A Girls’s World Cup of change, of surprising early departures and tantalizing arrivals, has accomplished its upending of certainty and custom.
No former champion stays within the event with two rounds to play.
Gone prematurely are america, with its 4 world championships, and Germany, with two. Ousted is Norway, the 1995 victor. And now Japan, the 2011 winner, has exited within the quarterfinals with a 2-1 defeat to Sweden on Friday in Auckland, New Zealand.
In fact, it might be extremely inaccurate to think about Sweden an arriviste. It has participated in all 9 Girls’s World Cups, ending second in 2003 and third 3 times. However it has by no means received a serious event and longs to be a first-time champion.
Sweden will face Spain within the semifinals after smothering Japan’s versatile assault within the first half after which defending for its event life within the second. It constructed what appeared a safe lead early within the second half by scoring twice not directly on its specialty, set items, then held on as Japan, determined and energized, made a fierce, if futile, cost.
Japan, which had scored 14 targets in its first 4 matches and appeared a good decide as the very best group left within the event, didn’t handle a shot within the first half. However it woke up because the exit door loomed, creating livid probabilities within the second half. However it’ll lengthy remorse a missed penalty kick within the seventy fifth minute.
“We fought so laborious as a result of we wished it,” Japan’s captain, Saki Kumagai, mentioned by way of tears. “We need to go to the following spherical, in fact.”
Sweden’s victory, Spain’s first journey to the semifinals and Japan’s exit appeared in line with the spirit of a World Cup with the event’s biggest-ever subject; the best attendance at this stage; and essentially the most receptive embrace of the newly-risen and revealing ambitions of groups like Colombia, Jamaica, Nigeria, South Africa and Morocco.
Lastly, FIFA can start to say with some legitimacy that the Girls’s World Cup gives an occasion of worldwide, not merely regional or entrenched, chance. The opposite facet of the draw is an identical reflection of that progress: Australia will face France, and England, the reigning European champion, will play Colombia.
On Friday, Sweden pressed excessive by way of the primary half to suffocate Japan’s assaults. However when it possessed the ball, Sweden was affected person, utilizing brief passes to take care of possession and in search of a protracted ball to make the most of its top and aerial abilities.
Within the thirty second minute, Sweden’s set-piece mastery delivered a scrappy aim. Six of its 11 targets within the event have come straight or not directly from set items — 4 from nook kicks. This time, midfielder Kosovare Asllani’s free kick rattled round within the penalty space and the defender Magdalena Eriksson stored the play alive with three jabs on the ball. Lastly, it fell to her fellow middle again, Amanda Ilestedt, who scored from simply contained in the six-yard field.
“I believed, ‘I’m simply going to place it away now,’” Ilestedt mentioned. “In order that was an amazing feeling.”
Even earlier than that, nevertheless, Sweden had set a bodily tone in opposition to the smaller, youthful Japanese gamers.
“They hadn’t performed, like, a bodily group till they performed us,” mentioned the Swedish substitute Sofia Jakobsson, who performs for the San Diego Wave within the Nationwide Girls’s Soccer League. “We’re larger than them and will go into more durable tackles.”
Because the second half opened, Japan’s goalkeeper, Ayaka Yamashita, pushed a shot simply broad from the charging Johanna Kaneryd, giving Sweden a nook kick. Fuka Nagano dealt with the ball because the nook sailed into the gang in entrance of Japan’s aim, and after a video evaluate, Sweden was awarded a penalty kick. Filippa Adngeldal slotted the ball low and to the left, giving Sweden a 2-0 lead.
It was not a secure one.
“One thing occurred,” Jakobsson mentioned. “I don’t know in the event that they have been rising into the sport or we have been changing into extra drained.”
After taking part in extra defensive-minded within the first half, Japan’s assault was energized by the substitute Jun Endo. Sweden had anticipated a vigorous comeback, with Eriksson warning earlier than that match that Japan’s assault may “come from wherever and they’ll by no means cease.” Her remark proved prophetic.
Within the seventy fifth minute, Japan received a penalty kick when the substitute ahead Riko Ueki had her heel clipped by Sweden’s Madelen Janogy. However Ueki’s shot clanged off the crossbar, and her header on the rebound looped excessive over the aim. It was steered afterward to Sweden’s left again, Jonna Andersson, that her group was residing a charmed existence within the knockout rounds, having survived a penalty shootout solely 5 days earlier to eradicate america.
Andersson smiled and mentioned she most well-liked to imagine it was the imposing presence Sweden’s very good goalkeeper, Zecira Musovic, not luck, that had made the distinction once more, no less than on Ueki’s try. “Perhaps it’s a superb goalkeeper that takes some power or disturbs the penalty taker,” Andersson mentioned.
Within the 87th minute, Japan lastly scored on a rebound by Honoka Hayashi after a failed clearance by Sweden gifted her a simple shot at Musovic. However not even 10 minutes of added time have been sufficient to discover a tying aim.
Japan was gone. And a first-time Girls’s World Cup champion waits its crowning second.
“I believe we’ve got the group to go all the best way,” Andersson mentioned. “And now we’re one step nearer.”