By

Eniola Olatunji 

The world will on Sunday witness an all Asian world cup finals as the High Tech Japanese Girls froze the Orange Girls of Netherlands 2-0 in the second semifinal match which was the last to be played in Cali, Colombia.

Tireless Manaka Matsunaga’s brace was what was needed to outclass the Dutch in a drab match that brought low expectations of a much contested semifinal clash. Manaka scored in the 55th minute and made it two goals before she was substituted to take a rest for the final. The two goals were her only contribution in the tournament.

Although VAR rejected a call for a penalty to Netherlands in the 64th minute the Dutch who had before now scored 9 goals and conceded 8 were suspect of nonperformance in every department which showed clearly in this semifinal match.

The team had no single shot on target during the entire 90 minutes of play as the only chance they had at 86th minute was shot over the bar in the manner Nigerian football fans describe as LETTER TO HEAVEN when the shot is too high.

The Dutch had one shot at goal as said to 24 of Japan whereas Japan had 7 shots on target; Japan got 4-1 corner kicks; stringed 524-460 passes and 54-46% ball possession with the only yellow card of the match going to Japanese Uno Shiragaki in the 33rd minute.  

Thus Japan made her 3rd qualification for the final in a row to meet North Korea on Sunday at Bogota in the final.

Earlier North Korea had beaten USA by a lone goal to play in their 4th ever final.

The two teams met only once on 11th August 2022 and Japan ran away with a lone goal.

To get into the semifinals Japan piped defending champions, Spain by a lone goal in the quarterfinals; eliminated the Falconets of Nigeria 2-1 in the Round of 16 games; handed New Zealand a 7-0 bashing; beat the Black Princesses of Ghana 4-1 and also won 2-0 over Austria in the group games scoring total 16 goals and conceding only two goals to Africa, scored by Falconets of Nigeria and Black Princesses of Ghana.

Japan tutored Vietnam 10-0 on 4th March 2024; beat China PR 2-0 on 7th March 2024; lost by a lone goal to DPR Korea on 10th March 2024; whipped Australia 5-1 on 13th March 2024 and lost again to DPR Korea 1-2 on 16th March 2024.

The Young Nadeshiko of Japan is in their 7th appearances at the world cup won the title at France 2018 beating Spain 2-1; hosted the games in 2012 and won the Bronze defeating Nigeria 2-1; won the Bronze again at Papua New Guinea in 2016 beating USA by a lone goal and at the last games at Costa Rica 2022 she lost in the finals 1-3 to Spain. 

Netherlands had beaten Costa Rica 2-0; drew 3-3 with Argentina and lost 0-2 to North Korea at the group Stages; supervised the exit of France with a 2-1 victory at the Round of 16 games and then halted host nation, Power Puff Girls of Colombia via penalty shootout after 2-2 of Extra Time scoring 9 goals and conceding 8. 

Netherlands is in her 2nd appearance at the age group tournament and in 2022 the Dutch girls lost the Bronze Medal to Brazil 1-4 in San Jose.

The 3rd Place match for the Bronze medal will be played on Saturday 21st September at 2200 hours at Bogota while the grand finale is on Sunday 22nd September also at 2200 hours also at Bogota.