Japanese fans shamed by ref's howler
Bloggers echo sentiments of furious Croatia coach over Yuichi Nishimura's awarding of soft penalty to Brazil in the World Cup opener
Japanese fans hung their heads in shame on Friday after referee Yuichi Nishimura's controversial performance in the World Cup opener helped Brazil to a 3-1 win over Croatia, further clouding Fifa's showpiece tournament.
Social media in Japan lit up after the official's decision to give a soft penalty to Brazil, which changed the balance of the closely fought match. Several posts showed mocked-up photos of Nishimura wearing a Brazil jersey.
"There's a lot of Nishimura bashing, but quite right," tweeted shinokc. "That was not a penalty. Feel so sorry for Croatia."
If that's a penalty, we don't need to play football any more. Let's play basketball instead. The lads played their hearts out but that was outright thuggery by a referee who was just out of his depth for a game of this magnitude
Echoing the sentiments of Croatia's furious coach Niko Kovac, who claimed Nishimura had been out of his depth, sanadamasayuki2 commented: "It's a tough job for us dithering Japanese."
Anticipating a further backlash, tonbuhin tweeted: "Oh dear, if Brazil win the World Cup the whole world will say Nishimura was the MVP [most valuable player]."
"Injustice!" "Shame!" and "Referee shamelessly broke the Fiery Ones [Vatreni - the team's nickname]!" read the front-page headlines of the leading newspapers in Croatia as they lamented an "invented penalty".
The influential Jutarnji List daily slammed an "inexcusable mistake by the referee at the World Cup opening match" by which he "pierced Croatia's heart with a sword".
Kovac warned the World Cup could become a "circus" after Nishimura, Asian referee of the year in 2012, pointed to the spot after striker Fred went down inside the area under minimal contact from defender Dejan Lovren.