AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — The knockout stage teams have emerged from one of the eight groups at the Women’s World Cup – Spain and Japan out of Group C – and they’re both in goalscoring form.
La Roja and Nadeshiko each have beaten Costa Rica and Zambia soundly. The pair stand Nos. 1 and 2 in goals scored in the group stage so far with eight and seven, respectively. Each team has yet to allow a goal through two matches.
Next up will be a meeting of the two on Monday to decide which team tops the group. Because of its extra goal, Spain holds the edge in the event of a tie.
Spain can be flashy, and can score in bunches. Against Costa Rica, all of the goals in its 3-0 win came over six minutes in the first half. In Wednesday’s 5-0 rout of Zambia, Spain coach Jorge Vilda said his team “slowed down” after two early goals, implying the margin could have been even uglier.
But what nice goals those early ones were.
Teresa Abelleira gathered the fourth pass of a Spanish possession and ripped off a 58 mile-per-hour (93 kph) strike from well outside the box. Four minutes later, Alexia Putellas found Jennifer Hermoso, who slipped behind the defense and scored on a nifty one-time header.
“I know the players will have to recover well physically, think about the match calmly, look at what we need to improve, and do a precise diagnostic of what happened” after the initial scoring burst, Vilda said. “From there, we will prepare the team for Japan. I have no doubts that they will play with everything, that they will have great attitudes. (Our) group works well together, which also eases my worries and gives me confidence to take on what is to come.”
Japan relies on crisp passing to set up chances from strong defensive counters. A few veteran strikers paired with 19-year-old Aoba Fujino, who scored Wednesday in the 2-0 win over Costa Rica and had numerous chances against Zambia, have shown promise for Nadeshiko.
“Our preparation did show on the field. We (have) good defense, we didn’t give any points to the other team,” Japanese midfielder Hikaru Naomoto said. “Because we have good defense, we are able to play more offense.”
Winners of the 2011 Women’s World Cup and runners-up four years later, Japan scored just three goals in four matches at the 2019 edition France, getting knocked out in the round of 16 by the Netherlands. It's different in New Zealand.
“There are some players who are at the World Cup for the first time, but they are so energetic and that makes me so happy,” Japan coach Futoshi Ikeda said. “The team is working together as one unit. This unitedness is a forte of Japan.”
The two sides played an international friendly in November, a game Spain won 1-0 at home.
How much that says about next week’s match is hard to tell. Japan dominated shots 13-6 and 6-3 on target but couldn’t find the net.
La Roja played without stars Hermoso and Putellas, while Japan had most of the prominent names from its current Women’s World Cup team on the pitch.
What is for sure is when Spain and Japan play in Wellington it will be one of the most intriguing matches of the group stage.
“We haven’t seen the best from Spain yet, that is very clear,” Vilda said. “Now we have four days to improve, recover physically and mentally, and to play a better game against Japan.”
___
Max Ralph is a student in John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State.
___ AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-womens-world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
