The Japanese national women’s football team clinched the Women’s Asian Cup title with a 1-0 win over Australia in the final in front of a record-breaking crowd in Sydney on Saturday.
Tottenham star Maika Hamano slammed home a stunning long-range strike in the 17th minute at Stadium Australia to break the Matildas’ hearts and hand the Nadeshiko their third regional crown, adding to the previous titles they won in 2014 and 2018.
The exciting decider culminated a landmark tournament with more than 350,000 fans coming through the turnstiles, reinforcing the growth in popularity of the women’s game.
This was around six times as many as the previous record set in 2010 in China, with the 74,397 fans at the final setting a new attendance mark for a single game in tournament history.
The Asian Cup doubled as qualifying for the World Cup in Brazil next year, with Australia, Japan, South Korea, China, North Korea and the Philippines all punching their tickets.
Japan XI put to the fire against tough Aussies
Stacked with England-based players, the Nadeshiko were invincible in their run to the final, fluid across the park and defending well to steamroll everyone in front of them.
The winner-takes-all final proved to be tougher than the Nils Nilsen-coached team expected, as the Australians defended well and prevented more goals from passing through their defense by the relentless Japanese side.
After the game, Greenlander Nilsen expressed a sigh of relief with the victory, saying that the game was just as he predicted – a “50-50” showdown.
“It’s very difficult to play Australia in Australia and I have to say they made themselves proud.”
“In the end, I’m just happy. The girls fought with everything they had.”
His counterpart, Australia coach Joe Montemurro, felt dejected after the game, lamenting on the wasted opportunities her team could have capitalized and reversed the tide of the encounter.
“We had opportunities and they had a couple of opportunities too, it was a tight game,” said Montemurro.
“But we were competing with the number six team in the world. Credit to the girls for their performance. It just wasn’t our night.”
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Japan, Australia engage in a tough battle
Japan, which fielded an unchanged line-up from their 4-1 semi-final thumping of South Korea, went up against the Australians, who made one change from their 2-1 defeat of defending champions China with Wini Heatley preferred in central defense to Clare Hunt.
The hosts sought to dictate the tempo of the final encounter and Caitlin Foord almost scored in the 11th minute when Mary Fowler threaded a pass through inside the box.
However, Foord sent her shot into the arms of Japan keeper Ayaka Yamashita, missing a golden opportunity.
It proved costly, as Japan broke the scoreless tie six minutes later when Hamano collected the ball outside the penalty area and unleashed a 25-yard rocket that found the top corner.
Foord had another chance when she pounced on a sloppy clearance from Yamashita, but failed to find the target from a tight angle, then scuffed another wide just before the break.
Japan and West Ham player Riko Ueki almost gave the Nadeshiko a two-goal lead but her attempts missed the target.
With the minutes winding down, Australia threw everything they had at Japan in a desperate attempt to find an equalizer as the crowd noise reached fever pitch.
However, the Japanese defence was much prepared and prevented any goal-scoring chance to pass through them using their tough defence until the final whistle sounded, signalling their victory.
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