Kerr is still confident of reaching the last 16
SHELLEY KERR insists Scotland can still reach the last 16 of the World Cup despite their 2-1 defeat to Japan yesterday.
Penalty decisions again went against the Scots, with another first-half concession, but there was no luck at the other end, either, as they had a stonewall claim for handball turned down.
‘It’s not a hard-luck story, but I’ve watched (the handball) back three times and it is a penalty,’ said head coach Kerr. ‘But there’s no point dwelling on it — we still need to focus on getting a result against Argentina. This game has gone.
‘It’s great we have scored two goals over the two games because it might play a part in us getting out of the group stage, although we still have to beat a good Argentina team.
‘Our target was to get out of the group and we’re still in a good position to do it.’
Kerr’s main concern was about the nature of the two first-half goals, scored by Mana Iwabuchi and Yuika Sugasawa — the second from the penalty spot.
‘We conceded two bad goals — they were mistakes,’ she continued. ‘But, take them out of the game, and it was much closer.
‘We saw the real Japan today, and huge credit to them — their movement was incredible. We knew it would be. We tried to set up in a way to stop them, but in spells we didn’t do that, which is understandable against world-class players.
‘There won’t be many teams ranked 20th who play against seventh-ranked Japan and thirdranked England and run them so close.’
Kerr said she never considered copying the tactics of Argentina, who held Japan to a 0-0 draw by packing bodies behind the ball and smothering the space in their own half.
‘Tactically, I’m not a coach to sit in and park the bus because we’ll never improve that way,’ she said. ‘We’ve improved massively over the last 18 months because we’ve got a philosophy to play with style and we have done that. ‘We always knew it would be tough.’ Goalscorer Lana Clelland, who came on as a substitute for Lisa Evans 15 minutes from the end, added: ‘I’m delighted for myself, getting my first appearance and my first goal at a World Cup, but, at the end of the day, it’s disappointing.
‘We’ve lost and we need to pick ourselves up and go again for the next game.’