Kyogo Furuhashi: 'Celtic's little forward makes big impact on League Cup final'
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Kyogo Furuhashi, draped in a Japan flag, lifts his first Celtic trophy after his match-winning show in the final
When Kyogo Furuhashi exited the stage at half-time at Hampden he did so with a flea in his ear from a posse of Hibernian players, a group made angry at the Japanese striker going to ground a tad too easily for their liking.
Their ire might have been understandable, but giving the wee man a hard time is not always a good idea. Still in his infancy as a Celtic player, we do know certain things about Kyogo. Provoking him usually comes at a cost.
He took precisely a minute of the second half to send a shot across Hibs' bows, a portent of what was to come. Kyogo didn't dominate this final with his excellence from start to finish, but he settled it with his ruthlessness.
He hadn't been mapped in the final for 45 minutes. He came into it struggling for fitness having missed a few games through injury and he looked a shadow of himself. No darting movement, no attempts on goal, no danger to a well-organised defence.
Maybe Hibs switched off to his threat. Maybe they were so high on taking the lead they forgot about the menace he brings in a yard of space. "The magician", as Nir Bitton called him later, levelled it even before the Hibs fans had returned to their seats in celebration of their opener.
The timing of his run off the shoulder of the last defender was exquisite, the plaintive cries of the men left behind by his movement familiar to us all by now. We've seen this happen before. Many times. We'll see it again. Many times.
Having scored the equaliser, Kyogo then added what turned out to be the winner. It's not like he was perpetual motion throughout the day. He wasn't. He had two proper chances and he buried both. For the rest of the time he was well managed, but that's what some of the best players are like.
They're quiet and then they score. They're quiet and then they score again. Defenders come off the pitch having had him in their pockets for all bar two moments. And those two moments were the only ones that counted.
The speed of thought and movement and the sumptuous dink that won the final will go down in Celtic legend. It was all so fast and so lethal.
Hibs complained the free-kick that led to the winner wasn't a free-kick, but it was. They complained it was taken too quickly, but it was strange gripe. A few of their players had an arm in the air in protestation when Kyogo stole in and lobbed Matt Macey, but they were only drawing attention to themselves. Hands up who's been done by Kyogo. Join the club.
Kyogo lobs the winning goal over Hibs keeper Matt Macey to complete Celtic's cup final comeback
For Hibs, regret comes by way of chances created and not taken. Oh how those opportunities will pain them. Kevin Nisbet twisting and turning Carl Starfelt - who had a deeply uncomfortable final - but failing to beat Joe Hart on 68 minutes.
Nisbet then hitting the crossbar on 89 minutes and Paul Hanlon failing to convert the follow-up. Joe Newell was then unable to beat Hart five minutes into stoppage time. Struggling for so long to find a class goalkeeper, Celtic now have one in Hart.
Agony for Hibs - and anger, too. With a minute to go of normal time they should have had a penalty. In the midst of the double chance for Nisbet and Hanlon, Ryan Porteous was shoved by Starfelt and nothing was given. There was outrage in the Hibs camp in the wake of that. Understandably.
These things tend to be one-eyed, though. In the first half, a dreary affair before everything burst into life, Celtic could have had a penalty of their own when Paul McGinn put two hands into Greg Taylor's back and the Celtic player went down. Nothing was given there either. Hibs' fury was borne out of the lateness in the day when their call was ignored. A bitter blow.
Where Hibs go from here is anybody's guess. They have Shaun Maloney, in all probability, coming in as manager and he'll inherit a band of players who are capable of rousing themselves when the stars are aligned, which isn't nearly often enough.
Their semi-final against Rangers and some of the stuff they delivered in the second half here are the outliers in a season of disappointment. Maloney's task is to figure out who are the real Hibs - the one flatlining in the Premiership or the crew who are capable of scaring the top two clubs in the country half to death in the cup?
One of the things Hibs lack is a Kyogo, but there aren't many of him around. From a bit-part player in this final to the day's central character. From accusations of diving to pained expressions on the faces of his accusers as he scored his 15th and 16th goal in only his 25th game for Celtic.
Paul Hanlon's header squeezed over the line but Hibs held the lead for just one minute
Five in Europe, eight in the Premiership, including the only goal on a tough night against Hearts and now both goals in his first cup final. Normally it takes a while to become an icon. Kyogo has done it in five months.
There will be Celtic players who have made a more explosive beginning to their days at the club but Kyogo has to be in that pantheon. For a guy to arrive from the other side of the world and into a new league in a new country with a new set of players speaking a new language and to be so ruthless so quickly is an extraordinary thing. The time it took him to collect his bags in Glasgow airport and make his way to Lennoxtown appears to have been his settling-in period.
At the end he paraded around Hampden with a Japan flag around his shoulders and the adulation of the Celtic fans ringing in his ears. Bitton said it was incredible he even made the starting line-up, given his state of fitness that saw him ruled out of their last two games against Motherwell and Ross County. "Every time we need him he's there with a little sparkle," he added.
Ange Postecoglou brought Kyogo to this country, a masterstroke on a grand scale. He spoke about the player and also about the person, the fact that, as good a footballer as he is, he's also a tremendous character. He mentioned that Kyogo was not 100% fit. How fit is hard to judge, but in the game-breaking moments, he was the fittest man around. He was on a different level. Just too good.
At the end, the manager gave his striker a bear hug and it wasn't all that clear when Postecoglou was going to let him go. Not for a long, long time if the manager has anything to do with it.
"He had it in his mind that he was going to play," said Postecoglou of the injury concerns around his player and Kyogo declaring himself fit.
"I don't know how he did it. What a fantastic player and what a fantastic person. This football club and him are a match made in heaven."
Certainly, they're in paradise now.
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