Japan Ladies

Japan Ladies World Cup Prospects & History

FIFA World Ranking: 10
SkyBet Odds: 33/1

Qualifying

Japan won their opening group in the Asian qualifying section but then lost to Australia in the semi finals.
This took them into a 3rd place play off game with North Korea with the victors guaranteed a place in China. Having fallen three goals behind Japan pulled two goals back but were unable to complete the fightback.
Another back door opened with a final play off fixture against Mexico and they finally booked a place in China after a 3-2 aggregate win, winning 2-0 at home before going down 2-1 in the away leg.
No such luxuries for France after we had edged them out in our qualifying group.

Look Out For

The vastly experienced attacking midfield player Homare Sawa has scored 60 times for her country at basically a goal every other game and is undoubtedly her teams' focal point.

Prospects

Little seems to be expected of Japan but they remain higher than England in the FIFA rankings and will have no problem acclimatising. They will be hoping to get out of the opening group but not looking beyond that for the moment.
They are England's first opponents and it will be tough coming back for either nation if they lose that game.

Previous Tournaments

China 1991: Group Stage
Sweden 1995: Quarter Finals
USA 1999: Group Stage
USA 2003: Group Stage