(VIDEO) Japan Routs Tunisia 4-0 in World Cup's 1,000th Match, Sending Renard's Tenure Into Crisis

MONTERREY, Mexico — Perhaps the manager wasn't the problem after all. Tunisia sacked Sabri Lamouchi after last week's 5-1 defeat to Sweden, appointing Hervé 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 side inspired by Feyenoord center-forward Ayase Ueda, who scored twice and led the line with intelligence and imagination in a 4-0 victory.

A Manager Given No Time to Prepare

Renard had just three days with his players before the match. 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 Côte d'Ivoire's 23-year trophy drought. But he is not, as he has stressed, "a magician."

Attempts to break into the mainstream of French football with Sochaux, Lille, and the France women's 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's just the well-remunerated man paid to try to explain how Tunisia are out of the World Cup already.

A Resigned Reaction From the Sideline

In the end, Renard simply seemed resigned to the result. "We were hoping for a better reaction, a better performance," he said. "Unfortunately 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."

A Landmark Match for the Tournament's History

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 United States and Belgium has arrived, 96 years later, in steamy Monterrey with the largest victory for an Asian side in the tournament's history.

A violent and protracted thunderstorm the day before the game had led to flooding in the stadium compound and 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.

Tunisia's Problems Resurface

Tunisia's underlying issues proved less easy to disguise than the cleanup from the storm. 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's first two goals last week. But a similar lineup had a similar outcome; Tunisia were never in the game.

A Quick Start for Japan

Japan manager Hajime Moriyasu praised his players' focus and execution following the comprehensive victory. "The players didn't get too caught up in the opponent and were able to fully show what we wanted to do," said a delighted Moriyasu.

Japan should have had a penalty within 70 seconds as Ueda was clipped by Ellyes Skhiri as he tried to turn — a mystifying non-award by the Romanian referee István Kovács and an even more mystifying non-intervention by VAR for an obvious foul — but they were ahead within four minutes anyway. A neat move dragged Tunisia across the pitch and left space for Keito Nakamura on the Japan left. The wing-back crossed low into a crowded box, with the ball cannoning in off the heel of an unsighted Daichi Kamada. Renard advanced toward the edge of his technical area, a look of bewildered horror on his face.

Tactical Tweaks That Paid Off

Moriyasu actually made one more change than Renard after his side's impressive 2-2 draw with the Netherlands in their opener. Takefusa Kubo was injured, but the other three tweaks were tactical — and they worked. Having played largely without the ball in that earlier match, 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's deflected shot away a millimeter from fully crossing the line, Japan would have increased their advantage within the first 10 minutes.

Ueda's Second Strike

The second goal, 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's expression this time was rueful.

A Royal Witness and a Comfortable Second Half

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 Taishō, who traveled 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.

Two More Goals Seal the Result

Ito added a third from Ueda's 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's clever looping header made it four, and by then, Renard looked broken.

A Manager's Tenuous Future

He's surely too long in the game ever to have imagined the Tunisia job might be a long-term appointment, but, given recent precedent — Renard now being Tunisia's seventh manager since the start of qualifying — he will be lucky to make it to Thursday's final group game against the Netherlands.

With Japan having delivered the largest victory by an Asian side in World Cup history on the tournament's symbolic 1,000th match, Moriyasu's side will look to build on the momentum heading into their own remaining group fixtures. For Tunisia, the immediate question is no longer about tactics or lineup changes, but about whether Renard — appointed with just days to prepare and already facing a result this lopsided — survives long enough to lead the team into Thursday's clash with the Netherlands, a match that now carries little more than pride at stake for a side already eliminated from World Cup contention.