I could not of asked for better match up.Been born in Japan but now an American i want to wish both teams good luck.I'm sure in Japan regardless of the outcome of the match,the team has done Japan proud.

Like the soccer team,the people across Japan also worked as a"team"to help one and others in the 3/11 disaster.I could not be more proud to be born Japanese!!!

Here is a interesting analysis of Japan vs. US football match (sorry, it's all in Japanese).

米サッカーの弱点とは？　そして「なでしこ」の勝機と は？ | プリンストン発　新潮流アメリカ | コラム＆ブログ | ニューズウィーク日本版 オフィシャルサイト

The writer Reizei points out US team has tendencies to follow the common sense of "American football". Though the team already overcome these tendencies, they expose these tendencies under heavy pressure.

The tendencies are:

1. each members has fixed role like as FWs to shoot and DFs to return quickly.
2. use long forward pass.
3. each member keeps ball too long time.
4. not to hesitate to make backward pass.
5. as a result, they play rather slow and not rhythmical.
6. not familiar with the offside trap.
7. slow to switch from defense to attack.

He also points out that the director and coaches are north European and the real leader is the captain/GK. If US team lost a goal first, GK could not be calm and so do the members. Then those "tendencies" could come out.

At last, He points out that US team is little bit different from the modern foot ball (because of the "American FootBall"). It will definitely make very good game between Powerful US team and the NADESHIKO with more accuracy and less power.

Someone please make more better translation.

I have never seen a professional soccer game before but there was nothing on TV so I watched the Sweeden vs France game. Since I don't like France as a whole I rooted for Sweeden.

Why don't you like France? :)

You know, I really don't know. It's just one of those instincts that you get. There's nothing wrong with France I just don't like it. Not really sure why.

I'm happy for Japan, but since I'm American I have to root for them.

I think the the real key to the game is wich team feels under more pressure to win.

I pray to god that Japan wins...

Congratulations to the Nadeshiko for being WORLD CHAMPIONS!!!!

Great game!

Congrats Japan. I watched the start of the game but wasn't able to watch anymore. But I did keep up with it on online.

That was a great game all around!
Huge congrats to Japan's team! They never let up! :vsign: