This group is surely a toss-up. I don't see Japan playing like the #4 overall team in the world in this World Cup. Taller teams and more physical teams will handle them easily. Basically any European team, and the American team can beat Japan easily in this World Cup. Plus Brazil can beat them. I see Japan being no better than the 8th or 9th best team (in terms of odds) in winning the entire World Cup. However, Japan is in the easiest group. Most likely they will qualify out of this group. They should beat New Zealand and Mexico, right? Well, maybe, maybe not. And here comes the shocker. New Zealand will beat Japan. It will be the shocker of the tournament. Let's not forget, New Zealand had a 2-0 lead on Japan in the 2008 Olympics (opening round game of the group stage). New Zealand then blew it. They have the type of team that can hang with Japan, and if they contain Japan's offense enough, look out. If Japan isn't finishing strong, New Zealand can win. And that's exactly what I see happening. So New Zealand moves on? Right? Wrong. It will be their only win or result. They will finish the group with 3 points. England will win the group. Mexico will finish 2nd. England and Mexico (in a stunning 2nd place finish) advance. In the most "wild" group of play in women's world cup group round history. There will be some "classic" matches in this group. Despite being the "Group of Life", it will be the most thrilling group of the World Cup. The matches will be that intense, fighting it out for those top 2 spots. New Zealand beating Japan will "shake-up" this group.
I agree this group will be full of surprises and for me anyone could qualify from Mexico England and Japan. From what I have seen in Cyprus New Zealand are weak when they loose the ball and will ship goals on the counter attack. England has to choose a few players in the starting 11 eleven and has the recurrent snail defense weakness ( Alex Scott is the only fast player in the back 4) plus potentially Brown in goal and I would say England to go home early with her in goal
I think New Zealand will end dead last with 0 points. Judging by their friendlies this year they won't stand a chance against the other teams. Mexico on the other hand seem to have improved a lot. I don't see them progressing from this group but they should be hard to beat for England and Japan.
This should be the most competitive group right down to the final day, because finishing second means playing Germany in the quarterfinals. If England want to go far in this tournament they have to top the group.
Quick quiz - name the only unbeaten team in the 2010 (Men) World Cup I pick Japan & Mexico, despite a heavy English fan presence.
England will definitely make it out of this group. They are also playing on European soil (the other 3 teams in this group are not from Europe). England just beat the American team 3-2 back in April. This is the best team this England group has ever fielded. They keep getting better every 4 years. They made the Quarterfinals in 2007, and this a better England team than in 2007. Let's not forget, England made the final of the women's (UEFA) euro tournament in 2009. They are the strongest team in this group. Japan is the highest ranked (#4 in the world), but the most overrated team in this group. Japan has only made the Quarterfinals once (maybe twice) in big tournament history. That came in the Olympics. Japan has never made it to a Quarterfinal in the Women's World Cup before. The bigger, stronger, more physical teams beat up on Japan, especially in the air for possession and for 50-50 balls. And to answer your question. New Zealand. They had 0 wins, 0 losses, and 3 draws in the 2010 Men's World Cup. Let's not forget that USA also went undefeated in their own group as well (and won the group over England), but then lost to Ghana in the 1st round of the knock out stage. Those speedy African teams give the U.S. men's national team fits.
That comes as news to me, since Japan lost to the United States in the quarterfinals in the 1995 Women's World Cup. They made the quarterfinals in the 2004 Olympics and the semifinals in the 2008 Olympics, losing to the United States both times. You are, however, entirely right that the rankings don't do justice to the teams in this group. England are the strongest team, although they are capable of dropping points. Mexico and Japan are close, and Mexico may just have the edge. New Zealand are like their men's side: capable of causing trouble, but without the attacking bite that could get them out of the group.
I think this group could be wide open. England and Japan should make it out of the group, but England can be very inconsistent and Japan didn't look very good against the USA in those two recent friendlies. You have to wonder how much the devastation in Japan is on their minds and if it's affecting them. England just doesn't make sense sometimes. They look very good defeating the US 2-1. But then they have matches like last fall in the Peace Cup against New Zealand and South Korea where they played two 0-0 ties. What the heck is that? Anybody that's seen my posts on the WPS side know I think a lot of Aluko. But she's scored one goal in her last ten appearances for England, most of them starts. Carney is just getting healthy, I think and probably won't be the factor she used to be. I like Fara Williams in the midfield, a player I think is very underrated worldwide. I still think it's going to come down to Kelly Smith and goalkeeping. Japan has talent, but they really looked out of sorts against the US. They have a very strong midfield with Miyama and Sawa. I think Ohno is their most dangerous goal scorer with great speed. That back line is awfully short and England has some tall rugged players that will cause them problems on set pieces. I think Mexico is improving very rapidly, but their younger players might need a bit more seasoning before they're ready for what they're going to be seeing in Germany. I think they might be four years away from being a really strong team, but by then Dominguez will be well into her 30's. New Zealand is also improving and might make a better show of it than they normally do, but they're like 1-6 this year and I can't see them putting together enough good games to advance. They'll need to keep the matches low scoring. It wouldn't hurt my feelings if they advanced though, since their keeper Bindon grew up about 10 miles away from me. I'll go with the percentages and say England and Japan, but I could see those teams slipping up.
If its not on their minds, well then they seem to have had practically zero team preparation. The team was chosen mid-week, and the Boston Breakers signed Aya Sameshima the day after (after weeks of team training there) and she is rostered to play in their Sunday WPS game. But Boston has 5 "unavailables" because they have been away for God-only-knows with the USA team ! http://www.box.net/shared/r7c4c7du58fl8m8peqio What is she doing in the USA so late ? The tournament starts in 2 weeks. And I do agree they looked mediocre in the USA friendlies.
Unlike other teams that are either already training in Europe or will be shortly, I think Japan is waiting to go to Germany. They have a friendly scheduled in Japan against the Korea Republic on June 18. But you're right, Sameshima is going to have a lot of travel ahead of her. Boston to Japan and then to Germany.
Don't get to attach to their Cyprus tournament results and their 7th/8th placing (they were losing finalist last time), they were largely experimenting their new combinations. John Herdman the coach (and former coaching mentor to myself) said that they took a completely different shape to what they would do in the actual World Cup so that the Mexicans that dubbed them 5-0 would not have much to take away since NZ's true hand wasn't shown. Cyrpus was the experimental stage, the games against Australia and China is a dress rehearsal and then the pre-tournament warm games against Wales, Colombia and Denmark The games against Australia, NZ struggled and lost 3-0 and then dominated the next game but lost 2-1. The critics are saying that they should have drawn or even won. Against China they lost 0-1. (The mighty Chinese team have fallen to 15th rank in recent times and are not at the tournament). Yesterday NZ won 0-2 against Wales. However the games against co-qualifiers Colombia and Denmark on Saturday and Monday will be the telling story of what their situation as a team. I do think that maybe they do an upset over Japan in the open match. Also, they can tighten up and play a damning defense draw against England like their previous encounter if luck falls their way. Again against Mexico, it would be a different team shape than what they did in the Cyprus tournament. New Zealand tends to either punch above their belt and bring dark horse element to the group plays or they completely bomb out and it amounts to the fact of being in Oceania where they thrash everyone from the islands and the logistic and financial problem of getting appropriate level opponent to be competitive leading up to the World Tournament. Thanks to some of the money from the NZ mens reaching last world cup tournament and some government funding in recognition of the football having a rising profile in the country, I think that NZ will get a fair respect and showing in their games. If they do get a win over Japan first up, then don't expect them to stop attacking and tighten up in defence for that goalless draw for the next two games. A win and they will get a sniff to go hard out for those games. It could get physical in some places . . .
Right, I thought the 4-4-2 diamond shape they used was very ambitious. It was entertaining as well. An attacking philosophy is always good for supporters and spectators. I am personally very found of this tactics but it was the first time I have seen it in women's football. Most of the team tend to use 4-3-3, 4-5-1 or a flat 4-4-2.
Japan could only draw 1-1 at home against So Korea in a warmup today, and only the crossbar saved them from losing late on. Still the Korean goal arose from a GK blunder (Japan still uses the same GK who almost kept them out of the WC in the qualifiers) on a high ball. If they can keep the GK issues under control, then maybe they have a chance. But if not, they may be a disappointment. This was also Japan's one and only training match in the immediate run-up. Are they ready ?
Well today NZ beat co-qualifiers Colombia 1-0. According to the headlines, NZ gave the Colombian defence and goalkeeper a lot of heartache. http://msn.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10733220 The next game against Denmark could a really good game to watch, but I got to prepare for an interview later on so I can't get sidetracked.
england staring eleven could be: ---------------------bardsley a.scott--------f.white------------stoney-----unitt ------------j.scott-----------williams clarke--------------smith----------------yankey -------------------e.white
Just fyi. NZ lost to Denmark 0-1. http://tvnz.co.nz/football-news/ferns-edged-denmark-in-final-warm-up-4251667 5 more days to the pool group kickoff between Japan and NZ!!!!
Mexico looks strong on its defensive line, cohesive in its middfield, but short on its attack. Its first game will be against England and Mexicans had prooved they can deal with the physicaly strong and tall players of the US, one english mistake and they could be loosing that game. Against Japan thinks could be different for Mexicans, the Asian discipline has always been a problem the Latin Americans couldn't overcome. According to the first two games results, Mexico and New Zealand could have either a very boring or an incredible thrilling game.
Well England have snails like defenders except Alex Scott, so Mexico will definitely create chances, they just need to pu them away.
If anyones want to predcit todays results these are the results and ranking before these games Japan: 4th ranked New Zealand: 24th ranked Japan will beat New Zealand 2-0 Mexico 22nd ranked England 10th ranked England will beat Mexico 4-0
My prediction: Japan 2:0 New Zealand The Japanese preparations were heavily influenced by the earthquake, but I think they're still too strong for New Zealand. England 2:1 Mexico Mexico lost all their matches against better opponnents, but only by a small margin. So I expect them to perform in a similiar way against England.
Japan 3 NZL 1 and Mexico 1 England 1 I can really see the English girls struggle with the heatwave as this kind of weather does not exist in England...
It could be tight, but I fear that Japan and England may already be qualified after the first two match days.