On the final day of the World Cup Group E, Spain and Japan were in a do-or-die battle, with Spain expecting to advance to the next round with a draw against Poland, but unexpectedly lost 1-2 to Japan. Despite this, both teams qualified for the tournament. Rumor has it that Spain had planned to manipulate the group standings, choosing to finish second in the group to avoid meeting Brazil and possibly even Argentina in the last eight. The Daily Express even raised the mystery of a recent partnership between Spain and Japan in youth training, women's soccer, and referee training, leading to speculation that the two countries may have been working on a win-win strategy.
Spain's coach Anriki emphasized before the match that he had not considered such a strategy, but the result was similar to the mystery prediction. After the match, Anriki praised the Japanese team: "We were hit hard in the first five minutes, the Japanese players were as fast as airplanes, they deserved to finish first, I'm very disappointed because we were hoping to finish first in the group", he said.
At one point in the match, Costa Rica were ahead of Germany, and the situation was such that Spain were in danger of going out. After the match, Anriki revealed that he hadn't paid much attention to the result of the other match: Were we going to go out? I didn't notice the result of the other game, when did it happen? When did it happen? I don't know. If I knew, my life would have been in danger.
