That was certainly a puzzling result for what I would have thought were two "real happy to be here teams". In such a lop-sided group, the winner of this game was certain to join Germany in the second round, now it will come down to goal difference against Germany and Argentina, barring some sort of miracle. In truth I may have underestimated England, and their core of Arsenal Ladies. England absolutely dominated the run of play, to a greater degree as the game went on, but still gave up the first goal early in the second half on a free kick from 23 yards by Aya Miyama. After that, the Three Lionesses really kept hammering away at Japan, with Arsenal striker and fit brunette Karen Carney really controlling play up the right wing, but through eighty minutes England absolutely could not finish. Given great opportunities, balls went over the crossbar, were headed wide, or were just sent weakly back into Japan keeper Miho Fukimoto's arms, as England squandered a ridiculous number of chances.
I don't know what kind of politics put Eniola Aluko up front for England, but after she came off, Arsenal striker Kelly Smith took a through ball into the box, and pivoting on her feet in traffic and holding off Japanese defenders, turned and fired past Fukimoto into the corner to put England back in it. Two minutes later, Smith cracked the Japanese defense again, and after trying to fake out Fukimoto from an oblique angle, tried to power a shot past her off her left foot, and when Fukimoto couldn't handle the ball, Smith pounded the rebound back at the corner with her right foot, deflecting off Fukimoto's feet and into the back of the net. After each score, in a move likely to spur foot fetishes in England for years to come, Smith took off her boots and kissed them in celebration, which actually isn't much weirder than some of the other things the English do to celebrate (Robbie Fowler snorting the end line at Goodison Park comes to mind).
England had some problems to finish the game, starting when keeper Rachel Brown took a rough collision in injury time. Apparently England's cupboard is equally bare of keepers on the women's side (Brown was trained at Pitt) and the somewhat woozy looking Brown stayed in, nearly giving the store away when she tossed the restart right back into the path of a Japanese player. A couple minutes later with time running out, Japan was awarded a controversial free kick, and Kelly Smith got herself a yellow card attempting to run down the clock further, when England can't afford to go without Kelly Smith. Miyama's kick was out of the reach of Brown, but from the confines of my armchair it appeared she might have been a bit slow to react and not well positioned. On the other hand, Miyama had a couple nasty free kicks, and those kinds of set pieces are an even bigger weapon in the women's game where the goal plays a little wider. From my armchair it also looked like the foul could have gone either way as well, so while England whine every time they lose, this time they might have a case: the Three Lionesses got screwed. I hope they pull through, because given the choice of seeing more of Karen Carney and Rachel Brown in shorts vs Eriko Arakawa's J-fro, I'm rooting for the English ladies.
England 2 -2 Japan
'55 Miyama
'81 Smith
'83 Smith
'90+ Miyama
Germany 3pts +11 11 - 0
England 1pt 0 2 - 2
Japan 1pt 0 2 - 2
Argentina 0pts -11 0 - 11
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