Women’s World Cup (Soccer)

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      For Sweden, the Right Way to Play Is the One That Wins

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      The World Cup semifinal between Spain and Sweden will be a battle of styles, of passing versus pragmatism. Opponents discount the latter at their peril.Peter Gerhardsson’s plans for Monday evening sounded blissful. He had set some time aside for a swim. He would have a bite to eat, and then retire to his room at Auckland’s palatial Cordis Hotel to listen to some music.He also wanted to make further inroads into “Resonance,” the German sociologist Hartmut Rosa’s examination of how we interact with the world. Gerhardsson is enjoying it enormously; his readiness to discuss it makes that abundantly clear. He figured he could fit all of that in and still be in bed by 9 p.m. He does have a World Cup semifinal to coach on Tuesday, after all.Should that last prospect have been causing Gerhardsson, the manager of Sweden’s women’s soccer team, any sort of stress or strain as he addressed the news media a day before his team plays Spain at Eden Park, he hid it extremely well.He has, after all, been here before: This is his fourth major tournament in charge of his homeland, and it is the fourth time he has made the semifinals. Sweden finished third in the 2019 World Cup, won the silver medal in the 2020 Olympics, and then reached the last four at last summer’s European Championship. By this stage, it is familiar ground.He was relaxed enough, then, not only to discuss his reading material but the philosophical imprint of Johan Cruyff; the art of scrapbooking; and his longstanding — if, being completely honest, slightly dwindling — tradition of calling his mother before games to solicit her advice. (He does not do it quite so often now, he said, because he is “old enough to make my own decisions.” Gerhardsson is 63.)Sweden Coach Peter Gerhardsson bristles at criticism that his team’s mix of set pieces and defense isn’t aesthetically pleasing. “It is good football for me.”Hannah Mckay/ReutersOnly once did he betray even the merest hint of irritation: at the lingering perception that Sweden’s progress to the semifinals past both the United States, the reigning champion, and a widely admired Japan side has come in a fashion that might not be described as aesthetically pleasing.Sweden’s leading goal scorer, for example, is Amanda Ilestedt, a central defender who would not have been regarded before the tournament as an obvious contender to win the World Cup’s Golden Ball. “Nobody was expecting her to do that,” her teammate Fridolina Rolfo said.Ilestedt, though, has now plundered four goals — a tally bettered in the tournament only by Japan’s Hinata Miyazawa — all from set pieces, either at the first or second remove. She has proved particularly adept at emerging victorious when the ball is ricocheting around the penalty area in the aftermath of a corner or free kick. Or, in Gerhardsson’s rather more poetic rendering, “picking up the fruit when it has fallen from the tree.”That, in part, illustrates why Sweden has proved such a magnet for euphemism. Gerhardsson’s team has variously but consistently been described throughout this tournament as “direct,” or “effective,” or “physical.” Jorge Vilda, the Spanish coach, added “strong” to that list.All of these words mean the same thing: Sweden is a set-piece team, a long-ball team, a percentages team. The allegation is unspoken, but it is loud, and it is clear: Sweden might be winning, but it is doing it in a manner that is — on some moral or spiritual or philosophical level — wrong.Somewhere beneath his placid surface, that suggestion clearly irks Gerhardsson. “One of our strengths is set pieces,” he said Monday. “Both in the offense and in the defense.” He became just a little more animated. “It is not just a strength: We have players who are very technically skilled at it. We practice a lot.”It is not all they are, he said, noting, “It is just one way for us to win games.” But even if it was, would that really be such a problem? Gerhardsson wanted to make this point very clearly: Set pieces, he said, “are part of the game.”They are, of course. His logic is impeccable. His job, and that of his players, is to win soccer matches. It is not to win in any particular style. No one type of play that achieves that goal is more virtuous than any other. Besides, aesthetics are subjective: Gerhardsson, for what it is worth, likes Sweden’s mixture of high pressure and dogged, intense marking. “It is good football for me,” he said.Sweden has eliminated two former champions, the United States and Japan, and stands two wins from its first Women’s World Cup title.Scott Barbour/Associated PressThe faint disregard for Sweden, instead, says more about soccer’s fashions than it does about the inherent worth of the team. Unlike its opponent on Tuesday, Spain, Sweden does not claim to espouse or symbolize any particular philosophy. It is concerned less with how the game as a whole should be played and more with how any individual match might be won.If it has an identity, indeed, it is a reactive one. “We are very good at adapting,” the midfielder and captain Kosovare Asllani said. “We have a very good team around the team. They do a lot of work for us to prepare the tactics to face any team in the tournament. We have different ways to face different games. They allow us to be fully prepared for anyone.”That flexibility meant the Swedes could not be physically intimidated by the United States and could not be undone by Japan’s slick, inventive counterpunches. They might have required a penalty shootout, settled only by the narrowest margin imaginable, to overcome the U.S., but against Japan they were in a position to grind their opponent down. Ilestedt opened the scoring from a corner. Filippa Angeldal settled the game with a penalty.It was put to Gerhardsson that Spain might best be thought of as a combination of those two opponents: just as strong, just as imposing as the U.S., but no less technically gifted than Japan. He agreed. Spain is a wonderful team, he said. He has always been a Cruyffian at heart, an admirer of the intricate, technical soccer that Spain has come to represent.He did not sound intimidated. He did not sound troubled at all, in fact. The thrust of the book by Rosa on his night table, as Gerhardsson explains it, is that we — as humans — are not good at accepting that we do not know what is going to happen. To him, that has always been the beauty of soccer: It is unpredictable.An unheralded Sweden team might get past the United States and Japan. It might run into Spain, long hailed as women’s soccer’s coming force, and be expected to be swept aside by its sheer philosophical purity. Or it might turn out differently. “Maybe they are the perfect opponents for us,” Gerhardsson said of Spain. He does not know. He is OK with that. He is, in fact, entirely relaxed about it. More

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      England, Bruised but Unbowed, Reaches World Cup Semifinals

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      The Lionesses, champions of Europe, rallied past Colombia but now face yet another hurdle: a semifinal with host Australia on Wednesday.England entered the World Cup knockout stages still waiting to look like the dominant team it had hoped it could be. Sure, England had yet to lose a game — an accomplishment during this chaotic tournament — but so far its performances had seemed a few rungs short of the level required to accomplish its goals: to reach its first final, to lift the World Cup trophy for the first time.England had arrived in Australia last month without three of the country’s best players, all ruled out because of serious knee injuries. Another starter was hurt in the group stage and missed a game and a half. Then the Lionesses lost their best offensive player at this World Cup, the young midfielder Lauren James, to a suspension after she stamped on a Nigerian player in the round of 16.But on Saturday night, in front of a Sydney crowd that presented yet another hurdle by favoring the upstart Colombians as the host nation’s preferred next opponent, England found a way forward again.Overcoming an early goal with one of their own just before halftime and a second midway through the second half, the Lionesses delivered the kind of performance they had been saying was just around the corner, beating Colombia, 2-1, to advance to the semifinals for the second straight World Cup.There, England will face Australia, which hours earlier had claimed its place by winning an extended penalty shootout against France up the coast in Brisbane.“We have been put up against a lot this tournament,” said forward Alessia Russo, “and we always find a way through.”Russo scored the winner in the 63rd minute, a right-footed finish after an assist from midfielder Georgia Stanway and a momentary lapse by Colombia’s defense that sent her in alone. Her coach and teammates used the word “clinical” to describe both Russo’s shot and the team’s focus, refusing to panic despite falling behind.England’s Lauren Hemp challenging for a ball in midfield.Mark Baker/Associated PressThe stands were late to fill up at the start of the match, as many of the spectators appeared to be lingering outside, part of a raucous crowd in Cathy Freeman Park watching Australia edge France on an outdoor viewing screen. But when they did, it was clear the crowd favored the Colombians, who entered, against all odds, as the last team from the Americas still standing.Those supporters erupted when Colombia midfielder Leicy Santos opened the scoring from the right side of the penalty area in the 44th minute, her shot arcing just over the outstretched right glove of England goalkeeper Mary Earps, who had surrendered only one other goal all tournament.Surprised by the goal, England was reminded by its captain, Millie Bright, to stick to its game plan, to trust that its chances would come, too. Lauren Hemp provided the evidence almost immediately, tying the score only seconds before halftime by pouncing on a free rebound after Colombia’s goalkeeper fumbled the ball just steps from her goal line.England, the reigning European champion and a World Cup semifinalist four years ago in France, entered this tournament as a top contender but a wounded one, having lost forward Beth Mead, midfielder Fran Kirby and defender Leah Williamson to serious knee injuries in the months before the World Cup. The depth that had delivered a title at last summer’s Euros offered a measure of comfort for Coach Sarina Wiegman and her team, but a lack of goals that had marked the team’s run-up to the tournament showed no sign of abating once it began.Apart from a 6-1 win against China in the group stage, England had struggled to score, relying instead on Earps and a veteran defense. England produced single goals in its other two wins in the group stage, against Haiti and Denmark, and none at all in its round-of-16 win over Nigeria, which was only settled in a penalty-kick shootout after 120 scoreless minutes.Two goals against Colombia will not answer all of those questions for England, but the Lionesses turned in a far stronger showing than they had in the previous round. For one day at least, that counted as a positive.“You want to get better as the tournament goes, and I think we did just that tonight,” forward Chloe Kelly said.England will face an even taller task in the next round against Australia in front of another crowd even more eager to see it defeated. It will again be without James, whose two-game ban means she will miss the semifinal, too. But for Wiegman, neither the fans nor the stakes will be England’s biggest challenge.“No, it’s the opponent,” Wiegman said. “And ourselves.” More

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      Australia Beats France on Penalties to Reach World Cup Semifinals

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      Australia needed 10 rounds of penalty kicks to confirm its place in the team’s first semifinal, and extend its country’s wild ride.By the time it was over, the overriding feeling at the Brisbane Stadium was not so much euphoria or ecstasy or relief but dizziness. Not from the heights that Australia has reached in its home World Cup, beating France to reach a first semifinal, but from the winding, coiling, nauseating road it took to get there.The game itself was fraught enough, the goal-less stalemate of the score line belying more than two hours in which the balance of power hopped back and forth: France started well, composed and inventive, only for Australia to wrestle control. It was not an evening defined by patterns of play so much as storm surges, and the ability to withstand them.The 120 minutes of play before the penalty kicks were defined by each team fighting for control and withstanding pressure.William West/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe penalty shootout that decided it, though, was something else entirely. France missed its first kick, with Australia goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold denying Selma Bacha. Solène Durand, the substitute goalkeeper brought on by France as a penalty specialist — or, who knows, perhaps just a piece of psychological warfare — saved a shot from Steph Catley.Ève Périsset, introduced specifically to take a penalty, missed France’s fifth; Arnold, the goalkeeper, stepped up to win it. She stepped up confidently. Durand did not move. The crowd started to celebrate. Her teammates accelerated toward her. Her attempt struck the right post. Australia would have to wait.Each team had taken eight penalties by the time Arnold saved another, this time from Kenza Dali. The goalkeeper had, though, stepped forward too soon. It had to be taken again. Dali chose the same side of the goal, a double bluff. Arnold called it. She saved it again. Clare Hunt stepped up to win it for Australia. By that stage, it was hardly even a surprise that she could not convert.Instead, it would be Cortnee Vine who decided it. Vicki Bècho was the last French outfield player set to take a penalty; after her, Durand would have had to take her turn. But Bècho struck the post, and with a nation watching, Vine kept her composure, and Australia had survived, 7-6, in the shootout. The thunderclap that followed was tinged with just a hint of desperation, the energy ever-so-slightly frantic.Mackenzie Arnold saves a penalty from Kenza Dali.William West/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesCortnee Vine, a substitute, scoring the winning goal for Australia.Justin Setterfield/Getty ImagesFrance’s captain, Wendie Renard, consoling Vicki Bècho, who hit the post.Franck Fife/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesAustralia has, over these last three weeks, embraced this team in a way that has been simultaneously predictable — this is an enormous sporting nation, one that draws a considerable proportion of its identity from its prowess in the various sports it takes to heart — and wholly surprising to those who have witnessed soccer’s struggles for acceptance.It is not just that the stadiums have been full: The World Cup is an event, a showpiece, a good day out, and almost every country on the planet is united in enjoying the sensation of being part of a major event. It is that the streets are full of green-and-gold, that the newspapers have images of the Matildas front and center, that it is the primary topic of discussion.The fact Australia’s progress has continued will only exacerbate that, of course, now that the country is only two games from a world championship. It is the nature of it, though, that is perhaps the best advertisement for soccer’s curious charms.For three hours, nobody in the Brisbane Stadium could tear their eyes away, nobody could take anything for granted. As they walked away, they would have felt not only delighted and proud but nauseous and drained, too, their nerves frayed and torn by what they had been through. And that, after all, is the point of sport. It is what will draw them back in four days, when a semifinal, and the chance to live it all again, hovers on the horizon. More

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      Sweden Beats Japan to Reach Women’s World Cup Semifinals

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      Sweden followed up its elimination of the United States by holding off Japan, the last former winner in the field.A Women’s World Cup of change, of unexpected early departures and tantalizing arrivals, has completed its upending of certainty and tradition.No former champion remains in the tournament with two rounds to play.Gone prematurely are the United States, with its four world championships, and Germany, with two. Ousted is Norway, the 1995 victor. And now Japan, the 2011 winner, has exited in the quarterfinals with a 2-1 defeat to Sweden on Friday in Auckland, New Zealand.Of course, it would be highly inaccurate to consider Sweden an arriviste. It has participated in all nine Women’s World Cups, finishing second in 2003 and third three times. But it has never won a major tournament and longs to be a first-time champion.Sweden will face Spain in the semifinals after smothering Japan’s versatile attack in the first half and then defending for its tournament life in the second. It built what seemed a secure lead early in the second half by scoring twice indirectly on its specialty, set pieces, then held on as Japan, desperate and energized, made a fierce, if futile, charge.Defender Amanda Ilestedt opened the scoring for Sweden. It was her fourth goal of the tournament.Saeed Khan/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesJapan, which had scored 14 goals in its first four matches and seemed a decent pick as the best team left in the tournament, did not manage a shot in the first half. It awakened as the exit door loomed, creating furious chances in the second half. But it will long regret a missed penalty kick in the 75th minute.“We fought so hard because we wanted it,” Japan’s captain, Saki Kumagai, said through tears. “We want to go to the next round, of course.”Sweden’s victory, Spain’s first trip to the semifinals and Japan’s exit seemed in keeping with the spirit of a World Cup with the tournament’s biggest-ever field, the highest attendance at this stage and the most receptive embrace of the newly risen and revealing ambitions of teams like Colombia, Jamaica, Nigeria, South Africa and Morocco.Finally, FIFA can begin to say with some legitimacy that the Women’s World Cup offers an event of global, not merely regional or entrenched, possibility. The other side of the draw is a similar reflection of that growth: Australia will face France, and England, the reigning European champion, will play Colombia.Honoka Hayashi pounced on a loose ball and beat Sweden goalkeeper Zecira Musovic, but Japan was left to rue other missed chances.Phil Walter/Getty ImagesOn Friday, Sweden pressed high through the first half to suffocate Japan’s attacks. But when it possessed the ball, Sweden was patient, using short passes to maintain possession and looking for a long ball to take advantage of its height and aerial skills.In the 32nd minute, Sweden’s set-piece mastery delivered a scrappy goal. Six of its 11 goals in the tournament have come directly or indirectly from set pieces — four from corner kicks. This time, midfielder Kosovare Asllani’s free kick rattled around in the penalty area, and the defender Magdalena Eriksson kept the play alive with three jabs at the ball. Finally, it fell to her fellow center back, Amanda Ilestedt, who scored from just inside the six-yard box.“I thought, ‘I’m just going to put it away now,’” Ilestedt said. “So that was a great feeling.”Even before that, however, Sweden had set a physical tone against the smaller, younger Japanese players.“They hadn’t played, like, a physical team until they played us,” said the Swedish substitute Sofia Jakobsson, who plays for the San Diego Wave in the National Women’s Soccer League. “We are bigger than them and could go into harder tackles.”Riko Ueki sent her penalty kick off the crossbar, one of several narrow misses by Japan in the second half.Buda Mendes/Getty ImagesAs the second half opened, Japan’s goalkeeper, Ayaka Yamashita, pushed a shot just wide from the charging Johanna Kaneryd, giving Sweden a corner kick. Fuka Nagano handled the ball as the corner sailed into the crowd in front of Japan’s goal, and after a video review, Sweden was awarded a penalty kick. Filippa Angeldal slotted the ball low and to the left, giving Sweden a 2-0 lead.It was not a safe one.“Something happened,” Jakobsson said. “I don’t know if they were growing into the game or we were becoming more tired.”After playing more defensive-minded in the first half, Japan’s attack was energized by the substitute Jun Endo. Sweden had expected a vigorous comeback, with Eriksson warning before that match that Japan’s attack could “come from anywhere and they will never stop.” Her comment proved prophetic.Hana Takahashi and Japan mounted a furious push in the final 20 minutes.Andrew Cornaga/Associated PressIn the 75th minute, Japan won a penalty kick when the substitute forward Riko Ueki had her heel clipped by Sweden’s Madelen Janogy. But Ueki’s shot clanged off the crossbar, and her header on the rebound looped high over the goal.It was suggested afterward to Sweden’s left back, Jonna Andersson, that her team was living a charmed existence in the knockout rounds, having survived a penalty shootout only five days earlier to eliminate the United States.Andersson smiled and said she preferred to believe it was the imposing presence of Sweden’s superb goalkeeper, Zecira Musovic, not luck, that had made the difference again, at least on Ueki’s attempt. “Maybe it’s a good goalkeeper that takes some energy or disturbs the penalty taker,” Andersson said.In the 87th minute, Japan finally scored on a rebound by Honoka Hayashi after a failed clearance by Sweden gifted her an easy shot at Musovic. But not even 10 minutes of added time were enough to find a tying goal.Japan was gone. And a first-time Women’s World Cup champion waits its crowning moment.“I think we have the team to go all the way,” Andersson said. “And now we are one step closer.” More

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      Spain Beats Netherlands to Reach First World Cup Semifinal

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      Salma Paralluelo’s goal in extra time delivered a victory over the Netherlands and a date with Sweden.Salma Paralluelo might not have chosen soccer. It was not her only option, certainly. A 19-year-old Spain striker, Paralluelo was a bright prospect in track and field, too, such a gifted runner that she might even have represented her country at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago. Her chosen discipline was the 400 meters. She still holds the national under-20 record at the distance.She is also, it turns out, just the person her country needed at the end of a marathon.Spain’s meeting with the Netherlands on Friday in the quarterfinals of this Women’s World Cup was always likely to be close. As Spain’s draining, narrow, 2-1 victory proved, close may have been an understatement. There is barely a hair’s breadth between these teams: the Spanish, Europe’s great power-in-waiting, and the Dutch, famed for their talent but noteworthy for their resilience.Four years ago, that mixture was enough to carry the Netherlands to the World Cup final against the United States. This year, it was starting to look as if a repeat trip might be in the cards. Andries Jonker’s team had advanced from the group phase in a style more impressive than spectacular. It had finished, most significantly, ahead of the United States. Thanks to the reflexes and concentration of Daphne van Domselaar, its goalkeeper, it had held South Africa at bay in the round of 16.The Netherlands might have been missing its cutting edge — the star striker Vivianne Miedema is one of the many players absent from this World Cup because of a serious knee injury — but it had found a way to make up for that by dulling everyone else’s. The squad’s confidence was growing sufficiently that forward Lineth Beerensteyn could even afford to take a little swipe at the United States team when she met with reporters before the game. There had, Beerensteyn said, been too much talk from the Americans, who lost to Sweden in the round of 16. “You have to do it on the pitch,” she said.For a while, it seemed as if she would be good to her word. In the bright winter sunshine of Wellington, New Zealand, Spain dominated possession, because Spain always dominates possession. Spain created chances, too, because Spain always creates chances.Spain hit the post twice in a matter of seconds.Amanda Perobelli/ReutersBut it could not breach the Dutch. Whenever it picked its way through the massed ranks of the defense, Spain found van Domselaar, as indomitable as ever, repelling whatever it could muster.And when van Domselaar was beaten, Spain found that the physical infrastructure of the stadium was choosing sides: Midway through the first half, Alba Redondo hit the post twice in a matter of seconds. A few minutes later, Esther González had a goal ruled out for offside, though only after the referee, Stéphanie Frappart, had consulted a video replay.It was that sort of game: one of slender differences and considerable what-ifs. For Spain — what if Redondo had scored, or if Frappart had noticed that Stefanie van der Gragt had handled the ball in the scramble to clear it; or if González had delayed her run a fraction of a second? But, more than anything, it was for the Netherlands.What if the penalty won by Beerensteyn for what seemed a clear push from Spain defender Irene Paredes had not been overturned? The Netherlands might have led, rather than finding itself, barely a heartbeat later, falling behind after Mariona Caldentey converted the only penalty of three that should, or could, have been awarded.Jackie Groenen and the Netherlands turned in a relentless defensive effort.Grant Down/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesAnd what if Beerensteyn had scored any one of the three clear-cut opportunities that fell her way as the game entered its dying embers? The Dutch had at least taken the game the distance, van der Gragt salving her conscience after her hand ball led to Caldentey’s penalty by unceremoniously drilling home an equalizing goal as the game ticked into injury time.Beerensteyn twice might have won it, might have kept the Dutch in the tournament, but she could convert neither chance.Paralluelo was more efficient. She picked up the ball from Jenni Hermoso, shimmied her hip and dropped her shoulder and burst clear into the Dutch penalty area, moving too quickly and too easily for the straining Dutch defense. She steadied herself and swept a shot, low and left-footed, past van Domselaar.The Netherlands’ race is run. Spain’s might just be picking up speed. More

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      England’s Lauren James Gets 2-Game Ban at Women’s World Cup

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      The LatestLauren James, a top player for England in the Women’s World Cup, was given a two-game suspension by FIFA, soccer’s governing body, for stepping on the back of an opposing player in her team’s round-of-16 win against Nigeria on Monday in Brisbane, Australia. If she does return in this tournament, it will be in the final.James received a red card near the end of regulation time because she stamped on the back of Michelle Alozie as Alozie was getting up from a foul. England went on to win on penalties after 120 minutes with no goals.The red card meant that James was automatically suspended for England’s quarterfinal game on Saturday against Colombia. But FIFA’s disciplinary committee, it was announced Thursday, added an additional game because her violation was for violent conduct.“The suspension will be served for the FIFA Women’s World Cup quarterfinal and the next international fixture following that,” FIFA said in a statement.Lauren James has apologized for stepping on Nigeria defender Michelle Alozie in Monday’s game.Patrick Hamilton/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesWhy It Matters: James has been one of England’s top players.James, with three goals in this tournament, had been England’s most exciting player. She had accounted for five goals in a win over China in the group stage, with three assists, two goals and a potential third called back because one of her teammates was offside.England is one of the top teams remaining, especially after the eliminations of the United States and Germany, and James’s presence helped the Lionesses overcome injuries to other key players.Background: The violation came near the end of a physical game.England’s game against Nigeria was a tough, back-and-forth contest in which Nigeria was playing aggressively and England seemed to be holding on. Nigeria, having seen James’s success in the tournament, kept a defender on her as much as possible. As a result, James touched the ball less often than she wanted to.Alozie acknowledged the game’s intensity in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “This game is one of passion, insurmountable emotions, and moments,” she wrote. “All respect for Lauren James.”James responded with an apology: “I am sorry for what happened.”What’s Next: England faces Colombia in a quarterfinal on Saturday.James can return for the World Cup final if England can win two games without her. Its next game is a quarterfinal against Colombia, which has another big star in 18-year-old Linda Caicedo. The winner of that game is scheduled to play a semifinal on Wednesday against the winner of the quarterfinal between France and Australia.The final of the tournament is Aug. 20. More

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      Is Japan the Best Team Left in the World Cup?

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      Champions in 2011, the team returned to the final in the next tournament and then fell behind the world’s best teams. It’s back, and playing like a champion.After the United States and seven European teams reached the quarterfinals of the Women’s World Cup four years ago, it was widely assumed that soccer’s global power base would remain stalled like a weather front in those regions four years later.But this is a tournament of surprise, upended expectation and cracks in the foundation of women’s soccer tradition. The United States and Germany, ranked Nos. 1 and 2 in the world, with six world championships between them, were sent home early and stunned.Five European teams remain, but it is Japan that might be the most impressive contender, a sagging power suddenly revived and the only team left standing to have won a World Cup.With unity of movement, a mostly unsolvable defense and tactical flexibility, Nadeshiko, as the team is known, has delivered 14 goals and conceded only one in four matches ahead of Friday’s meeting with Sweden in the quarterfinals in Auckland, New Zealand. Hinata Miyazawa has been a revelation at midfield, scoring five goals in this World Cup — the most of any player — after scoring only four times in 22 previous appearances.Hinata Miyazawa, left, during team practice in Auckland.Abbie Parr/Associated PressHaving wilted after winning the 2011 World Cup in a penalty kick shootout against the United States, Japan has bloomed anew with versatility to play the possession style of short passes known as tiki-taka or to launch searing counterattacks. After a blistering 4-0 loss to Japan during group play, Spain Coach Jorge Vilda said that his team’s defeat had been psychic as well as numerical. “Mentally, of course,” Vilda said, “this has done some damage.”After Japan defeated Norway by 3-1 in the round of 16, Caroline Graham Hansen, the Norwegian star who plays for the Champions League winner Barcelona, said that Japan showed why it might be the best team in the tournament.“They’re so disciplined and very structured in the way they play offense and defense,” Hansen said.Friday’s quarterfinal might play out as an engaging challenge of physicality versus technique. Sweden has scored four of its nine goals on corner kicks, a total that nearly grew last Sunday as it packed the six-yard box against the United States like a crowded elevator.But the Swedes could not manage a goal in 90 minutes of regulation and 30 minutes of overtime before subduing the Americans, finally and microscopically, on penalty kicks. Only the brilliant anticipation and reaction of goalkeeper Zecira Musovic kept the outcome from being reversed. A number of Sweden’s players appeared near exhaustion, particularly left back Jonna Andersson, who was beaten down the flank repeatedly by the speed of Trinity Rodman and Lynn Williams.Not until kickoff on Friday will it become evident whether Andersson and her teammates have had sufficient time to recover to face a relentless Japanese team that has been much more incisive in each of its matches than the United States was in any of its games.“They don’t play as directly as the U.S., so it’s going to be a different kind of game,” said Sweden’s coach, Peter Gerhardsson. “It’ll be more about possession.”Sweden may set its defense low, trying to absorb and dissipate Japan’s attack; its goal, Gerhardsson said, is normally to try to win the ball back after its opponent makes four or five passes.“With Japan, maybe it’s 10 to 15 passes, but we still want to win the ball,” he said. “And, then, transition is going to be important.”Japan entered this World Cup ranked 11th by FIFA, a sign of how far its fortunes had slid after winning the World Cup and returning to the final in 2015. Its inspiring 2011 victory came four months after an earthquake and tsunami had devastated the country’s northeast coast, killing more than 15,000 people and displacing thousands more.Japan’s players celebrate with the trophy after they won the World Cup in 2011.Patrik Stollarz/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesEven in defeat that year, the American forward Megan Rapinoe said recently, she considered Japan’s victory “one of the greatest stories in all of sports.”But that success began to ebb. When the Japanese team traveled to the 2012 London Olympics, it had to fly coach, while its men’s team, mostly under-23 players, flew business class on the same jet. The women won a silver medal, while the men finished fourth.In the final of the 2015 World Cup, Japan was routed, 5-2, by the United States, largely on the predatory audacity of Carli Lloyd, who scored three goals in the first 16 minutes, including a shot launched from midfield. When Japan failed to qualify for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics the following summer, a makeover began, with the aim of overhauling the senior team but also of increasing the participation of female soccer coaches, referees and players, to create a larger talent pool from which to draw. The stated goal was to register 300,000 female players — up from 50,500 at the time — by 2030.Japan also hired the first female coach for its women’s national team: Asako Takakura, who had been a pioneering player. In an interview with The New York Times months before the 2019 World Cup, she predicted that Japan would win the tournament. She wanted her players to express their individualism, she said, instead of simply prizing the collectivity of the group, which had been a tradition on some previous teams.Instead of lifting the trophy, though, Japan scored only three goals in four matches and exited quickly and meekly. Two years later, Japan’s gold-medal dream at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics ended when it was eliminated by Sweden in the quarterfinals. Takakura was replaced by Futoshi Ikeda, who coached Japan to the 2018 under-20 Women’s World Cup title.As the current World Cup began, many remained skeptical about Japan’s chances, including Takakura, who told Agence France-Presse that Japan was “left behind by the sudden strides that the rest of the world were making” in terms of resources poured into women’s soccer. Not until 2021, for instance, did Japan’s women’s league become fully professional.Shinobu Ohno, who was a member of the 2011 championship team, told the French news agency that Japan’s national team had become sclerotic, unable to adapt to teams that were physically stronger and more tactically adept. But pretournament doubt has since been replaced by ascendant optimism.Japan supporters celebrating after their team’s win against Norway.Marty Melville/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesIkeda has constructed a team built on agility, mobility, cohesion and a liberating joyfulness. Nine of Japan’s 23 players are attached to clubs in top women’s leagues in the United States, England, Italy and Sweden, and that has helped develop the confidence, fearlessness and tactical versatility evident in the World Cup.“We’re ready to fight against anyone,” said Saki Kumagai, Japan’s captain and the only player remaining on the roster from the 2011 World Cup. More

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      Nigeria’s Players Have Enlisted Help to Ensure They Get Paid

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      The members of Nigeria’s Women’s World Cup team announced Tuesday that they had restarted a long-running battle with their country’s soccer federation over missing paychecks and bonuses. Some of the overdue pay claims, the team said, go back more than two years.To press their claims, the players have enlisted the help of soccer’s global players union, FIFPro.The bitter fight over money had shadowed Nigeria’s preparations for the World Cup, and reportedly led the team to discuss taking the unprecedented step of boycotting its opening game in Australia. Instead, the players set aside their grievances long enough to advance to the round of 16, where they were eliminated by England in a penalty kick shootout on Monday.On Tuesday, the team and the players issued a joint statement in which they said they would work together to press the Nigeria Football Federation “concerning bonus payments, camp allowances and expenses, some of which date back to 2021.”“During the World Cup, the players expressed the desire to remain focused on their performance without making public statements or facing other distractions,” the statement said. “However, the Super Falcons believe that it is now time for the Nigeria Football Federation to honor their commitments and pay the outstanding amounts.”Before the tournament, FIFPro had given its blessing to a new structure that guaranteed at least $30,000 in prize money to each player in the tournament, with even more due to players on teams that advanced out of the group stage. For a team like Nigeria, which was eliminated in the round of 16, that should mean payments of at least $60,000 per player.That money will be paid to national federations, though, rather than directly to players, according to FIFA, world soccer’s global governing body and the organizer of the World Cup. On the eve of the tournament, FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, declined to guarantee that the players would get the bonus payments created for them.“We are an association of associations,” said FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino. “So any payments we do will be through the associations.”The Nigerian players, and their coach, the American Randy Waldrum, have implied that could be a problem. Waldrum told a podcast before the World Cup that the Nigerian federation was still months behind on payments of his own salary to coach the team, and he also said the federation had not delivered hundreds of thousands of dollars provided by FIFA to Nigerian officials to pay for the team’s pre-World Cup preparations.“Up until about three weeks ago, I had been owed about 14 months’ salary,” Waldrum said in July. “And then they paid seven months’ salary. We still have players that haven’t been paid since two years ago, when we played the summer series in the U.S.A. It’s a travesty.”Now the players are seeking not only that money, but much more.“The team is extremely frustrated that they have had to pursue the Nigeria Football Federation for these payments before and during the tournament and may have to continue doing so afterward,” the team’s statement with FIFPro said. “It is regrettable that players needed to challenge their own federation at such an important time in their careers.” More