Japan 1, Ivory Coast 2: Les Elephants impress with second-half comeback

After getting out to an early lead over Ivory Coast, Japan looked like they had everything under control. But then something changed — more on that later — in Les Elephants, and they scored two unanswered goals to take the 2-1 win.

GOAL! Honda (JAP), 16 min. Honda opened the scoring early with this vicious 15-yard strike. It was his third career World Cup goal.

GOAL! Wilfried Bony (CIV), 64 min. Serge Aurier fed Bony an amazing cross, and he put it in the back of the net with a header.

GOAL! Gervinho (CIV), 66 min. Another cross from Aurier, and Gervinho puts in another header to seal it for Les Elephants.

Man of the Match

He didn’t score any goals himself, but Aurier had a hand in both goals for Ivory Coast and saved them from what looked like a surefire defeat.

The Controversy

Didier Drogba — the team’s all-time leading scorer — was dropped from the starting eleven. There was not much explanation for his exclusion: He did limp off the pitch at Wednesday’s practice, but he was expected to be fit for the Japan match.

Drogba came off the sub’s bench in the 62nd minute, and it was easy to see that the team could have used his playmaking skills earlier, because they scored two goals within two minutes of his appearance on the field.

It’s important to note that heading into Saturday, his starting role wasn’t clear. Drogba was left on the bench for an important game against Tunisia during last year’s African Cup of Nations, and coach Sabri Lamouchi warned everyone at that time that he was not afraid to do it again.

“There is no favouritism here,” he said. “Before me, nobody had dared put Didier or Kolo (Toure) on the bench. I did it against Tunisia and we won 3-0. It was not to assert my power, but just to show that at  certain moments, status is not enough.”

Perhaps his injury flared up, and that’s why he was not in the mix early on. But his eye-roll during the Honda goal made it seem like there might be more to this story.

What did the winning team do to win?

Ivory Coast seemed to be all over the place, before Drogba came on. They had plenty of scoring chances, but failed to convert time and time again. Their passing was not a problem, but Japan’s defence was too much to overcome. The substitution of Drogba brought a new energy in the squad, and they scored two goals in three minutes.

The Takeaway

This game was a mess for Ivory Coast in the first half, so they will need to be consistent next game if they want to survive Group C, because Colombia showed on Saturday that they do not mess around.

Yaya Toure was missing in action for some of this match, but he’s continuing to recover from a hamstring injury and was only recently declared fit to play. He was unable to take part in the Ivory Coast team’s full training schedule since requiring surgery in Qatar. And his lack of preparation was evident by the way he let Honda waltz in for the opening goal.

Greece was destroyed by Colombia earlier on Saturday, so Japan’s second-half collapse is not exactly a good sign ahead of Thursday.

Stray Thoughts

OH DEAR GOD. This was on the pitch.

Ahhhhhhh.