The Road to FIFA Best 8 - 日本対パラグアイの予想と結末

試合前から僕の期待は0-0のPK戦だった。今回のラッキーボーイ的存在である川島に次への夢を託したいと考えたからだ。でもパラグアイの実力は2枚も3枚も上で、体の使い方、寄せ方、ボールの処理などのどれも上手くて、紙一重のところでのボールを取らせてもらえない試合だった。だから本当にPK戦までこぎ着けたのは上々の出来だと思った。みんな120分善戦してくれた。
さてPKは3人目の駒野のところで、正直咄嗟に「違うだろう」とつぶやいた。僕は駒野を非難するつもりはないし、PKの結果はすべて受け入れるだけだが、頭の中では憲剛・本田・中沢というカードをイメージしていた。僕の勘は結構当たることが多いのが残念だ。川島への期待もパラグアイの選手たちの冷静で厳しいシュートには結果的に通用しなかった。でも彼がここで活躍できたことは4年後の日本チームを考えたら、最大級の収穫だと思う。


From the very beginning, my greatest hope was the penalty shoot-out after 0-0 because Kawashima, our goalkeeper, had been the man with luck through this tournament who deserved entrusted. In the match actually, the ability of Paraguay was far superior in managing the physical body, the pressure, and the ball controls allowing very few chances for Japan to maintain the ball even marginally. Therefore the result of 0-0 was better than realistic outcome, I thought. All the players did a very good job for 120 minutes.
The third kicker in the PK was Komano, and frankly I uttered that it shouldn’t be him. I am in no way to accuse him and prepared entirely to accept the result when it comes to penalty shoot-out, but the kickers I had in mind were Nakamura, Honda and Nakazawa. And my sixth sense often hits the point unfortunately. Even Kawashima’s luck could not stop the cool and excellent penalty shots by Paraguayans. Still, he is one of the greatest assets gained in this event for us considering the team in 4 years to come.