Japan fly in under radar to become hopeful for World Cup glory

The United States, the holders, and a European contingent led by continental champions England were touted as title contenders going into the World Cup. Nobody was talking about Futoshi Ikeda's Japan, who are ranked 11th in the world by FIFA. Even back home, expectations that they could pull off a repeat of their 2011 World Cup triumph were low.

"I think we were left behind by the sudden strides that the rest of the world were making," former Japan coach Asako Takakura, who led the team at the 2019 World Cup, told 'AFP' ahead of the 2023 edition.

Japan went out in the last 16 in 2019 but are already into the quarter-finals four years later. They won all three of their group games - a record matched only by Sweden and England - scoring 11 times and not conceding.

Wins over Costa Rica and Zambia were expected, but it was the 4-0 thrashing of Spain which made the rest of the tournament sit up and take notice. They followed that up with a 3-1 victory over former champions Norway on Saturday and now face Sweden for a place in the semi-finals.

Sergio Echigo is a famously hard to please columnist for the 'Nikkan Sports' newspaper in Japan. Even he is impressed. "Japan haven't really looked in danger in these four games so far," he wrote, saying that Norway played "old-fashioned football" compared to Japan.

"They didn't have technique but they had power," he wrote. "But this isn't an era when you can win just by using your power. Japan use passes, dummies, dribbles. They look greater than the sum of their parts."

 

August 5, 2023

Starting to believe

What is so striking about Japan is how devastating they are going forward and in front of goal. Spain had much more of the ball but had only two shots on target. Japan had eight attempts in total, got six on target and scored four.

The 23-year-old Miyazawa, who plays in Japan's domestic league, has been especially clinical. Combining speed with coolness in front of goal, she tops the scoring charts at the World Cup with five goals, despite never being prolific for Japan before.

"World, watch out for this one," former USA striker Jessica McDonald told 'Optus Sport'. "She's on a roll and once a striker starts scoring goals it's so hard to stop. Once you start gaining that momentum, once you start gaining that confidence in front of goal, you're scoring bangers in every game."

After low expectations at the start of the tournament in Australia and New Zealand, football fever is starting to reignite in Japan. The team's deserved win over Norway was front-page news in two national newspapers on Sunday.

"Could we see a repeat of what happened 12 years ago?" wrote Echigo. "I want to start believing."