As the ball came over his right shoulder, it was no more than a glimmer of an opportunity. But Takuma Asano took the ball down from the sky perfectly and cut inside Nico Schlotterbeck before firing high into Manuel Neuer’s net. Cue the celebrations.
It was one of the great goals of the last World Cup in Qatar and a momentous occasion for Japanese football as they came from behind to beat Germany 2-1. But what did it mean for the man who scored it? "That goal changed my life," Asano tells Sky Sports.
Given that Japan went on to beat Spain too at that World Cup, maybe it even changed what his country thought possible. "Now every Japanese player wants to win the World Cup. Before, I think Japanese players, Japanese people, did not think about it," he adds.
"Now, everyone thinks like that, me also. Since that World Cup in Qatar, we feel like we could do it. Next time, I don't know, maybe we still need time, but in the future. Everybody is thinking about winning the World Cup. That last World Cup, it changed us."
For Asano, it was particularly seismic not just because he scored the winner but because of the nation that he scored the winner against. "You know, I was in Germany," he says, laughing, from his current home in Mallorca. "I was playing for Bochum."
He was midway through his second season in the Bundesliga when his profile transformed beyond recognition. "Even when I played an away game, everybody knew me," he says, mimicking the chants of the crowd. "Before, it had not been like that."
Asano is 30 now, but his career before that brush with real fame had been a curious one. He signed for Arsenal at the age of 21, being described by Arsene Wenger as a talented young striker. He met some of his new team-mates and posed for pictures in the shirt.
But that was as far as his Premier League career went. Asano was denied a work permit, spending the next three seasons on loan in Germany before making a permanent move to Partizan Belgrade. That could well have been that for his career in the major leagues.
Asano had other ideas. "I just focused on my football. Where I am, it does not matter for me. I just focus on what I can do on the pitch in the next game, in every moment. That is why I go in with the mentality that every experience in my career is a good experience."
He adds: "Maybe I did not expect that I would enjoy Serbia like I did but I was in Serbia for two years and I was really happy in Serbia. I enjoyed the lifestyle. It was traditional but it was new to me. And there were good team-mates, staff and friend there too."
Twenty-one goals in his second season took him to Bochum and Asano has since moved on to Mallorca, playing in the Spanish Super Cup for them this season and proving an important figure in their impressive LaLiga campaign as they chase European football.
"It is definitely different here. I love Bochum but Mallorca has really nice weather, a good city. It helps me. I really feel that." Injury has disrupted his first year at the club a little but he bounced back with a bang by scoring a spectacular goal against Alaves.
"It was not my kind of goal," he laughs, when recalling his rocket of a shot. "I could not score like that so far so it was a surprise for me also, but it was good. I had not scored for a long time and could not help the team due to injury. I need to score more goals now."
What better place to start than the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium against Real Madrid on Wednesday evening? "I am playing there for the first time and I am really looking forward to it." Asano will even have his mother, brother and sister there in attendance in Madrid.
"We need to win," he insists. "I think if we play 100 per cent and play good, it is possible. We need to go to Europe next season." Mallorca are ninth in the table but with the top eight qualifying - and eighth-placed Rayo Vallecano still to come - it is achievable.
It seems unlikely given what he accomplished against Germany, but maybe the best memories for Asano are ahead of him. "It is a really great time for me, I am enjoying my football and my life also. I am 30 now and a different player to when I was young.
"In the future also, I think I will become a new Takuma Asano." What then? "We have to go to the Europa League with Mallorca and after that I look to the World Cup next year. I have to be there. I think about that all the time." Still chasing that next special moment.
malablata
1
British and work permit. No wonder Nigerians can fake it to get there.