A Precision Katana Cut: Takuma Asano, 83’ Against Germany

It may have been a German who first showed that light bends under the influence of gravity 25 years before the first World Cup. But it was Japan’s Takuma Asano, who in the 83^rd minute in their first match against Germany on Wednesday who actually demonstrated how ‘it’s done’.

Kou Itakura’s long ball from a free kick is grabbed by Asano. He makes a run for the German box, with Borussia Dortmund’s 6 ft 3 inch defender Nico Schlotterbeck dredging alongside the Bochum 5 ft 8 inch forward like a ship against a speed-boat. It’s an impossible angle for the Japanese, made more difficult as attacker and defender – with Manuel Neuer yet to appear in the picture – pushing each other as if on the roof of a speeding train in a James Bond sequence.

Remarkably, Asano not only holds his ground, but he also finds a slit between Neuer and the still looming Scholtterbeck to smash the grown-up ball into the roof of the German net. This physics-defying goal that seals Germany’s fate has to be the most difficult – and the finest – goal so far in a tournament that has already seen much of established laws upturned, waiting to be re-evaluated.