Defending champions Germany and European new force England
cruised to the quarter-finals after victories over Japan and
Argentina, and German talisman Birgit Prinz scored her record 13th
goal to become the top scorer ever in the FIFA Women's World
Cup.
Germany's Kerstin
Garefrekes (Top) heads the ball during the Group A match against
Japan at the FIFA 2007 Women's Football World Cup in Hangzhou,
capital of east China's Zhejiang Province on Sept.17,
2007.
In Germany's 2-0 win over Japan, Prinz broke the deadlock in the
21 minute after collecting a corner and fired a powerful shot into
the net inside the box. The goal helps Prinz surpass American
legend Michelle Akers's 12-goal-record to top the showpiece
tournament scoring tally.
Playmaker Renate Lingor converted a 87-minute penalty without
problem to seal victory.
Germany topped Group A after the win with seven points, they
will meet the second placed team in Group B. Japan had to say
goodbye as the third place side with 4 points.
In the other game this evening, England trounced Argentina 6-1
to stamp the second place with five points to advance. Argentina
had to fly home with three defeats, conceding 18 times and striking
merely one consolation goal.
"The pitch today is much better than in Shanghai. We can play
some skillful football with good passing," said Japan coach Hiroshi
Ohashi.
"We prepared to get to the quarter-finals, so I'm sorry for the
result. But I'm satisfied with the players' performance, we played
in our usual way.
"I'm very happy with the result. Our team do good job in
defense. We play a very skillful opponent," said Germany coach
Silvia Neid.
Japan changed their habitual 4-4-2 formation to 4-5-1, leaving
major striker Eriko Arakawa on the bench. But the Germans dominated
the first half with obvious advantage. Japan were lucky enough to
avoid a big deficit after 45 minutes.
Ohashi brought on Arakawa after the interval, and Japan seemed
to get some attacking power. But the poor striker could not
continue after fighting for a long pass with German keeper Nadine
Angerer in the 61st minute and had to be replaced by Shinobu
Ohno.
Then the Nadeshiko lost the attacking gunpowder and withered
finally.
Argentina's Analia Almeida
(L) vies with England's Jill Scott during the Group A match at the
FIFA 2007 Women's Football World Cup in Chengdu, capital of
southwest China's Sichuan Province on Sept.17, 2007.
The best-expected European Dark Horses, which held Germany with
a heroic 0-0 draw last Friday, dominated the Argentina game from
the very beginning with a possession of 61% and 26 shots against
the rivals' 8.
England had two early goals in the first 10 minutes. Jill Scott
scored from 33 meters away following Eva Gonzalez's own goal.
The third goal for England came through a second-half penalty
after Kelly Smith was tackled down by Catalina Perez, who was shown
her second card in the match to get herself expelled, and Fara
Williams netted it with five minutes after the break.
Smith got a brace later in the 64th and 77th minute, before
midfielder Vicky Exley added the last one in the dying minutes from
a penalty.
Argentine skipper Gonzalez made up for her earlier mistake in
the one-hour mark as she shot in a direct free kick on a 25-meter
spot away from the goalmouth.
That's the very first goal in the tournament for Argentina,
which only made their second appearance in FIFA Women's World Cup
and broke their own poor record made four years ago after conceding
18 goals here in China in the group stage of a FIFA Women's World
Cup.
Argentina coach Jose Carlos Borrello seemed upset about the
defeat, which sent them again to exit with three loses in as many
matches.
"Comparing to the level of European women's soccer, we've been
far behind in development," said Argentina boss Jose Carlos
Borrello." The geographic position of Argentina has decided that
our team has fewer opportunities than the Europeans to play
international competitions with other high-level teams."
(Xinhua News Agency September 18, 2007)
