Next up was the Japanese women's soccer team. Since they advanced to the second place in the group, they met the U.S. women's soccer team, which won four Olympic gold medals, in the knockout round. In this match, the U.S. Women's Soccer team had total control over the Japanese Women's Soccer team, with 71% of the ball in their possession. Japanese players had to focus more on defense. Even though the Japanese women's soccer team held a 0-0 draw in normal time, they still suffered a collapse in overtime. The U.S. women's soccer team defeated the Japanese women's soccer team 1-0, and after the Japanese men's soccer team, the Japanese women's soccer team had to go home early!
Japan's double exit for both men and women also reminded many fans of previous comments made by Dong Lu, a famous soccer player. In his live program, Dong Lu once said that due to the lack of physical talent, the development of Japanese soccer is over and they cannot achieve greater success. Although in terms of technique and tactics, the Japanese team may be on a par with the top teams in Europe and the United States, they are clearly at a disadvantage when it comes to physical confrontation. The essence of soccer is confrontation. Japan's inability to make progress in this area means that their performance will not improve any further.
Today's Japanese soccer seems to be facing a new bottleneck, just as Dong Lu said. How they will break the game depends on whether the Japanese footballers can come up with a solution!
