Japan eves set up Aussie clash after Dutch win
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Japan completed the quarterfinal lineup for the Women鈥檚 World Cup on Tuesday when the defending champion rolled into the last eight with an impressive 2-1 win over the Netherlands.
The only team in the tournament to have won every game, the Japanese dominated the Dutch debutantes with their speed and skill and move on to Edmonton and a Saturday meeting with Australia, which booked its last eight spot with an upset win over Brazil.
An early strike from Saori Ariyoshi and a 78th-minute missile from Mizuho Sakaguchi accounted for Japan鈥檚 scoring, while Kirsten Van De Ven provided some late drama when her tame injury-time header somehow found its way past a static Ayumi Kaihori.
For the Dutch the loss was double disappointment ending their stay in Canada and a chance to qualify directly for the Rio Olympics.
The top three European teams at the World Cup will qualify for Olympic berths which will go to France and Germany. England also made the quarterfinals but is ineligible for the Olympics meaning the other European nations that appeared in the World Cup; Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain and the Dutch will now play a mini-tournament next year to decide the third spot.
鈥淚 would like to say that we ended every attack with a shot. That was the key to success,鈥 Japan coach Nori Sasaki told reporters. 鈥淚 am sorry to say we kept your suspense right until the end.
鈥淚 tried to have a stable one-sided game but we always have these tense moments.
Playing their first match in nine days, the Dutch looked rusty and were fortunate to reach the break just 1-0 down after Japan dominated the opening half, generating chance after chance and hammering 13 shots at the rival goal.
But the Netherlands came to life in the second and were close to finding an equalizer in the 75th off a wild scramble from a corner, Kaihori blocking the initial goal-bound deflection before Van De Ven had her blast blocked on the line.
Despite the close call the 鈥楴adeshiko鈥 refused to panic and calmly worked the ball down the field with Sakaguchi providing a thundering finish to some superb buildup play that included a cheeky back heel pass and dummy run.
The match against Australia is a repeat of last year鈥檚 Women鈥檚 Asian Cup final that the Japanese won 1-0 in Vietnam.
鈥淎ustralia is a completely different team this time, they have improved quite a lot,鈥 said Sasaki. 鈥淭hey are technically better. I must say Australia has great potential right now and we need to be aware of that.鈥
And, Australia coach Alen Stajcic does not think the Matilda鈥檚 campaign would come to an end on Saturday.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got a big assignment on our hands 鈥 the current world champions and a very good team,鈥 he said. 鈥淏ut as I鈥檝e said before we鈥檙e a very good team as well and we鈥檝e been dangerous against everyone and there鈥檚 no reason we can鈥檛 be dangerous when we play Japan and be a real threat.
鈥淚鈥檓 confident we can beat them but it鈥檚 going to be an extremely tough match and we will need to be at our best for 90 minutes.鈥
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