Morita was at the center of another costly penalty call in Liga Portugal on Saturday, as Sporting were leading 1-0 when the Japanese midfielder was judged to have handled the ball against Aves SAD. The VAR alerted the referee to the hand touch, and Pedro Lima finished the move by making it 1-1.
The incident came in the second consecutive match in which Morita committed a penalty, after he had already done so in Sporting's defeat against Benfica. For Sporting, the timing made the mistake especially damaging because the side had the lead and the chance to control the match.
That is the context around a sequence that will linger: a midfielder identified by the source as Japanese, repeatedly caught in the same kind of moment, and a Sporting team that saw an advantage disappear. In a tight league race, these are the moments that decide whether a lead becomes three points or a regret.
The tension now is not whether the foul mattered — it did — but how Sporting respond after the second straight jornada in which Morita's penalty incident changed the game. Aves SAD took what was offered, and Sporting were left to absorb another avoidable setback.
