Women's World Cup: Japan Completes SF Lineup, To Face England; US Set To Battle Germany

Japan completed the semifinals lineup and will face England while US sets to battle Germany in the last four matchup in the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

The defending world champs took the last spot for the semifinals round after ending Australia’s World Cup dream with a grueling 1-0 win. Matildas’ Cinderella run ended after substitute Mana Iwabuchi snatched a score after a goalmouth scramble in the 87th minute mark. Both teams cancelled out each other until Japan hit the lucky goal in the closing minutes. Australia coach Alen Stajcic was disappointed about the loss and admitted his young team needs to mature if they will compete for big titles.

“There’s not much you can say after a match like that, it’s too soon. All you can do is put your arm around their shoulder, most of them are young players, it’s a heartbreaking experience for all of us,” Stajcic said as per via ABC.net.au.

Despite the World Cup exit, the 41-year-old coach was convinced that Matildas is on the right track citing that his team had only been playing together for five months compared to the Japanese girls having been together for five or more years.

Japan will challenge England in the next round after the Lioness trumped host team Canada with a 2-1 win. An early assault helped England to gain control of the match when they scored twice in three minutes with just 14 minutes into the game. Canada’s Christine Sinclair netted a goal late in the first half to keep the match close, but the host team was not able to buy a goal in the second period in front of nearly 55,000 disappointed fans.

“To get a result in that atmosphere against an excellent Canadian team is an incredible result. The fans were unbelievable. I’ve never been in a stadium as loud and passionate for a team as today. We had to really, really, really dig deep to get the result we wanted,” England head coach Mark Samspon said via ESPN.

Meanwhile, the other match in the semifinals round will feature the top two teams in FIFA’s world rankings. The Americans, who ranked second, and the top-ranked Germany will battle for one ticket to the finals of this year’s world cup. The two-time world champions slipped past France after an enthralling penalty shootout. Germany’s leading scorer Celia Sasic managed a late spot-kick that sent the game to extra time and penalties. German goalkeeper Nadine Angerer rose as the shootout heroine after blocking French substitute Claire Lavogez’s last effort.

The USWNT had an impressive 1-0 win over China PR to make their seventh straight World Cup final four appearance. Carli Lloyd’s header in the 51st minute appeared to be enough to put away the Chinese. Jill Ellis’ squad will face a tougher challenge against Germany. Although US only allowed one goal all tournament, Germany possesses an outstanding offensive having scored 20 points over five matches.