Today's spotlight was on the Japanese women's soccer team, which made a strong showing. With a second place finish in the group stage, they made it to the knockout rounds, but were unlucky to meet the Olympic gold medalists, the USA women's soccer team. In the course of the match, the U.S. team showed strong control with 71% of the ball, forcing the Japanese women's soccer team to make defense their top priority. Although the two sides were tied 0-0 in regular time, the Japanese women's soccer team suddenly lost their defense in the overtime period, and finally lost 0-1 to the United States. After the Japanese men's soccer team, the Japanese women's soccer team also had no choice but to bid farewell to this year's tournament!
The elimination of both Japanese men's and women's soccer teams brings back memories of what soccer commentator Dong Lu once said. In a live program, Dong Lu asserted that due to the lack of physical conditions, the development of Japanese soccer has come to an end, and it is difficult for them to make a bigger breakthrough. Although the Japanese team is on par with the top teams in Europe and the United States in terms of technical and tactical aspects, they are clearly at a disadvantage in terms of physical confrontation. The charm of soccer lies in the confrontation, and Japan seems to have difficulty in making a breakthrough in this aspect, which also indicates that it is difficult for them to make a qualitative leap in their performance.
Today, Japanese soccer seems to be standing at a new crossroads. Whether they can break the existing bottleneck or not, the key lies in the ability of soccer professionals to find a new breakthrough point!
