On February 3, Beijing time, a key match in the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup was played between Japan and Iran. In the end, with goals from Mohebi and Jahanbakhsh, Iran defeated Japan 2-1 and won the semi-finals of this Asian tournament, while the Japanese team, which had been considered the favorites to win the championship, was eliminated and missed the championship.
It is worth noting that this game is actually not a tough battle for the Japanese team, although Iran has always been a traditional strong team in Asia, but due to the lack of Iranian talents in recent years, especially the lack of young talents, coupled with the retirement of the previous traditional main team. Their opponent in this game is different, not only do they have as many as 11 players playing in Europe's top five leagues, among which the players in the squad are also from some mainstream leagues, and even before the game, Mori Boichi was called a happy worry by the outside world, because Japan has too many excellent players, and he had to make a choice in the Asian Cup.
However, it is in this context that the Japanese team in this World Cup was unexpectedly not smooth, in the group stage, they lost to Iraq and finally got the knockout stage by virtue of the second place in the group, and in these three group games, although the Japanese team has 8 goals in the account, but also conceded as many as 5 goals, into the knockout round, they faced the weak Bahrain, although easily advanced to the quarterfinals, but in this game they were still scored a goal by the opponent, and even some fans ridiculed their defense is not as good as the national football team.
In the quarter-finals, they faced Iran, who did well in the group stage but did not have a very good team in the group, and in the knockout round, they met Syria and drew 1-1 in regulation time before being eliminated on penalties. But in this situation, the Japanese team still has no way to face the West Asian team, although in the first half of the game, they took the lead in breaking through the opponent's door, but were quickly equalized by Iran, in the second half of the game they faced Iran's high-altitude bombardment directly stunned, and in the last minute of stoppage time under the pressure of the opponent to make a mistake and finally send a point to the victory.
For Japan's performance in this game, we can only use "poor" to describe it, and for the Japanese players, Itakura is undoubtedly the biggest sinner in Japan's elimination in this game, and it is precisely because of his disastrous performance that Japan is directly out of the game. Itakura was in very poor form in this game, and as a defender, he always seemed to be a beat behind his opponents in the game. In the 24th minute of the first half, when Iran attacked, he finally had to bring down Mohebi with a foul because he didn't keep an eye on people, and received the first yellow card of the game. And that's not even the fact that in the second half against Iran's high-altitude bombardment, Itakura seemed even more inadequate, not only often staring at people in the game, but also clearly often failing to reach tactical positions.
And at the last moment, it was Itakura who gave Iran a penalty, in the 93rd minute of the game, Iran had an offensive opportunity, Itakura first rose in the penalty area, causing his teammates to clear the mistake, and then after Kanani got the ball, he directly recklessly put down the opponent and gave Iran a penalty, and it was this point that sent Japan home directly. Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that Itakura is the biggest person responsible for the loss.