World Cup final
July 17, 2011
The Swedish trainer of the United States national women's team, Pia Sundhage, is an optimist. When she was asked before the soccer tournament where she would be during the final on Sunday, July 17, Sundhage said she would be there on the bench in Frankfurt hoping to guide her side to victory.
Indeed, Sundhage will be there in a sold-out Frankfurt Arena to take her place in a bid to repeat the US's title successes in 1991 and 1999.
Along the way, though, she has lost at least a little of her self-confidence, with Japan's national side commanding considerable respect in the American camp.
"I am very impressed by the way they play," Sundhage said.
Sundhage has not been the only one to be impressed by a Japanese side which, despite having an average player height of only 1.64 meters (5.5 feet), has already knocked two title favorites out of the competition.
In the quarter final, they wore down the German hosts with an almost flawless performance and some decisive counter-attacking in extra time. In the semis, it was the Swedes who in the end were beaten by their tactics.
Poor past record
Before the tournament, Japan had failed to progress from the group stages in four out of five of the tournaments they took part in. Their record in the past has been far from outstanding. However, in this tournament, Japan have finally emerged as one of the best teams in international women's football.
A significant share of the credit should go to Norio Sasaki, the Japanese national trainer and mastermind behind the country's successes.
Even before the World Cup, he had set winning the title as the target for his side and at the time had been ridiculed for doing so. Despite this, Sasaki and his squad proved any detractors wrong thanks with a run of success that owes much to the team's outstanding tactical discipline.
The Japanese game owes much to individual skill but an equal amount to the positioning and movement between different parts of the team. Both are used to stifle the opposition's build-up play and force them to make mistakes, tactics that were used with ruthless efficiency against Germany and Sweden.
Japan's star of the show
A key role is played by the experienced and goal-hungry Homare Sawa, who has scored four goals already. However, at every opportunity she has stressed that the team is more important than her hopes of winning the tournament golden boot. Having played 172 games for the national team, she is something of an equivalent to Germany's Birgit Prinz - still delivering some of her vey best performances.
At one press conference, a perspiring Sawa brought a smile to observers by not sitting down so that she did not make anything dirty.
Such polite restraint is not so typical of the US striker Abby Wambach, who was the top goal scorer for her team in the last two tournaments. The team finished third in both cases – with Wambach saying that anything other than the title would be a disappointment.
Such penetration in attack could prove a decisive advantage for the US, who will also have to hope for another strong performance from their goalkeeper Hope Solo, given the dangers posed by the Japanese forward line.
Swedish elation, French disappointment.
In the third-place play-off, Sweden took third place in the Women's World Cup on Saturday, defeating France 2-1 despite playing with only 10 players in the final minutes of the match.
Star striker Lotta Schelin put Sweden ahead in the first-half when she scored on a pass from defender Sara Larsson against France's goalkeeper Berangere Sapowicz in the 29th minute.
Author: Joscha Weber / rc
Editor: Toma Tasovac