Quote:
Originally Posted by calgarygeologist
I'm just a casual fan of soccer (basically just interested in the major international tournaments) and Japan has been really interesting recently. In the men's world cup they had a surprising group win against strong teams like Spain and Germany with a loss on penalty kicks against Croatia in the knockout round. Now their women are having a great showing at the World Cup. They have been impressing me in terms of overall program development.
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The Japanese women's team is having a resurgence after rebuilding their team. They were the 2011 World Champions, 2012 Olympic silver medalists and 2015 World runner-up. But that team retired and they've been struggling until this World Cup. Impressive in the Group Stage so far but will be a tough road. Norway first and then two of France/US/Netherlands in the QF and SF.
The New Zealand half the draw is shaping up to be tougher than the Australia half because Canada and China (and possibly Brazil) are out.