sports.proletariat.as
presents AHFA World Cup 2018: Aragon vs. Hoenn
Aragon:
Gianluigi Donnarumma
Jordi Alba
Marc Bartra
Gerard Piqué
(C)
Ignazio Abate
Sergio Busquets (76' Antonio Nocerino)
Marco Verratti
Marco Asensio
Ciro Immobile (87' Fabio Quagliarella)
Simone Zaza (70' Bruno Soriano)
Lorenzo Insigne
Hoenn:
Genji Miyagi
Junpei Onishi
Makoto Tanaka
Katsuya Fujiwara
(70' Haruo Sato) Akimasa Yamashita
Daisuke Tanaka
Naoki Sato
(66' Shinji Tanaka) Zenzo Maeda
Fujio Ochi
(81' Arinaga Kai) Shuhei Sakamoto
Umanosuke Hamada
On the last scene:
Overzealous Verratti gifts a valuable point to the Rayquaza!
Aragon 2 - 2 Hoenn
1-0 Immobile 34'
2-0 Marco Asensio 65'
2-1 Hamada 74'
2-2 Hamada 90+5' (p)
Yellow cards: 4-4
Red cards: 1-0
Corners: 2-4
Free kicks less than 40 m: 4-2
Referee: Ikechuku Adegbo (Nigeria) - Grade B+:
Very good refereeing in a complicated match, correct to send off Verratti and issue the penalty kick to Hoenn (90'+4), some inconsistency in dealing out cards. Also, Bartra (28') and Insigne (61') should have been booked.
Two more teams were to celebrate their opening match in this World Cup 2018 today in Leverkusen.
Aragon's coach Pep Guardiola left Saul Niguez out after he was at fault for causing a goal in the last test match against the Republic of England (Aragon lost 0-1). He was replaced by Marc Bartra. Another substitution was necessary as, just before the match in the last training session, Sergi Roberto was injured - young hopeful Marco Asensio came in.
Hoenn's coach Eiji Zazawa on the other hand fielded the same eleven players who had successfully played the test match against the Caliphate of Cordoba and won 3-2.
The match began relatively slowly with quite a time of passing in the midfield and avoiding mistakes. A harmless shot by Ciro Immobile led Genji Miyagi to intervene, but he could hold the ball safely without problems (9'). Some lovely combinations were played by the Southern Europeans, but not much came of those either.
Thus, a set piece was needed for some dangerous situation - and a set piece came: Naoki Sato fouled Marco Asensio about 15 m ahead of the centre line, on the left wing, while helping out in the defence. Marco Asensio brought the cross into the penalty area himself, perfectly onto Ciro Immobile, who scored despite being under pressure from Katsuya Fujiwara. 1-0 for Aragon (34')!
This was very good for the game, with both teams now taking more of a risk and going into each other's penalty areas, however, a second goal was not to be scored before half-time. Two minutes of injury time didn't change this either.
In the 64th minute, Akimasa Yamashita lost the ball to Sergio Busquets in the midfield, still in Hoenn's half of the field. Busquets played an excellent cross onto the left wing to Marco Asensio, and after a world-class solo, Asensio himself scored a wonderful goal into the central right corner of the goal. Genji Miyagi was without a chance (65')! Aragon led 2-0 and had once again proven the high individual quality of its players, especially of the young talents like Asensio.
Soon after, Pep Guardiola substituted Bruno Soriano, a defensive midfielder, into the match for striker Zaza, indicating that Aragon should now defend the result rather than continue purely offensively.
But this was probably not a good decision: After an insecurity by Bruno Soriano, Shinji Tanaka won the ball and started a counter by passing the ball quickly on Hoenn's left winger Fujio Ochi. He, almost having run down to the base line, crossed into the penalty, onto the foot of Umanosuke Hamada, who was left with more freedom than a striker should have in the penalty area, and scored. Donnarumma might have saved it, but this will remain a point of debate. What was not debated is that it was now down to 2-1 (74').
Guardiola reacted and took Busquets out for the somewhat more offensive Antonio Nocerino. And Aragon was now on the attack again, with little relief for Hoenn. However, the Rayquazas' 3-5-2 had by now become more like 5-3-2 with the left- and right wingers acting very defensively. The offensive conduct by Aragon ran the risk of counterattacks, and Donnarumma saved his team in such a situation against Arinaga Kai with an excellent save (85'). The resulting corner was cleared by Marc Bartra.
But, come the third minute of injury time - four were given by the referee - there was to be another such situation: Junpei Onishi won the ball, passed, and Naoki Sato ran down the right side, passing somewhat back into the centre onto Arinaga Kai. Before he had the opportunity to shoot, Lorenzo Insigne - helping out in defending - fouled Arinaga Kai. This incurred a yellow card and a free kick for Hoenn. Fujio Ochi brought the free kick into the penalty area, in a very dangerous way, finding Katsuya Fujiwara. The header was excellent, but a certain Marco Verratti cleared the ball right on the goal line.
The referee already indicated it, and the VAR confirmed that Verratti used his hand to clear the ball, and this deliberately.
Red card and a penalty shot for Hoenn were the logical consequence. For the last seconds, Aragon was one man fewer, but this was not what mattered.
Umanosuke Hamada, the man for Hoenn penalties, shot and scored into the lower left corner, without leaving Donnarumma a chance of saving! The late equaliser for Hoenn, as, immediately after the next kick-off, the final whistle blew!
Aragon will now play the Great Lakes Republic, while Hoenn is up against Atlantica. Both matches will take place on Saturday, June 23.
