There was the match of Japan vs Iraq that is the final round of Asian qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup at Saitama stadium in October 6. In this match, Shinji Kagawa（Borussia Dortmund）was not a starting member and Hiroshi Kiyotake（Sevilla FC）played in Kagawa’s position. But always of members such as keisuke Honda（A.C.Milan）, Shinji Okazaki（Leicester City）, Makoto Hasebe（Frankfurt）and Genki Haraguchi（Hertha　Berlin）has played.

In the 26th minute of the first half, Haraguchi got a first goal to convert the centering ball by Kiyotake. Haraguchi received a ball with the keeper in the back, But he scored a goal in the heel kick calmly. Then Japan attacked continuously but did not score a goal. After all, the first half was completed as score of 1-0.

In the 15th minute of the second half, Saad Abdul-Amir  scored a goal to convert the freekick ball by Ahmed Yasin. So it became same score of 1-1. Because Japan wanted the 3 points so they changed the player, Hotaru Yamaguchi（Cerezo Osaka）, Takuma Asano（Schduagert）and Yu Kobayashi（Kawasaki Frontale）entered the pitch. But Japan did not get a goal quite, it passed the 45 minute in the second half. However, thanks to the delay action of Iraq, injury time was 6 minutes. So the miracle of Japan happened in the injury time.

Maya Yoshida（Southampton）got the free kick near the corneri in the 49th minute of the second half. Kiyotake kicked the free kick and the ball was bounced in Iraq. But Hotaru Yamaguchi picked up the ball and struck a low shoot. His shoot found the back of the net, the score was 2-1. So Japan won the match miraculously.

Hotaru Yamaguchi Played in Hannover 96 of Bundesliga in 2015-2016 season, he returned to Cerezo in half a year. But he did a good play in Thailand’s match on September 6. Coincidentally this day was his birthday, Yamaguchi saved Japan by his birthday’s goal.

Because Japan has struggled in Iraq, Honda’s condition was bad in the news of Japan. But the condition of Okazaki was worce than Honda. Okazaki’s position was the forward. However, he did not touch the ball only 15 times in the first half and he did not even kicked a shoot once until the change in the 30th minute of the second half. He also injured his ankle during this match. Okazaki had played only two matchs out of the last six matches in Leicester City, so he had no intuition of the match.

Japan won Iraq but they was still fourth in the Group B. Japan need victory in Australia’ match on October 11, so it should be replace the three players. First player, Hiroki Sakai（Marseille）can not participate by the cumulative warnings, Yuto Nagatomo（Intel）seemed to instead of Sakai. But Nagatomo caused a concussion in practice so Tomoaki Makino（Urawa Reddiamonds）or Kosuke Ota（Vitesse）will play in Sakai’s position.

Second player, Yamaguchi of the hero should play for instead of Yosuke Kashiwagi（Urawa Reddiamonds）. They are same position, but Yamaguchi will do a good defence for Australia. The defense of Japan will also increase.

Third player, Asano should play for instead of Okazaki.  Asano also played for instead of Okazaki in Iraq’s match, he was a good play. The Australia’s match is a defense-oriented, Asano require to score the goal.

This youtube’s video is Yamaguchi’s winner goal. It’s a beautiful!