The U-17 Japan Women's National Team had their third match of the group stage against the United States in the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Jordan 2016 on Saturday 8 October at Amman International Stadium in Amman.

The contest between Japan, who had maintained their momentum with back-to-back wins, and the USA, who were striving for three points after falling to Ghana in the last match, turned out to be tense from the beginning.

While Japan tried to string passes together from the back line and enter the opposing end, the USA built a strong defensive block. The USA sent the ball they robbed quickly to the strikers to hit on the break for a goal.

Right after allowing shots to Civana KUHLMANN in the 28th minute and Ashley SANCHEZ in the 32nd minute, Japan gave up the opening goal for the first time in this tournament in the 33rd minute despite surviving out of the previous two pinches. When the Japan side failed to clear a goal kick from the opposing goalkeeper and let it go behind their defensive line, SANCHEZ picked it up and found the back of the net.

Japan tried to come back with NAGANO Fuka and KANNO Oto taking a pivotal role with a wide range of passes side to side and TAKARADA Saori attempting to find openings on the right flank. But they struggled to take a shot unguarded against the opponents’ solid defence. The first half finished at 1-0.

The team enhanced their motivation to attack with a word of "Let's try to go forward. We'll get a win," and improved attacking pace from the start of the second half. The side players also tended to maintain a high position. In the 53rd minute, their tenacious offensive efforts finally paid off, when UEKI reacted to Kanno's corner kick. Her header was cleared by an opponent once, but Ueki headed home the deflection to level the score at 1-1.

With supportive cheers from local audience calling out "Japan" and Japanese supporters shouting "Nippon," the young Japanese girls came close to the opposing goal. In the 75th minute, MIYAZAWA Hinata received the ball on the right side and passed it with one touch to Sugano, who ran through the front space. Sugano composedly netted it home with her left foot to help the team turn the score around. Japan's momentum was enhanced even stronger, when Miyazawa fired a blast in the 77th minute to extend the lead to two.

Although the USA closed a gap to one goal with a penalty kick in the closing minutes, Japan kept up their attacking attitude before finishing the match with a 3-2 win. Japan qualified the group atop with three consecutive wins, becoming the only team in the tournament to achieve the feat.

Match Details

In the quarterfinals on Thursday 13 October, Japan are scheduled to play against England.

Coaches' and Players' Comments

KUSUNOSE Naoki, Coach (U-17 Japan Women's National Team)
The US team were good as we expected. That’s my impression. Including the opening goal we conceded, it’s very difficult for us to move forward once they start taking advantage of their physicality. In the end we won the match, but for us to be a complete team, we still have more to do. This match gave us many assignments, so we want to tackle them one by one and get ready for next match. We are here to win the championship, so to raise the percentage of us achieving that, we want to prepare ourselves for the quarterfinal carefully and thoroughly.

FW #14 KOJIMA Seira (Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies Youth)
Before today, we lost to America twice in two matchups. Today I think we could show our strong will to win. During the half time, us being a goal behind, our coach said “We can’t keep playing like this. We will lose and leave with regret.” And we changed our mindset, which greatly affected the outcome. Me personally, I want to keep working on what I could do well today, and at the same time, I want to improve my weakness as well for the next match. Regardless of when and how long I get to play, I want to contribute to the team. 

MF #8 MIYAZAWA Hinata (Seisa Kokusai High School Shonan)
After all we won the match, but overall the match left us a lot of assignments. Especially in the first half, we including myself couldn’t have many moments to join our offence. So we should have corrected it on the pitch. Speaking of the goal I scored, that was one of my favourite plays. Kitamura Nanami’s drawing defenders’ attention with her run helped me. We had only one goal lead, so I tried to strike without worrying too much. From the quarter-final on, I want to be the focal point of creating our attacking rhythm. For example, I want to take it up by myself and send a cross. I want to join attacks more frequently. 

B.J.SNOW, Coach (U-17 USA Women's National Team)
First of all, I want to congratulate the Japan team, their coaches and association who have built such a wonderful team. Japan wear us down almost every time we play against them. We have to execute the very difficult task of keeping running throughout the 90 minutes, and on top of that we need luck as well. My players kept fighting until the last minute and we were very close to beating Japan, but we fell short. We had been undefeated for two and half years until this tournament. But in a tournament like this, once you stumble, the tournament is then over in a blink of an eye. My players and us team staff learned that lesson.  

Schedule

*Local Time
*The schedule is subject to change due to the team condition, the weather, etc.