Japan have a chance to defend their FIFA Women’s World Cup title against the United States on Sunday. It’s a rematch of the 2011 final as well as the Olympic gold-medal match they played a year later, and it’s an invitation for the Japanese to join the elite of the women’s game once and for all.
They were never a traditional powerhouse.
Before winning the World Cup in 2011, Japan had never overcome the quarter-final stage. Much of their progress goes down to coach Norio Sasaki, who took over in 2008.
To beat much more physical teams, Sasaki put emphasis on ball control, football smarts and concise passing, which produced a kind of tiki-taka effect.