Resilient Japan ultimately only undone by one single moment of magic
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Despite being huge underdogs, Japan gave it their all and -- for the most part of Saturday's Olympic women's football quarterfinal against United States -- looked every chance of pulling off an almighty upset.
They stifled opponents that have thus far been the dominant force in the tournament, and even created a handful of decent chances that might have seen them in the lead had they not been spurned.
Having taken the game to extra-time, it then looked as though Nadeshiko might hold out to force the lottery of penalties -- which was the same manner in which they pulled off their most famous victory over the USWNT back in the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup final.
In such a tight and tense affair, it looked like it was always either going to need a moment of inspiration or a costly error if the contest was to be decided before the dreaded shootout.
As the first period of extra-time was about to end, it proved to be the former when Trinity Rodman found space down the right, expertly cut inside Hikaru Kitagawa before dispatching a sublime effort from a testing angle into the top corner for what proved to be decisive moment of a narrow 1-0 win.
When the final whistle blew 15 minutes or so later, it was easy to assume that it was sheer exhaustion that caused the Japanese players to collapse to the ground -- and it certainly would have been a contributing factor.
But there can be no doubt that it was also from despair.
For most of the marathon 120 minutes that had just taken place, Japan had largely stifled an American team boasting a tournament-high nine goals in the group stage.
There was no sign of the free-flowing, expansive football that United States displayed in their three previous outings.
While some of that can be attributed to the USWNT perhaps being a bit below par, the Japanese also deserve credit for sticking to a system that denied the opposition any time or space.
The back five, marshalled superbly by captain Saki Kumagai, were always in sync and nearly impossible to break down, while the midfield four provided another extra wall to break down.
Lest it be presumed that it was all-out defence from Nadeshiko, they did look to break forward when opportunities arose and even created the better chances in the first half -- only to be let down by some uncomposed finishing.
Still, goalkeeper Ayaka Yamashita had little to do apart from the odd routine save or interception coming off her line -- only to have to pick the ball out of the net in the 107th minute following Rodman's superb effort.
United States coach Emma Hayes was seen comforting an inconsolable Maika Hamano -- her former charge at Chelsea -- alongside Japan counterpart Futoshi Ikeda at the final whistle. Marc Atkins/Getty Images
The sad scenes within the Japan camp at the final whistle mirrored that from last year when they were ousted in the quarterfinals of the Women's World Cup after a similar narrow loss to Sweden, in which they had numerous chances to have sealed the victory.
Some looked to the sky in disbelief, rueing a missed opportunity to have pulled off a huge result. Like a year ago, the youthful Maika Hamano -- who had been a bright spark all tournament long -- was virtually inconsolable, although the efforts of her former Chelsea coach and current USWNT boss Emma Hayes produced a heart-warming moment of grace and sportsmanship.
For Japanese football, which has made no secret of its burning desire to claim an Olympic football medal, the disappointment at Nadeshiko's loss would not have been just due to that dream ending for another four years at least -- with the men's team also eliminated on Friday after losing to Spain.
It would also have been because -- as was the case last year when they were gunning to repeat their Women's World Cup success of 2011 -- they knew they had given themselves a real chance of doing so.
Not that it would be of any great consolation to them. But when the dust does settle, Japan can at least take heart in knowing it took the best team at the tournament to eliminate them.
And, even then, only through one single magical moment.
Source: espn.co.uk
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