The image of Eiji Kawashima as a footballing hero in Japan has never sat too comfortably next to the image of a calamity keeper that Dundee United fans would rather forget.
Granted, he had plenty of company in the unmitigated disaster category in that United relegation team.
But Arabs had a right to expect much better from an international player whose mid-season signing was described as a “fantastic coup” by Mixu Paatelainen after work permit red tape was eventually cut through.
From gifting Kane Hemmings a goal in his Dens Park debut to a jittery display in the Doon Derby at the same venue, Kawashima looked anything but a goalkeeper capable of amassing over 80 caps and appearing at three World Cups.
United fans watching the Group H game against Colombia would have been suffering from tortuous flashbacks of opposition players celebrating while Kawashima ran to the referee wagging his finger.
His chief gripe in Scotland was the physical attention he got at set-pieces. “If there is one thing that has surprised me it is the amount of fighting in the box,” was one quote.
Nobody was roughing him up when he was slow to react to a pea-roller of a free-kick under his wall for Colombia’s first half equaliser, though.
Japan were a goal up and Colombia a man light after just five minutes. Kawashima, who had next to nothing to do for most of the remaining 85, nearly cost his country the win with his end of first half day-dreaming.
Unlike at Dens, however, his team-mates were able to bail him out.
