It’s a matter of luck in that if she had the same opportunity at points in ten different matches, she puts it away 7 or 8 times. She has the requisite skill, but people aren’t machines.
This is the 4th time Japan has made the knockout rounds. Fox must have forgotten about '95, when they lost to the US in the quarterfinals.
I think that might make the attack more effective but right now the Japanese are proving pretty ineffective in getting out of their end so any long ball produces a chance to win the ball in the attacking third. Japan scores because the central defenders forget to mark the only player in front of goal but spreads out to give her space and fails to step forward to put her offside. Good execution by Japan and a failed defense by the Netherlands.
What can we say? It's Fox! Go wonder how much they pay (or not) to get sports statisticians and sports historians.
Well 1-1 at half and I think it is about right. BTW: That last free kick by the Dutch was horrendously bad.
I’d love Japan to beat the Dutch and send them on the first plane back home Their goal made it look ridiculously easy to combine your way towards goal and score - Spain take note!
Based on the first half, Japan have been easily the better team. I expect the Dutch to come out more assertively in the second half. Teams tend to stand off Japan in tournament games once they have scored and it is never wise.
Well... My take on this debate is that I have to agree with @FanOfFutbol . I was blessed to see what characterizes top strikers in both the men's and women's game, and I would say that technique matters a lot since it is a primary constituent to ruthlessness. Going a little off-topic to illustrate an example: I saw many seasons of Danny Welbeck to know when a forward has the right technique or not. My god, Danny was such an embarrassment in front of goal so many times, and I had so many hopes on him when he managed to get in good positions so often. Instead, his misses made him the laughing stock of all England.
Yeah I have no idea how anyone could say Japan was the better team in that half. They literally generated one chance (though it was a beautiful goal). The Netherlands were all over them for most of the half...and Miedema should have scored that absolute sitter right after the Japan goal...she shot it right down the middle from the middle of the box...yikes. I would expect the Netherlands to win based on the first half, but the defending on the Japanese goal was woeful. They press up really high so Japan's chances are going to be of a higher quality if they get through the press. The Japanese keeper has been really alert, and coming out quite far to save them a few times on very dangerous balls over the top, too. van de Sanden needs to come off she's been pretty poor I thought.
Great strikers like Batistuta, Caniggia, Crespo, Romario, Ronaldo (the Brazilian one) all missed many times, sometimes when it seemed easier to score than to miss. Does not mean that they were not highly skilled goal scorers. As someone else posted on this thread, people are not machines. The Japanese player made her shot with very good technique. It just didn't go in. Unlucky, that's football.
Guys, I am sorry to copy/paste from Nadeshiko Japan thread, but I am watching the game on TV and I don't have much time to chat here... I'll further comment later. Quote from myself: Guys, I am having fun, no matter what! I like how Japan is playing. Martens goal was nice, but after all, it was just a fluke from a set piece. For the rest we controlled the game well, and Sameshima's duel with Van de Sanden is very engaging. Netherlands didn't have more chances than us: they had the goal and that central shot by Miedema saved by Yamashita after our equalizer. We had a post by Sugasawa and a goal. Very balanced game, despite what the announcer of Italian TV thinks (for some reason, he shamelessly roots for Netherlands, to the point that he calls all of their players right, while he keep confusing Japanese players and calling Ichise for Kumagai or Miura for Sugita! ). I like the fact that our GK Yamashita is playing as a sweeper: nice move and it's working so far. My only complaint is that we could press Netherlands defense more: very often in this 1st half, Iwabuchi and Sugasawa were uselessly turning to look if anyone was going to help their press, but Japan didn't want to make it easy for Netherlands, so they let Dutch CBs pass the ball to each other for long stints, keeping their patience. Looking forward to 2nd half: no matter how it goes, this game is saving Japan's honour.
I thought I remembered seeing Japan playing in and advancing in the 1991 cup in China. But that was a number of head knocks and a lot of coaching and such ago and my old brain has probably combined memories or something like that. Getting cleared to enter China in '91 was a real hassle (due to my US military background) and I spent several days at various consulates and the memories from that time are more than a little fuzzy. It would have been easy for me to confuse teams even during play as I almost never saw anything in English and Chinese (neither Mandarin or Cantonese) are not languages I had any familiarity with. But we now have a tied match and the second half should be interesting. I still think Japan needs Endo in the match or the Dutch will run wild up and down the left side of Japans defense because they have little to fear from counters.