Ladies’s World Cup: Spain and Japan Advance to Spherical of 16; Canada Beats Eire Japan and Spain turned in assertion wins as they headed to a showdown subsequent week. Canada discovered simply sufficient to win in opposition to Eire in a downpour. Give this text
Canada vs. Eire Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters Canada vs. Eire Paul Kane/Getty Photographs Canada vs. Eire Paul Kane/Getty Photographs Canada vs. Eire Mick O’Shea/Sportsfile, by way of Getty Photographs Canada vs. Eire Colin Murty/Agence France-Presse — Getty Photographs Spain vs. Zambia Phil Walter/Getty Photographs Spain vs. Zambia Phil Walter/Getty Photographs Spain vs. Zambia David Rowland/Reuters Spain vs. Zambia Abbie Parr/Related Press Spain vs. Zambia Phil Walter/Getty Photographs Japan vs. Costa Rica Lars Baron/Getty Photographs Japan vs. Costa Rica Molly Darlington/Reuters Japan vs. Costa Rica Alessandra Tarantino/Related Press Japan vs. Costa Rica Sanka Vidanagama/Agence France-Presse — Getty Photographs Printed July 26, 2023 Up to date July 26, 2023 5 Spain Group C Full Time 0 Zambia Teresa Abelleira (9’) Jenni Hermoso (13’) Alba Redondo (69’) Jenni Hermoso (70’) Alba Redondo (85’) 2 Japan Group C Full Time 0 Costa Rica Hikaru Naomoto (25’) Aoba Fujino (27’) 2 Canada Group B Full Time 1 Eire Megan Connolly (45’+5’, personal aim) Adriana Leon (53’) Katie McCabe (4’)
Is it time to begin speaking about Japan as a title contender? Aoba Fujino, proper, helped Japan make its case as one of many prime groups on this area. Credit score… Lars Baron/Getty Photographs Two video games. Seven targets scored. None allowed. Japan has arrived on the World Cup with its foot on the gasoline and emerged with two straightforward wins. 4 days after opening with a 5-0 thrashing of Zambia, Japan dispatched Costa Rica, 2-0, with targets three minutes aside halfway by the primary half. Hikaru Naomoto and Aoba Fujino did the honors on Wednesday, changing into the fifth and sixth gamers to attain for Japan in its first two video games. But it surely has been the style wherein Japan has gained — with an abundance of pace and technical capability and a protection that has surrendered solely two pictures on course by two video games — that increase an intriguing query: May be time to begin together with Japan, a World Cup champion solely a decade in the past, within the dialog about which staff would possibly win this 12 months’s event? Japan’s coach, Futoshi Ikeda, raised the prospect after his staff’s opening win. Its second won’t change his opinion. “We’ve got these gamers who’ve grown up seeing Japan change into world champions,” Ikeda informed reporters after the Zambia recreation. “We want to take up the problem once more to be champions.” It has been greater than a decade since Japan gained the 2011 World Cup, beating the US. However its fortunes pale after that: Routed by the US within the 2015 remaining, Japan was eradicated within the spherical of 16 4 years in the past. Few consultants had included them on the rising checklist of title contenders on this 12 months’s expanded event. Now Japan (together with Spain) is among the first groups by to the knockouts: Spain’s 5-0 victory in opposition to Zambia on Wednesday despatched each Japan and Spain on to the spherical of 16. Their assembly to shut the group stage on Monday would possibly provide a very good information of which staff can really take intention on the title. Present extra
Canada overcomes a problem from Eire to get its first win on this event. Adriana Leon of Canada scored her nation’s profitable aim in opposition to Eire within the second half of the sport. Credit score… Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters Eire had notions of a primary World Cup win on Wednesday, nevertheless it was in the end Canada that got here out on prime, 2-1, ending Eire’s hopes of advancing additional within the event. After being held scoreless in a draw with Nigeria to begin the World Cup, Canada was capable of lastly get factors on the board with an personal aim late within the first half and a second-half strike from Adriana Leon. The personal aim within the forty ninth minute, which tied the sport and gave Canada a wanted increase, capped a frenetic first half wherein it appeared every thing had gone Eire’s approach as rain poured down in Perth, Australia. Canada entered this World Cup because the reigning gold medalist from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. However the Canadians have solely superior previous the spherical of 16 within the World Cup as soon as, and have been hoping this time for a deeper run. These plans acquired off to a rocky begin in opposition to Nigeria and seemed to be much more unsure early in opposition to Eire. Eire’s first-ever World Cup aim got here in model. The Irish captain, Katie McCabe, stepped up for a nook kick within the fourth minute and let fly a curving, left-footed shot that discovered the higher left nook of the aim, simply over the outstretched fingers of Canadian goaltender Kailen Sheridan. OH MY GOODNESS, OH MY OLIMPICO 🇮🇪
KATIE MCCABE WHAT A WAY TO SCORE YOUR FIRST GOAL IN A FIFA WOMEN’S WORLD CUP! pic.twitter.com/OFWwbMGd8W — FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 26, 2023 Scoring instantly from a nook kick is uncommon — a feat identified colloquially within the sport as an Olimpico. Megan Rapinoe, the U.S. star, has scorError 400 (Dangerous Request)!!1400.That’s an error.The server can not course of the request as a result of it’s malformed. It shouldn’t be retried.That’s all we all know.anticipated matchups of this World Cup comes with enormous stakes, because it almost definitely will decide which of those groups has a better path out of Group E. But it surely comes off unsatisfying performances by each the US (in a 3-0 win over Vietnam) and the Netherlands (1-0 in opposition to Portugal) of their opening video games. “We weren’t at all times clicking on the sector,” the US co-captain Alex Morgan stated this week. The People determine to have a harder activity in opposition to the Dutch. The Netherlands beat its first opponent, Portugal, by solely a single aim, however didn’t enable a shot on course till the 82nd minute. And therein lies the issue dealing with the US: that sturdiness, self-discipline and group can be powerful to interrupt down. Their recreation is scheduled for Thursday afternoon in New Zealand, or 9 p.m. Jap time Wednesday.
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