Germany prevailed over Japan while Flick was faithful to his ideas and fell resoundingly defeated when the coach removed his two best players.
Without Gundogan and Musiala, replaced by Goretzka and Götze, Japan made 1-0 1-2.
There was no reaction from Joshua Kimmich, the midfielder aiming to lead his team to their fifth World Cup, suddenly missing when the wind blew against him.
"With you and ten Japanese", Luis Aragonés told Xavi, "I can beat anyone".
The man who made the best team of the century used the metaphor to express his confidence in a player capable of causing something that is only within the reach of the best: making ordinary soccer citizens behave like heroes with a ball. .
The magic is not operated by the goal but by the pass.
That sense of association that does not characterize any of Japan's dedicated players in Qatar, as disciplined as tradition has paired them, and that, instead, elevates Germany thanks to Gündogan and Musiala, the midfielder and striker, positioned as links of a chain whose connection causes downloads of virtue on all those who bless.
They are called Kimmich, Süle, Raum, Müller or Gnabry.
Ah, if Japan had a Musiala!
Ritsu Doan scores the first goal for Japan.ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT (AFP)
There are players who seem infallible and accurate because they have the gift of not volunteering to ask for the ball in difficult situations.
Gundogan and Musiala got into all the fires to get Germany ahead in the most dangerous part of the game.
During the first 20 minutes, coinciding with the physical apogee of Japan to go to put pressure with their forwards and their midfielders on the central defenders and the rival midfielders, Gündogan and his accomplice multiplied to partner without rest.
Only based on risky passes did they manage to make Maeda, Kamada, Ito, Endo, Tanaka and Kubo exhaust themselves from pressing so hard in vain to end up retreating back to their field.
With the Japanese disconcerted and reserving their strength, Germany fanned out even with Süle, the heavy right-back, stepping into the opponent's box.
After half an hour the occasions followed one another.
Gundogan had smashed two shots against the defense when Kimmich, who appeared from behind, always away from the Japanese pressure nodes, served a balloon for Raum's arrival from behind.
Gonda came out late and brought the full-back down spectacularly before Gündogan scored the penalty.
Japan's 4-4-2 suddenly dissolved.
The defense commanded by Yoshida ran incessantly and without reaching its goal because the ball was always moving faster.
Between Musiala, dazzling in confined spaces, and Gündogan, persevering in distribution, they finished off once on the post and caused three agonizing saves from Gonda, suddenly transformed into an acrobat.
Until after half an hour, Germany monologue in the Khalifa stadium.
It is not known what Hansi Flick tried to do when he decided that he had to intervene.
His first measure, in the 67th minute, was amazing: he brought in Goretzka, Kimmich's friend, to remove Gündogan.
The reaction of his team was immediate.
The river of German circulation became an occasional stream, definitely dry when Flick decided to turn off the tap, already with the score 1-1.
Gundogan: "Some did not want the ball"
On the attack, on the counter, hanging centers, Japan came back true to itself.
The 1-2, the work of Asano, was the result of a 50-meter free-kick, a control and a shot that Neuer was unable to stop at the near post.
Schlotterbeck, the left center, was portrayed in his cognitive blackout.
By then, Germany had lost much more than the lead on the scoreboard.
He had no identity.
No one had the courage to ask for the ball in the gale anymore.
Not Kimmich, prudently hidden, and much less the arrival Goretzka, who took them out of the way with whipping.
Germany came out to play with the best of its associative vocation and ended up desperate, in a superfluous attempt to reach the Goda area with sterile crosses to the Fullkrug tank.
Japanese goalkeeper Shuichi Gonda makes a save.Petr Josek (AP)
When the referee whistled the end, the thousands of Japan fans gathered in the Khalifa let out a shrill squeal as their defeated players clung to each other in the middle of the pitch, victorious against an opponent who betrayed himself. same.
I had the feeling that some did not want the ball”, said Gündogan, when the evening ended.
"Gundogan is free to express himself," said Flick, who complained about the "mistakes" of his defense at 1-2 and protested avoiding self-criticism: "against Spain we have to be more effective in the last third."
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Classification
Group E | PT | P.J. | PG | PE | PP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 ENG | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
two JAPAN | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
3 GER | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
4 CRC | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Group E | PT | P.J. | PG | PE | PP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 ENG | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
two JAPAN | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
3 GER | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
4 CRC | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |