Japan v. Sweden 130711

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Japan Serve Up An Object Lesson In Possession Football

by Jeremy Ruane

Japan gave the watching world an object lesson in possession football during their FIFA Women's World Cup semi-final in Frankfurt on July 13, coming from behind to absolutely destroy Sweden 3-1 in front of 45,434 fans, who, like the Swedes, were simply mesmerised by Nadeshiko's superb possession game.

Football Ferns coach John Herdman, in his very first post-match conference at this tournament, labelled Japan "the Barcelona of women's football". The world today saw just what he meant.

Both teams began in an understandably nervous fashion, given what was at stake. Both were guilty of stray passes, and it was from one such mistake that the scoring was opened in the tenth minute.

Homare Sawa's radar was off when she played the ball in the general direction of Azusa Iwashimizu, and the playmaker looked on in horror as Josefine Oqvist stole in and swooped on the loose ball.

The striker stormed past the stranded defender and into the penalty area behind her, from where Oqvist smashed an unstoppable drive across Ayumi Kaihori and into the far corner of the net - a classic striker's goal.

Japan carried on unperturbed, and began to impose their passing game on proceedings. A delightful six-player move swept from right flank to left in the thirteenth minute before Aya Miyama whipped in a cross which Hedvig Lindahl plucked off the head of its intended target, Kozue Ando.

Six minutes later, Nadeshiko were level with a goal which boasted a superb build-up, but a fortuitous finish. Iwashimizu played the ball out of defence to Shinobu Ohno, who made a driving run at the Swedish rearguard before spraying the ball wide to Miyama.

Her first-time cross on the run arced towards the far post, where the retreating figure of Oqvist attempted to clear the ball as she arrived in tandem with Nahomi Kawasumi. But the scorer of the opening goal only succeeded in diverting the ball against the leg of the Japanese striker, and it ricocheted off her through the legs of the startled figure of Lindahl into the net.

Sweden responded to the equaliser by engineering another opening in the 23rd minute. Lotta Schelin, who could make little impact on the game because, like her team-mates, she was powerless without the ball, evaded a couple of challenges in midfield before spreading play wide to Linda Forsberg.

She got around Aya Sameshima brilliantly - ball one side, she the other - before whipping in a low cross which went agonisingly behind the incoming Schelin. Little did we know it, but that was as close as Sweden were to come to scoring again.

Because Japan simply cherished possession from then on. When they lost it, they were like a swarm of blue bees hunting down the ball, and they almost always got it back again inside thirty seconds.

It was one-touch precision passing and on- and off-the-ball movement at its brilliant best. A joy to behold, and a pleasure to watch. In the 28th minute, Ohno worked an opening on the right with fullback Yukari Kinga coming up inside her on a charging run into the penalty area.

As she got to the by-line, Kinga stopped dead, and the two covering Swedish defenders went racing on by. The fullback angled a pass into the stride of the unmarked Kawasumi, who drove her twelve-yarder straight at Lindahl.

It was a let-off for Sweden, and more were to follow.

Six minutes later, Miyama's twenty-five yard free-kick arced over the defensive wall and forced Lindahl to tip the ball round her near post before colliding with it.

A further three minutes elapsed before Japan's next move sliced Sweden to ribbons. A one-two between Miyama and Ohno resulted in the former playing the ball in to the edge of the penalty area, where Sawa, Kawasumi, Mizuho Sakaguchi and Ando all got involved in a rapid-fire interchange of passes before Ohno unleashed a drive which was deflected to safety.

Sweden simply had no answers. On the stroke of half-time, Sawa headed a Miyama corner narrowly over the bar, while fifty seconds after the resumption of play, Kawasumi took advantage of Sara Thunebro's failure to cut out a pass to her to set up Ohno for a vicious dipping thirty-yarder which hit the crossbar.

Another tantalising Miyama free-kick was eventually scrambled clear by Sweden in the 49th minute, and they launched a sharp counter-attack through Oqvist, their best player on the night. She threaded the ball through for Schelin, but Sameshima was back to avert the danger.

In the 59th minute, Japan scored the goal their display so richly deserved. A brilliant back-heel from Ohno allowed Kinga to get in behind the defence, and she turned the ball back to the striker, who whipped in a wicked cross.

Kawasumi was the recipient of the ball, and set up Miyama for a drive which was blocked by a defender. The ball fell to Sameshima, who floated in a cross for Ando which lured Lindahl out of goal.

The goalkeeper managed to make some contact with the sphere, but succeeded only in directing it down towards the incoming Sawa, whose header looped into the net.

Five minutes later, the game was up for Sweden. Sakaguchi sprayed the ball wide to Miyama on half-way, and she instantly sent the ball through the inside left channel for Ando to chase. Lindahl raced out to avert the danger, but looked on in horror as her clearance sat up perfectly for Kawasumi to volley into the empty net from thirty yards.

3-1, and seemingly no way back for Sweden. They enjoyed a rare chance to peg back the deficit in the 68th minute, when Oqvist set off on another surging run at the defence before slipping the ball through to Schelin. But it ran away from her and on to Kaihori, much to the striker's frustration.

Lisa Dahlkvist chanced her arm from twenty-five yards in the dying stages, to no avail, but Nadeshiko should have finished the game with an exclamation mark. A stray Therese Sjogran pass was pounced on by Japanese substitute Yuki Nagasato, who evaded a challenge before blazing a shot wide of the target with just Lindahl to beat.

But Sweden's goalkeeper and her team-mates had already been well beaten by a Japanese side which enjoyed 60% of possession in the match, and deservedly progressed to their maiden FIFA Women's World Cup Final, which takes place at this venue in four days' time.

Japan: Kaihori; Kinga, Iwashimizu, Kumagai, Sameshima; Ohno (Takase, 86), Sawa, Sakaguchi, Miyama (Kamionobe, 89); Ando, Kawasumi (Nagasato, 74)

Sweden: Lindahl; Svensson (booked, 70), Larsson, Rohlin, Thunebro; Forsberg (Jakobsson, 64), M. Hammarstrom (Landstrom, 69), Dahlkvist, Sjogran; Schelin, Oqvist (Goransson, 75)

Referee: Carol Anne Chenard (Canada)

2011 Draw