As the only person that is actually watching the Women's World Cup right now I feel it is my duty to report about how some of what is going on is actually interesting and worth watching. I've taken a particular interest in Spain, USA, and Japan and those are the only games that I am actually watching. Yesterday, even though it was on during a very inopportune time of day, I stayed up to watch the Japan vs Costa Rica game because I feel as though I am more interested in Japan than I am in my own country of USA.
I expected Japan to win the match but the level of complete domination that they showed during the match and only allowing 4 shots on their own goal with only 1 shot on target, was a masterclass in how defense should be done. Costa Rica was truly outclassed and Japan probably could have score several more goals but appeared to be taking it easy as they removed key players well before the end of the match.
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If someone tuned in 30 minutes late to the game they would have missed what quite possibly could end up being the most eventful 3 minutes of the entire World Cup as Japan scored 2 goals in 2 minutes and both of them were absolute crackers. I can't say if it was the weak defense of Costa Rica or if Japan is really that talented as far as getting around the defenders, but both of those goals were on a really high level of precision, particularly the last one.
The lack of concern by the global community was pretty evident in this matchup because I am the only person that I know that actually watched the game and despite playing in a rather enormous stadium, there was less than 7,000 people in attendance. I think this should be a relatively easy to notice key point as far as the "pay equality" debate is concerned. During the men's World Cup in Qatar, as there EVER an empty seat for the entire match? I don't know the stats on that but I am definitely certain that there were far more than 7k people at every game.
It's a shame that more people didn't take notice of this because it really was an amazing game, especially on the part of Japan who has looked just incredible in their first 2 games scoring a total of 7 goals and conceding 0. Things might be a bit different when they face Spain next though because the Spaniards have been destroying their opponents as well and both Spain and Japan are already guaranteed a spot in the bracket stages.
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I think these stats are somewhat wrong because I watched the entire game and I don't recall Costa Rica getting that many shots off and the ones they did take except for one were well off target. I suppose it doesn't matter. Whether or not that possession % is correct is anyone's guess but as someone who saw it all, even if Costa Rica did manage to have possession for that long they failed to do almost anything with it. Virtually every time they attempted a pass more than 10 meters away a Japanese midfielder or defender was there to intercept. When Japan had the ball they did an absolutely magnificent job of maintaining possession and in a very effective way. Their method of attack seems to favor the sides so it will be interesting to see how they utilize this against Spain, who has one of the best defenses in the tournament.
One thing that I think could hold Japan back going forward is that their players are relatively small and headers are going to be really tough when all the players on the oppositions side are 4-6 inches taller than their strikers.
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Despite this being a seriously one-sided affair everyone kept their cool on the pitch and I believe a lot of this has to do with the fact that Japan generally plays with honor and it is nearly impossible to have anything against them. They don't dive, they don't intentionally make bad tackles... they are simply good at what they do. This is a big part of the reason why I am rooting for them because the theatrics of football of the soccer variety is something that seriously annoys me about the sport.
So far some of the games have been a lot more exciting than I had expected and I strongly encourage those of you out there to at least give the games as shot. Are they as exciting as the men? Of course not. But if you are like me there really isn't anything else to watch so you might as well!