Easily the best game of the tournament so far, how can you not love football!!! Japan deserves utmost respect for their performance, and Belgium likewise deserves praise for not panicking and finding a way to win. Both teams laid everything on the line. Japan is such a fascinating team to watch. They are not the fastest, strongest, tallest, or most athletic, but their technical ability and composure on the ball is a thing of beauty. Japan rarely if ever complained about fouls/ moments that did not favor them. Japan has great coaching with a team that has bought into a specific system, willing to live and die by their style of play. Belgium, on the other hand, were very unlucky during several stretches of the game, hitting posts, having shots saved, and narrowly missing shots that they'd normally convert. After the game I overheard a comment from Alexi Lalas that I entirely disagree with. Lalas claimed that after this performance, Belgium no longer should be the favorites to win, and that their ranking should drop. In truth they should remain the favorites, for Belgium has proved that they have the strength to overcome adversity. Overcoming a 2-0 deficit in the second half signals team strength. Intentional or not, the comment is also somewhat disrespectful to Japan, with the implicit reason being that they are a lower ranked team. At this point it should be quite clear that team rankings are irrelevant, given the last two champions of the tournament (Germany and Spain) have been eliminated by 'lower' ranked opponents. A win is a win, period. Overcoming stressors aka antifragility (see Nassim Nicholas Taleb) is far more impressive than earning a blowout victory. Not sure whether it was Roberto Martinez or Thierry Henry that made the substitutions, but bringing in Chadli and Fellani was a literal game changer. Chadli offered fresh legs, Fellani was basically a bully in the box. Marking Lukaku, Kompany, and Vertonghen alone is difficult for an average sized Japan side, adding Fellani is practically cheating 😂. Brilliant substitutions nonetheless. Brazil vs. Belgium will be a star studded match up with two powerhouse offenses. The victor will undoubtedly be the side with the more composed back line & coaching. 


Belgium vs. Japan was unarguably the best game of the tournament thus far, with Japan going up 2-0 in the second half shortly before a three goal Belgium comeback victory. 


If you like this post give me a follow on here and twitter @bwashfutbol. Much of this post is copy and pasted (With a few additions/structural critiques) from a twitter thread I did earlier today after the Japan vs. Belgium match. With that being said, thanks for reading, feel free to comment, like, agree, disagree, or whatever.