Midfielder Gaku Shibasaki (32), who returned to Kashima Antlers last summer, appeared on YouTube “Lixil Sports” and talked about his strange experience at the 2022 World Cup.
Shibasaki played a key role in the 2018 World Cup and helped the Japanese national team reach the top 16.
After that, his performance at the club did not improve, and his position with the national team became uncertain. Although he was selected at the last minute for the 2022 tournament at the age of 30, he did not get a chance to participate.
For that reason, not much has been said about the tournament from Shibasaki’s perspective.
However, in a video released on the 25th, Shibasaki was asked about the theme of “an impressive match,” and he looked back on those days, saying, “I haven’t played that much, so I guess I’ll do it.”
“I couldn’t play in a single game, but I was watching from the outside and thinking about it from the bench.
When we lost to Croatia…when we got a penalty kick, I don’t know why, but I just looked up. Then there was the moon.
It’s a bit of a (spiritual?) topic. There was a moon, but it wasn’t a full moon or anything. It was a bit of a waning month. It looked like a full moon, but if you looked closely, it wasn’t completely full.
I thought, “Ah~”. I was wondering, “What does that mean?” When the penalty shootout started, everyone missed and we lost.
I don’t really look at the moon, but for some reason I just happened to look up and the moon was there, and I was like, “I wonder what it’s suggesting,” and that’s what it turned out to be.”
The Japanese national team defeated the favorites Germany and Spain to pass the group stage, but lost to the ambush Croatia in a penalty shootout and were eliminated in the round of 16. In the penalty shootout, three of the four players missed.
Shibasaki, who was on the bench, suddenly looked up at the sky before the penalty shootout, saw the missing moon, and felt something.
“It didn’t feel like there was any connection, but I felt that way because of the actions I didn’t normally do… It felt like fate. I remember that very much.”
Even today, it remains in his memory as an unforgettable and impressive event, since it was something he would never do normally. It might be the feeling of a genius midfielder.
Why…10 members of the Japanese national team who could not reach their peak in 2022
Regarding the theme of “life’s greatest joy,” Shibasaki said, “I think it was the birth of my child (in July of this year). I was happy. I’m currently struggling to raise my child.”
