I absolutely love the subplots peppered throughout the World Cup. In the final group game against Poland, Japan stopped playing as the result in the Colombia-Senegal match was going in their favour and they didn’t want to risk conceding goals/yellow cards which would lead to elimination. Ironically they went through on Fair Play points!
The Japan manager was ashamed, he stated publicly that he regretted his own tactics, and promised to make up for it in the round of 16. The shadow of the ethical transgression was clearly looming large as Japan decided to attack Belgium even as they were 2-0 up. Many would call it tactical naivety. I would call it redemption.
They took something away from football in that last group game. They gave something back yesterday.
From a contributor on the UK guardian
