{"id":750474,"date":"2026-06-21T08:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T08:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/750474\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T08:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T08:35:09","slug":"ueda-inspires-japan-to-eliminate-tunisia-in-landmark-1000th-world-cup-match-world-cup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/750474\/","title":{"rendered":"Ueda inspires Japan to eliminate Tunisia in landmark 1,000th World Cup match | World Cup 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perhaps the manager wasn\u2019t the problem after all. Tunisia sacked Sabri Lamouchi after last week\u2019s 5-1 defeat to Sweden, appointing Herv\u00e9 Renard as their seventh manager since qualifying began. But it turned out a diffident side lacking defensive conviction is a diffident side lacking defensive conviction whoever has to do the press conferences. Tunisia were well beaten by a Japan<\/a> side inspired by the Feyenoord centre-forward Ayase Ueda, who scored twice and led the line with intelligence and imagination.<\/p>\n

Renard had just three days with his players. He may have performed heroics to win the Africa Cup of Nations with Zambia in 2012 and three years later become the first manager to win two Cups of Nations with different teams as he ended C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire\u2019s 23-year trophy drought. But he is not, as he has stressed, \u201ca magician\u201d.<\/p>\n

Attempts to break into the mainstream of French football with Sochaux, Lille and the France women\u2019s team have faltered and the 57-year-old seems to have accepted that his role now is with aspirant nations in Africa and the Middle East rather than at the apex of the European game. Renard still wears his trademark white shirt but whatever luck it may once have brought seems to have worn off. Not that this mess could, in any realistic sense, be blamed on Renard. He\u2019s just the well-remunerated sap paid to try to explain how Tunisia are out of the World Cup<\/a> already.<\/p>\n

In the end, Renard simply seemed resigned. \u201cWe were hoping for a better reaction, a better performance,\u201d he said. \u201cUnfortunately the score was heavy, but this reflects the difference between the teams. Today we were lacking good defensive organisation. In the first 20 minutes of the second half we were more rigorous but this was not enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was a landmark game for the World Cup, the 1,000th in its history. What began in chilly Montevideo with simultaneous matches between France and Mexico and the USA and Belgium has arrived, 96 years later, in steamy Monterrey with the largest victory for an Asian side in the tournament\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

Daichi Kamada scored within four minutes of kick-off. Photograph: Matias Delacroix\/AP<\/p>\n

The day before the game, a violent and protracted thunderstorm had led to flooding in the stadium compound and had transformed the main access road into a raging torrent. The only evidence of that on matchday, though, was a film of mud over the tarmac and concrete.<\/p>\n

Tunisia\u2019s problems were less easily disguised. Renard retained the same basic shape as his predecessor Lamouchi and made only three changes, most notably in goal, where Aymen Dahmen replaced Mouhib Chamakh, who had been at least in part responsible for Sweden\u2019s first two goals last week. But a similar lineup had a similar outcome; Tunisia were never in the game.<\/p>\n

Player profile of Ayase Ueda<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe players didn\u2019t get too caught up in the opponent and were able to fully show what we wanted to do,\u201d said a delighted Hajime Moriyasu, Japan\u2019s manager. Japan should have had a penalty within 70 seconds as Ueda was clipped by Ellyes Skhiri as he tried to turn \u2013 a mystifying non-award by the Romanian referee Istv\u00e1n Kov\u00e1cs and an even more mystifying non-intervention by VAR for an obvious foul \u2013 but they were ahead within four minutes anyway, a neat move dragging Tunisia across the pitch and leaving space for Keito Nakamura on the Japan left. The wing-back crossed low into a crowded box, the ball cannoning in off the heel of an unsighted Daichi Kamada. Renard advanced towards the edge of his technical area, a look of bewildered horror on his face.<\/p>\n

Moriyasu actually made one more change than Renard after his side\u2019s impressive 2-2 draw with the Netherlands. Takefusa Kubo was injured, but the other three tweaks were tactical \u2013 and they worked. Having played largely without the ball in that game, Japan poured forward in waves and, but for a last-gasp clearing challenge from Dylan Bronn and then a sprawling save from Dahmen that clawed Takehiro Tomiyasu\u2019s deflected shot away a millimetre from fully crossing the line, Japan would have increased their advantage within the first 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

The second, though, was always going to arrive sooner or later and it came after 31 minutes as Ueda, receiving the ball in an inexplicable amount of space, turned, ignored the run of Junya Ito and whipped a shot through the legs of Montasser Talbi and into the bottom corner. Renard\u2019s expression this time was rueful.<\/p>\n

Herv\u00e9 Renard cut a tense figure on the sideline in his first outing as Tunisia\u2019s coach. Photograph: David Ramos\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Renard can at least take credit for having tightened things up after the break but by then it was too late. Japan were watched from the VIP box by Hisako, the widow of Norihito, grandson of Emperor Taish\u014d, who travelled with her husband to South Korea shortly before the 2002 World Cup for the first visit by the imperial family since the second world war. What she saw was a very good side who spent the second half conserving energy and playing within themselves against a far inferior team.<\/p>\n

Ito added a third from Ueda\u2019s flick after 69 minutes, played onside by Mohamed Amine Ben Salida who was dallying a good three or four yards behind the rest of the defensive line. Renard, incredulous, watched the replay on an iPad and spent much of the subsequent drinks break standing purse-lipped staring into the middle distance. Ueda\u2019s clever looping header made it four and by then, Renard looked broken.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s surely too long in the game ever to have imagined the Tunisia job might be a long-term appointment but, given recent precedent, Renard will be lucky to make it to Thursday\u2019s final group game against the Netherlands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Perhaps the manager wasn\u2019t the problem after all. Tunisia sacked Sabri Lamouchi after last week\u2019s 5-1 defeat to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":750475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-750474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}