Two video games. Seven objectives scored. None allowed.
Japan has arrived on the World Cup with its foot on the fuel and emerged with two straightforward wins. Four days after opening with a 5-0 thrashing of Zambia, Japan dispatched Costa Rica, 2-0, with objectives three minutes aside halfway via the primary half.
Hikaru Naomoto and Aoba Fujino did the honors on Wednesday, turning into the fifth and sixth gamers to attain for Japan in its first two video games. But it has been the style by which Japan has received — with an abundance of pace and technical skill and a protection that has surrendered solely two photographs on course via two video games — that elevate an intriguing query:
Might be time to start out together with Japan, a World Cup champion solely a decade in the past, within the dialog about which workforce may win this yr’s match? Japan’s coach, Futoshi Ikeda, raised the prospect after his workforce’s opening win. Its second won’t change his opinion.
“We have these players who have grown up seeing Japan become world champions,” Ikeda advised reporters after the Zambia sport. “We would like to take up the challenge again to be champions.”
It has been greater than a decade since Japan received the 2011 World Cup, beating the United States. But its fortunes light after that: Routed by the United States within the 2015 remaining, Japan was eradicated within the spherical of 16 4 years in the past.
Few consultants had included them on the rising checklist of title contenders on this yr’s expanded match. Now Japan (together with Spain) is without doubt one of the first groups via to the knockouts: Spain’s 5-0 victory towards Zambia on Wednesday despatched each Japan and Spain on to the spherical of 16.
Their assembly to shut the group stage on Monday may supply a great information of which workforce can actually take intention on the title.
Ireland had notions of a primary World Cup win on Wednesday, however it was in the end Canada that got here out on prime, 2-1, ending Ireland’s hopes of advancing additional within the match.
After being held scoreless in a draw with Nigeria to start out the World Cup, Canada was in a position to lastly get factors on the board with an personal objective late within the first half and a second-half strike from Adriana Leon.
The personal objective within the forty ninth minute, which tied the sport and gave Canada a wanted increase, capped a frenetic first half by which it appeared every thing had gone Ireland’s approach as rain poured down in Perth, Australia.
Canada entered this World Cup because the reigning gold medalist from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. But the Canadians have solely superior previous the spherical of 16 within the World Cup as soon as, and have been hoping this time for a deeper run. Those plans bought off to a rocky begin towards Nigeria and much more unsure early towards Ireland.
Ireland’s first-ever World Cup objective got here in type. The Irish captain, Katie McCabe, stepped up for a nook kick within the fourth minute and let fly a curving, left-footed shot that discovered the higher left nook of the objective, simply over the outstretched arms of Canadian goaltender Kailen Sheridan.
Scoring straight from a nook kick is uncommon — a feat recognized colloquially within the sport as an Olimpico. Megan Rapinoe, the U.S. star, has scored two such objectives, each throughout the Olympics themselves.
The second half was all Canada, which dominated possession of the ball.
Canada, with the win, put itself again in prime place to achieve the spherical of 16, although Australia’s sport towards Nigeria on Thursday will clarify what every of these groups want out of their third sport. Ireland, with two losses, won’t advance.
Spain and Japan appear to to be attempting to one-up one other from afar. Soon, they’ll get a direct showdown to see who emerges from their group with the extra favorable path within the knockout levels (Spain, with yet one more objective than Japan, has a slight benefit in that it could end first within the case of a draw).
Soon after Japan beat Costa Rica, Spain pounced on Zambia, relentlessly attacking a workforce that was all the way down to its third-string goalkeeper and clearly overwhelmed defensively.
Of course, some photographs have been simply unstoppable it doesn’t matter what, like a laser shot from the fitting foot of Teresa Abelleira that caught a good nook of the objective.
Alexia Putellas, the reigning world participant of the yr, returned to start out on this sport after coming in as an alternative in Spain’s first match, an essential step for Spain because it tries to ramp up her play.
Many followers have been looking forward to the showdown between Spain and Japan, which is scheduled for Monday. That will possible be a contest to find out who wins Group C, although each groups are threats to make even deeper runs.
Japan’s 5 objectives have been the headline from its opening win towards Zambia, and it adopted that up by overwhelming Costa Rica on Wednesday, 2-0.
Rose Lavelle is definitely conscious that Wednesday’s match towards the Netherlands on the Women’s World Cup is an enormous deal.
The sport is a rematch of the 2019 World Cup remaining, received by the United States, and of a gathering between the groups within the quarterfinals of the Tokyo Olympics, additionally received by the United States. Its outcome most certainly will decide which workforce will end first within the Group E, and thus which one will get a better path within the knockout levels.
For all these causes, for all that historical past, for all the celebrities on each groups, the sport is, by definition, an enormous deal. But Lavelle runs on one setting: chill. So at a information convention on Tuesday in Wellington, Lavelle provided temporary solutions about her standing (“I’m ready”), her well being (“good”) and her maturation right into a starring function on the U.S. workforce (“I’m just … me”).
She gave no indication that she considered the big game a bigger deal than any other. She predicted, in fact, that it would be “fun.”
About the only revelations in 30 minutes of questions and answers alongside Coach Vlatko Andonovski was that Lavelle might be in for a more prominent role against the Netherlands — her presence at the pregame news conference alone suggested she might be in for a start — and that Lavelle considers quite a few things to be “fun.”
Among them:
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The U.S. team’s win over the Netherlands in the 2019 World Cup final.
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Her memory of that game.
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Thursday’s rematch against the Dutch.
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Watching World Cups.
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Playing in World Cups.
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Scoring a goal in the World Cup final.
Yes, Lavelle said that scoring the clinching goal for the United States in the World Cup final was fun, one of nine times she used the word in her news conference. And in her defense, that goal in 2019 looked like a lot fun: a full-speed straight through the Dutch defense, a cutback to split two defenders, a low shot rocketed into the corner of the goal with her left foot, a celebration of a lifetime goal achieved.
The goal remains one of the touchstone moments of Lavelle’s career. But asked if it had changed her life, or her, in any way, she seemed to shrug.
“I always say I think I would have expected a moment like that to feel like I’m different, or change me,” she said. “But I don’t really feel like it did. It was a goal and it was fun, but, I don’t know, I feel like I’m still just, me.”
One of the most highly anticipated matchups of this World Cup comes with huge stakes, since it most likely will determine which of these teams has an easier path out of Group E. But it comes off unsatisfying performances by both the United States (in a 3-0 win over Vietnam) and the Netherlands (1-0 against Portugal) in their opening games.
“We weren’t always clicking on the field,” the United States co-captain Alex Morgan said this week.
The Americans figure to have a tougher task against the Dutch. The Netherlands beat its first opponent, Portugal, by only a single goal, but did not allow a shot on target until the 82nd minute. And therein lies the problem facing the United States: that sturdiness, discipline and organization will be tough to break down.
Their game is scheduled for Thursday afternoon in New Zealand, or 9 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday.
Norway is in about the worst position it could have imagined going into its third game of the Women’s World Cup: It has a loss and a draw; its best player, the 2018 Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg, did not play on Tuesday because of discomfort she felt during warm-ups; and one of its most respected midfielders, Caroline Graham Hansen, tore into her coach after the game for dropping her from the lineup.
“People talk all the time about ‘standing together as a team’ and ‘standing together as a nation,’” Graham Hansen told the Norwegian broadcaster Viaplay after the game. “It is not true that you should get anything for free in this life. But I thought I had earned a certain amount of respect.”
Still, because of a strange set of results in its group, in which every team but the Norwegians has a win, Norway is very much in play to go from last in the Group A standings to the round of 16 if it can beat the Philippines on Sunday.
The scenarios for advancing at the World Cup can often be convoluted, but we’re here to help. The Upshot has again produced a team-by-team look at who would move on given the possible outcomes for each game, accounting for the complex system of tiebreakers that comes into play each tournament.
The charts show, for example, that Norway — which entered the tournament as the top team in its group based on the FIFA rankings — could use a bit of help from Switzerland. And, conversely, the math shows that Switzerland probably might want Norway to win, too, to give the Swiss some chances to advance even with a loss. New Zealand and the Philippines each can advance with a win, but also with a draw, depending on how things play out.
These scenarios will be updated as each group wraps up its second set of games, giving you an immediate look at what each team will need in its final group-stage game to advance to the knockout rounds.
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