We’re ready to exorcise our Japan demons
BRONZE STILL HAUNTED BY 2015 DEFEAT
For those in Phil Neville’s squad who have known a World Cup or two, a grim significance will always be attached to England’s next opponents. Defeat by Japan on a broiling Edmonton afternoon in the 2015 semi-final took some getting over.
‘It’s always at the back of your mind,’ full back Lucy Bronze recalled at the weekend. ‘We remember all the painful games. You remember all the big games that you’ve lost. But you do get over it.’
But while their World Cup pedigree — 2011 winners and 2015 finalists — is secondary only to the United States, Japan remain the game’s what-might-havebeens.
They are the only nation to lift the Under 17, Under 20 and senior World Cups, yet have still not managed to build a powerful women’s game.
It says everything about the attitudes of many that they go by the nickname of Nadeshiko — a delicate pink carnation. Many of their extremely youthful squad at this World Cup are taken from the successful 2014 Under 17 World Cup squad and the Under 20 group who lifted the World Cup last summer.
There’s a very real sense that coach Asako Takakura has more of an eye on next year’s olympics, with 14 players here who are under the age of 23.
When they won it in 2011, Japan’s players were sustained J-League’s men’s and women’s team reveal the same gulf in pay between men and women’s sides. There is an audience in Japan for the women’s game if those who run the Japanese game could only appreciate it. Viewing figures on the MyCujoo streaming service, which has until recently broadcast games from the top flight Nadeshiko domestic league, reveal more than 10,000 views, rising to 100,000 for clips of goals. The Nadeshiko top flight is now streamed on YouTube, though MyCujoo is screening Division 2 and selected Division 3 games. ‘The ambition is there,’ says one source. But the backdrop to the footage reveals empty stadiums. Attendances rarely top 1,000, only the national team’s games are broadcast on national TV and Tokyo-based champions Beleza don’t even have a permanent ground. Participation is a fraction of that in the USA or England. All of which explains why Japan are not among the favourites here. Yet what they do bring is an Hopeful: Bronze is set to face Japan on Wednesday extremely well-established way of playing and — equally significantly — an acute sense of national pride. Accepting they are neither the biggest nor the strongest team, they have focused for years on being one of the most skilled, with a possessionoriented, short- passing game. When it works, it can be hard to cope with.
In Takakura they have their first female manager; a modernthinking, highly communicative individual whose relationship with the players seems to be on a different level than her predecessors. ‘I think the team has a strong desire to move out of the shadow of previous generations, and create its own history,’ she said before the squad left Japan.
Bronze’s recollection of the 2015 semi include throwing up on the pitch and experiencing body cramps which forced her substitution after 75 minutes.
‘Maybe we weren’t quite ready to reach the World Cup final,’ she says of the game brutally decided by Laura Bassett’s 92nd minute own goal. ‘Now we are more prepared.’
Bronze also believes England’s 3-0 defeat of Japan in March’s SheBelieves Cup was significant.
But Nadeshiko like to thrive as underdogs. Neville and his players will have their work cut out.