since the kick-off, there’s something of a lull. This has been a highly entertaining, open match. The ten men of Colombia have done extremely well to get properly involved.
26 min: Now Colombia win a corner on the left. The ball eventually finds its way to Cuadrado on the right. He’s got time and space to shoot, yet allows himself to be closed down. His effort is blocked by the heel of Osako on the edge of the area.
24 min: Haraguchi wins a corner for Japan out on the right. It’s worked back to Inui, who hooks the ball into the mixer. Yoshida, who has come up looking to cause bother, is penalised for shoving.
22 min: Japan decide to take the sting out of the game, passing it slowly and calmly around the midfield, utilising their extra man. “It’s funny because the thumbnail for your Colombian national anthem YouTube video displays the line ‘el brazo que combate’, which means ‘the arm that fights’,” writes Nelson Calvinho. “Then Sanchez goes out after using his arm to fight the ball.”
20 min: Izquierdo battles well in the midfield and sets Cuadrado off towards goal. He’s just about to pull the trigger on the edge of the box, when Shibasaki tracks back to make a stunning saving tackle. This is a really nice open game. Colombia have clearly decided to just go for it.
18 min: Colombia seem less panicked than they were in the immediate aftermath of the penalty and sending off. They’re giving as good as they’re getting right now. Cuadrado skedaddles down the right and very nearly gets past Nagatomo, but the Japanese left-back holds firm and eventually the ball’s run out of play for a goal kick.
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15 min: Japan nearly take a two-goal lead. Kagawa jumps on some slack Colombian play in the midfield, and powers towards the box. He’s got Inui free, in acres, coming in from the left. Inui opens his body and tries to steer a low shot across a static Ospina and into the bottom right. But the ball bobbles wide of the post.
12 min: Hasebe bundles Cuadrado to the floor. Colombia want a yellow card issued; they’ll be hoping to level up the teams if at all possible. The resulting free kick, just in front of the centre circle, nearly leads to a goal: Quintero lifts the ball forward for Falcao, who sticks out a leg and tries to guide the ball into the bottom right. It would have been a picture-book goal - not totally dissimilar to Djibril Cisse’s strike in the 2006 FA Cup final - but it’s straight at Kawashima.
10 min: A slightly stunned atmosphere in the Mordovia Arena, as everyone processes that early drama. The match hasn’t really got much shape as a result. Colombia are trying to get things going, though, Arias zipping down the right. But his cross is nowhere near Falcao.
8 min: What a start to Colombia’s World Cup campaign! The entire move was the fault of Davinson Sanchez, who didn’t deal with a simple bouncing ball and let Osako burst clear. He’ll have a little apologising to do to his namesake Carlos, who was nevertheless correctly given his marching orders for deliberately sticking out an arm to stop Kagawa’s shot.
GOAL! Colombia 0-1 Japan (Kagawa 6 pen)
Kagawa waits for Ospina to dive to his right. Then he strokes his penalty down the middle. Cool and calm amid the mayhem. But what a start this is!
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5 min: It takes quite a while to shift Sanchez from the pitch. That’s about one fifth of a Rattin. But eventually he takes his leave. Kagawa prepares to take the penalty kick.
Penalty for Japan ... and red card for Colombia!
3 min: Osako wriggles free of Davinson Sanchez. He’s clear down the middle! Ospina smothers his shot, but the ball rebounds to Kagawa, who smacks the ball goalwards. Carlos Sanchez sticks an arm out to save. It’s a penalty, and he’s off!
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2 min: Colombia hog the ball in the early exchanges. Japan are doing quite a lot of the gegenpressing. But suddenly there’s a little space for Osako down the right. He reaches the byline and whips into the centre. Ospina - who made a few mistakes during qualifying - gets an early touch and handles confidently.
And we’re off! Japan get the party started on a sunny day in Saransk. But only after a false start, because the referee didn’t realise Falcao, having won the toss, wanted the teams to switch ends. The switcheroo is made, and it’s all happening!
The teams are out! Colombia are in their bright yellow, Japan sport their samurai blue. We’ll be off in a minute! “The Samurai Blue strikes me as a pretty artificial and unconvincing nickname,” opines Charles Antaki. “Does a Japan fan ever say: ‘Are you going down to see the Samurai Blue play tonight?’, let alone make a tune out of it. Whereas Los Cafeteros makes perfect sense for Colombia, and they have a catchy song in the cumbia style.”
The national anthems. Colombia’s effort is transmitted, by law, at 6pm every night on TV. Push through that sort of legislation in the UK, and half the country would top themselves by the time The One Show comes round. But the Himno Nacional de la República de Colombia is much jauntier than God Save..., so they can get away with that sort of edict. ♭♮♯ In agony, the Virgin tears out her hair / And bereft of her love leaves it to hang on a cypress / Regretting her hope is covered by a cold headstone / But glorious pride hallows her fair skin ♭♮♯
Japan’s, meanwhile, is a no-messing masterpiece. Kimigayo is done and dusted within a minute, a model of pretty efficiency. ♭♮♯ May your reign continue for a thousand years / Until the pebbles grow into boulders lush with moss. ♭♮♯
More pre-match play. This is a five-star quiz. Do you know your woodland retreats from your city spas?
Have you subscribed to the World Cup Fiver yet? Well, what are you waiting for?! Actually, don’t answer that. For what it’s worth, here’s today’s scrawl. We mean well.
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Pre-match playtime. It’s the pub argument we’re all having: who would you select in your all-time Japan team? Our snazzy tool can help you decide, once and for all! I’m afraid there isn’t a similar gizmo for Colombia, but I don’t make the rules, and in any case we all dream of a team of 11 René Higuitas, so we’d be wasting our time anyway.
The teams
Colombia: Ospina, Arias, Davinson Sanchez, Murillo, Mojica, Cuadrado, Carlos Sanchez, Lerma, Izquierdo, Quintero, Falcao.
Subs: Vargas, Cuadrado, Zapata, Barrios, Bacca, Aguilar, Rodriguez, Mina, Muriel, Uribe, Diaz, Borja.
Japan: Kawashima, Hiroki Sakai, Yoshida, Shoji, Nagatomo, Haraguchi, Hasebe, Shibasaki, Inui, Kagawa, Osako.
Subs: Higashiguchi, Nakamura, Ueda, Honda, Endo, Okazaki, Usami, Muto, Yamaguchi, Oshima, Makino, Gotoku Sakai.
Referee: Damir Skomina (Slovenia).
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Early team news: There’s to be no James Rodriguez in Colombia’s starting XI. He’s suffering from muscle fatigue, so it’s up to all-time leading scorer Radamel Falcao to lead the Cafeteros charge. Japan go with experience, too: former Manchester United midfielder Shinji Kagawa and erstwhile Inter defender Yuto Nagatomo are in their starting line-up.
Some welcome news for long-suffering readers: You don’t have to put up with my nonsense for the next couple of hours. That’s because Ben Mabley is MBMing this game too! So you can chip off there if you prefer. One minor caveat: he’s doing it in Japanese. That may limit your options, to be fair. You’re stuck with me, then. Sorry.
Some pre-match reading:
Preamble
We’ve waited a long time for Group H to come around. Nearly a week! But we’ve waited even longer to see Radamel Falcao at a World Cup. The Monaco man was injured when Colombia made it to the quarter-finals last time round, forced to sit and watch James Rodriguez steal the show in Brazil. But now he’s back! Can he dovetail with Rodriguez and set his country off on another World Cup adventure? We’re about to find out ... if Rodriguez passes a late fitness test, that is.
The Colombians are favourites for this one. Their form hasn’t been particularly special - a win in France, but then two goalless draws against Australia and Egypt - though it’s been better than Japan’s. The Samurai Blue recently beat Paraguay, it’s true, but that result merely put an end to a run of three defeats on the spin, against Ukraine, Ghana and Switzerland. Colombia also have the sign over their opponents: they’re unbeaten in their previous three matches against Japan, the most recent being a 4-1 whipping at the last World Cup.
Here’s to a good game, anyway. Colombia usually entertain at World Cups, Japan are better when they go forward, and none of Colombia’s 18 matches at the World Cup have ended 0-0. Fingers crossed that run continues. It’s on!
Kick off: 1pm BST, 3pm at the Mordovia Arena, Saransk.
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