Japan defeats upstart Australia 1-0 to close in on title repeat

World Cup reigning champion Japan wants everyone to know it’s not going to give up its title without a fight.

It defeated Australia 1-0 with a late goal and became the third team to punch its ticket for the semifinals. Australia, who became the Cinderella of the tournament after a stunning upset of Brazil in the Round of 16, didn’t have the same drive against a more structured and defensive Japanese team to move on.

This game was marked as potential upset because Japan had only played World Cup debutantes prior to the contest and because Australia had played three top 10 teams and defeated two of them. However, Australia’s gameplan of putting high pressure on the Japanese defense was never executed.

Japan controlled the ball early and often and its suffocating defense stopped Australia’s speedy offense from getting quality chances. Australia was forced to play Japan’s game and never had the opportunity to be the aggressor in the contest.

By the 70-minute mark, Japan was playing almost exclusively in the Australian third. With just three minutes remaining in regulation, Mana Iwabuchi knocked home an errant ball after chaos in the box left the ball sitting near the goal line with no defender around it. Iwabuchi had only been in the game for 15 minutes.

Australia had the advantage with three more rest days than Japan, but that seemed to be more of a hinderance. Japan looked like the fresher team. And even though Australia had boasted about it ability to play well in the heat, it was the team that looked gassed halfway through the second half. It was the antithesis of the Australia team that beat Brazil. That team seemed to get better as the game progressed, on Saturday, it was the opposite.

Japan is now just two games away from being the first back-to-back champion since Germany did it in 2003 and 2007. It helps that it’s on the easier side of the bracket. Germany and the United States, the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the world, will duke it out for the right to play in the final while Japan will face a significantly easier opponent in either Canada or England. England had never won a game beyond the group stage before beating Norway in the Round of 16. Canada’s best finish was fourth in 2003, but that was the only time it had advanced beyond the group stage prior to this year.