By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
It was a classical display of football artistry by the Nadeshiko of Japan as they took the Copper Queens of Zambia to the cleaners by scoring five unreplied goals
in the opening Group C match on Saturday morning played in Waikato Stadium, Hamilton, New Zealand.
The 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup champions showed they are in Down Under for business by over running the hapless Zambians with goals from Hinata Miyazawa 43′, 62′; Mina Tanaka 55′; Jun Endo 71′ and
Riko Ueki 90’+11′ via penalty goal.
Worst still, Zambia lost her inspirational goalkeeper Catherine Musonda after double card offences that led to the penalty that gave Japan the fifth goal.
For the Africans, it was a baptism of fire for Head Coach Bruce Nwape and his players as they could not match the standard displayed by the Coach Futoshi Ikeda who had in the past taken Japan’s U-17 and U-20 women’s football teams to win the Women’s World Cup trophies before he was drafted to handle the Nadeshiko.
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This is the Women’s World Cup debut for Zambia, which is the lowest-ranked team to ever qualify for the tournament at No. 77 in the world hence it would have been an upset they beat Japan which has much more experience, making eight previous appearances and winning it all in 2011.
Japan has been on a roll of late, winning three of its last four games, including against Olympic champions Canada in February’s SheBelieves Cup in the United States of America (USA).
Japan’s two previous goalscorers, Tanaka and Miyazawa hooked up for a pretty play on Japan’s third goal of the match. Tanaka just saved the ball from going out of bounds near Zambia’s goal and rattled off a superb dime to Tanaka, who finished the job in front of the net.
However, after two offside penalties on potential goals, Tanaka finally got her goal, as she smoothly slid to convert a nifty pass from Jun Endo. It marked Tanaka’s fifth goal in international play.
What could have been another goal for Japan was called back after VAR determined that Tanaka was just a hair offside hence Referees,
Tess Olofsson of Sweden disallowed it. That was the third score taken off the board for the squad due to an offside penalty.
Teamwork makes the dream work as Japan played crisp soccer throughout the first half, finally seeing its work pay off as Miyazawa struck pay dirt with her fifth international goal.
Japan had the pressure on from the game’s outset, and after multiple early chances, was able to put away a goal courtesy of a stellar sliding shot from Tanaka. But after the referees checked with VAR, the goal was nullified by an offside call.
It was a match the Zambia coach would like to forget quickly and plan for the next game as his 4-1-4-1 formation as against Japan’s 3-4-2-1 failed to work for his team in the first match on Saturday.
Also, Nwape has to tweak his tactics and playing personnel in the remaining two group matches if he hopes to get favourable results that will guarantee Round of 16 ticket.
As it stands, Japan is top of the group and followed by Spain after a 3-0 defeat of Costa Rica in earlier match while Zambia is the bottom of the log.
