At perhaps the most tense time in Sunday’s FIFA Women's World Cup final - preparations for the penalty kick shootout - TV cameras showed Japanese coach Norio Sasaki smiling and laughing with his players. Cameras focused on the U.S. women showed a different mood, with expressions of grit, focus and determination.
The contrast was stark, and that wasn’t a surprise to Sasaki.
"It seemed to me there was more pressure on the Americans," he said.
It was a remarkable moment for Japan, a country that has had little to smile about this year, and a keen insight from the coach of a team that had not beaten the Americans in 25 games.
But Sasaki’s assessment was spot-on.
The Japanese women made three of the four shots they took in the penalty shootout, while the Americans could find the net on only one.
"We had made it all the way to the final, extra time and penalties. We had come a long way, so maybe we handled the pressure better. We had twice come back, and that eased the psychological pressure," he said in an Agence France-Presse story on NDTV.com.
The Japanese team lifted the trophy as world champions. They also lifted the spirits of a nation struggling to recover from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left more than 20,000 people dead or missing, destroyed miles and miles of cities and farmland, and caused a leak from a nuclear power plant that has turned of a 25-mile radius around the plant into a virtual no-man’s land.
High-resolution gallery: Japan's emotional win
For all the smiles and laughs in Japan’s pre-shootout huddle in Frankfurt, Germany, on Sunday, it was a different tack from the one Sasaki took before his team’s quarterfinal against defending champion Germany, when he showed them pictures of the March 11 devastation as inspiration.
Those images gave the Japanese women something to fight for and made them want to be an example.
“Japan has been hurt, and so many lives have been affected,” captain and leading scorer Homare Sawa said in a New York Times report. “We cannot change that. But Japan is coming back, and this was our chance to represent our nation and show that we never stopped working.”
Sawa was right about that. Twice, Japan fell behind by a goal against the Americans, once in regulation and once in overtime, and twice they got tying goals as the clocked ticked into the final minutes.
"Not one of the players gave up," Sasaki said, according to ESPN.com.
Merry White, a professor of anthropology at Boston University and an expert on Japanese culture, said the women’s performance illustrated some key qualities of Japanese society: hard work and resilience.
“It wasn’t only skills that got them close. … It’s the effort that counts,” White said.
They’d certainly put in an historic effort taking down Germany and then favored Sweden in a semifinal, and then tying the top-ranked U.S. team through 120 minutes. And White says that could account for the light mood as the Japanese team prepared for the penalty shootout.
“The women were jubilant that they’d gotten that far,” she said, but they probably thought they had an edge, too.
“They believe in will,” she said, showing “when we put our minds to something we can do it.”
Add one more quality that brought confidence: teamwork.
White said Sasaki’s smiles showed that.
“It sure looked like he was at one with the women, working with them instead of above them,” White said.
The team was nicknamed the nadeshiko, a floral metaphor for an ideal Japanese woman with virtues including loyalty, domestic ability, wisdom and humility. Not mentioned is leadership, but that’s a quality the team took Sunday.
The nation’s defense minister, Toshimi Kitazawa, said he hopes its politicians can learn from the women’s spirit and teamwork as officials try to solve the nuclear crisis at the tsunami-damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant.
“I am delighted. The team showed great perseverance and sent a good message toward recovery from the major disaster,” he said, according to a report on JapanToday.com.
In Tokyo’s sports bars in the early morning hours Monday, average citizens, at least, were buying in.
"At a time when things are going so bad for Japan, this news makes me so happy," Saori Shiratori was quoted as saying in the Los Angeles Times.
"When we won, I went crazy and hugged everyone I could," Yuri Itoga told the Times. "This ecstatic feeling is a lot more intense because we suffered the disaster in March. It makes me feel like I can't just sit around and do nothing."
© 2011 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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very very happy for them they deserve it and their country deserves all our wishes for continued good luck
Soccer sucks ! Who cares?!?!
This match was one of the most exciting matches I have seen, regardless the winner. Both teams had put their heart and soul into the game, any persons who belittle the game or the players' effort are downright ignorant.
Only in America do some people make hateful comments about soccer, and when they do its usually racist or snobbish. But heres the fact: The world just witnessed a really thrilling, exciting World Cup Final and it was totally uplifting even for the Americans who watched. And there are MANY Americans who care a great deal about soccer, even if the racist xenophobic right wing Glen Beck types spew their venemous anti-soccer vomit afterwords. FIFA reports there are now more youth teams and players in the United States than in any other country, so there.
Thank you, Corvus. Excellent post!
.........In the approximately 209 countries in the world Football,Footbal,Futbal,Soccer is the National Game............Even in the USA where Soccer or Footbal is regarded as an upstart sport ,there are MORE kids enrolled in Soccer than all of the other sports combinend.................
What do you think that there is some ultra secret soccer hating society? Most people don't like soccer because we find it boring! Not because we are xenophobes! Play whatever game you want, I don't care, but don't call me racist or xenophobic for finding soccer to be stupid and boring!
For those of you who say soccer is boring.... I think you might just be watching baseball too much.... if you think soccer is not a sport, baseball is a..... game that boys and girls play! You cannot be real! I respect baseball just as much as soccer. Stop bashing any other sports, let enjoy it. If you don't, shut up!
You people make me sick
They re nothing special t games are won all the time .
ENOUGH OF THIS!!!!! LETS SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THE GAME: IT SEEMS THAT TEAM USA NEVER PRACTICE PENLTY KICKS; AT THAT STAGE OF THE GAME IT SEEM TEAM USA WAS BACK IN FIRST GRADE
Seems they never practice free kicks? Did you not watch the Brazil game where they made all 5? Such is the way of sports, they did not finish their numerous early chances and it came back to haunt them.
this sucks usa should of won this booooooo.
So what does this have to do with an EarthQuake
I think they were at the right place right time right moment
do you idiots think if the game had been played on a different day it would had been the same
I am just tired of seeing idiot worshipping these MONG....ls and think they re something not in my book
YOUR ALL SUCKS
You know why they're so good?
Disciprine
Someone here obviously needs to get their eyes checked. The place where everyone looks the same is Hollywood, where being blonde and white seems to be prerequisite to be cast as leading lady (I could never tell apart Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchette, Kirsten Dunst, etc...).
(I could never tell apart Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchette, Kirsten Dunst, etc...).
yeah, you know how it is, they all look alike.
racist.
Fool.
I sure can tell them apart yummy
soccer, golf, tennis, baseball, basketball who really cares. Nice thing about the soccer game it wasn't a bunch of millionaires running around crying about something. That's pretty much all you have in baseball, football and basketball. Plus they say baseball is the american past time but I ask how many on those teams are from america?
As opposed to Bollywood, where there is great diversity, eh?