As it so happened, he was smiling by the end of the night, his tears long-since dried, though his flash of vulnerability may prove to be one of the lingering images of the tournament.
“At first I was sad, and now I’m overjoyed,” he told a reporter after the match (per Fox Sports’ translation). “This is football. This is what football gives you. You cannot explain it, this goes from eight to 80. We had the chance to go ahead, I failed…I don’t know if I hit it right or not, but now when I needed it most I failed, after…having failed before on penalty kicks. So now I feel sad, but happy as well.”
