After an uneventful hour of football that very much looked like Japan would cruise to a 1-0 win, the Ivory Coast inserted Didier Drogba into the game, and everything went crazy. First, Wilfried Bony unleashed a remarkable header to level the score:
The crowd had hardly had time to stop celebrating when another cross came in, this time for Gervinho, who guided it into the back of the net:
The two goals in under two minutes (both on excellent services from Serge Aurier) completely shifted the tenor of the game, and now Japan find themselves chasing a goal with less than 10 minutes to play. Goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima will regret the second goal, which beat him at the near post when perhaps he could have made the save.
In any case, Japan now will need to go on the offensive to avoid dropping points in their opening match of Group C play.
