USA vs. Japan: Match Preview & Game Notes | 2024 Paris Olympics

The USA and Japan will open play at 9 a.m. ET / 3 p.m. native within the quarterfinals at Parc des Princes in Paris, adopted by Spain taking up Colombia at 11 a.m. ET / 5 p.m. native within the Lyon within the different quadrant of the bracket. Canada and Germany sq. off at 1 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. native in Marseille with the winner occurring to face the winner of USA-Japan within the semifinal. Hosts France tackle Brazil at 3 p.m. ET / 9 p.m. native to shut out quarterfinal play in Nantes.

Of the eight groups within the knockout rounds, 5 have beforehand reached the rostrum on the Olympics. The U.S. has essentially the most Olympic gold and most complete medals within the historical past of the competitors, successful 4 golds, one silver and one bronze. Germany, the 2016 gold medalists, has additionally received three bronze medals whereas Canada, the 2020 champions, has two bronze medals to go together with the gold from final match. Brazil has two silver medals whereas Japan took silver in 2012, ending runners-up to the USA.

MARQUEE MATCHUP

Saturday’s match at Parc des Princes would be the seventh assembly all-time between the USA and Japan within the knockout rounds of a World Cup or Olympics, passing USA vs. Brazil to develop into essentially the most performed knockout-round matchup within the historical past of girls’s world championships.

It is going to be the fifth assembly between the USWNT and Japan on the Olympics, tying Brazil vs. Germany for the most-played match in girls’s Olympic historical past.

Together with the gold medal match at London 2012, the USA and Japan additionally squared off twice on the 2008 Olympics in Beijing – a 1-0 win for the Individuals within the group stage and 4-2 USA victory within the semifinals – in addition to the quarterfinals of the 2004 Olympics in Athens, a 2-1 win for the U.S. enroute to its second gold medal.

The USA and Japan met in back-to-back FIFA Ladies’s World Cup finals in 2011 and 2015. Japan prevailed 3-1 on penalty kicks in 2011 to win its first-ever World Cup title after the groups had been stage at 2-2 by means of the top of regulation and extra time. 4 years later in Canada, the USA earned its third star in a match for the ages, successful 5-2 behind a hat-trick from Lloyd within the opening 16 minutes. The groups additionally met within the quarterfinals of the 1995 World Cup, a 4-0 victory for the U.S., preceded by a 3-0 USA victory within the group stage of the inaugural Ladies’s World Cup in 1991.

With the penalty kick shootout formally listed as a draw, the U.S. has an total file of 7W-0L-1D when dealing with Japan at world championship occasions, together with a 4W-0L-0D file when dealing with the Japanese on the Olympics, tied for its most wins towards anybody opponent on the Olympics.

INSIDE THE SERIES: USA vs. JAPAN

The quarterfinal conflict in Paris with be the forty first assembly all-time between the USA and Japan and the second matchup between the groups this yr.

The U.S. and Japan confronted off within the semifinals of the 2024 SheBelieves Cup in Atlanta on April 6. Enjoying in entrance of a crowd of fifty,644 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium – the most important crowd to observe the USWNT on house soil because the 1999 FIFA Ladies’s World Cup Ultimate – the U.S. got here again from an early deficit to win 2-1 and advance to the SheBelieves Cup ultimate, the place it went on to hoist the trophy for the fifth consecutive yr. Japan scored simply 31 seconds into the match, taking the lead on a aim from Kiko Seike, however the Individuals equalized within the twenty first minute with a strike from distance by Jaedyn Shaw and Lindsey Horan transformed the game-winning penalty kick within the 77th.

The final 4 conferences between the groups have come on the SheBelieves Cup – a 2-2 attract 2019 adopted by three consecutive wins for the Individuals (3-1 in 2020, 1-0 in 2023 and 2-1 in 2024). Total, the USA leads the all-time sequence towards Japan with a file of 31W-1L-8D, with its lone loss within the sequence got here through the 2012 Algarve Cup. Since then, the USA is unbeaten within the final 13 conferences between the groups, with 9 wins and 4 attracts in that span, together with victories within the 2012 Olympic Ultimate and the 2015 World Cup Ultimate. The U.S. has scored a number of targets in eight of its final 9 matchups with Japan.

RETURN TO PARC DES PRINCES

The USWNT heads into Saturday’s match in Paris having received every of its final 11 video games in France, a streak that dates again to the beginning of the 2019 FIFA Ladies’s World Cup. Two of the victories through the USA’s run to the 2019 title got here at Parc des Princes, beating Chile 3-0 within the second group stage match on June 16 after which besting hosts France 2-1 within the quarterfinals in probably the most memorable matches of the match.

Seven gamers on this Olympic squad – Tierna Davidson, Crystal Dunn, Lindsey Horan, Rose Lavelle, Alyssa Naeher, Emily Sonnett and Swanson – had been on the roster for the 2019 Ladies’s World Cup. Davidson tallied two assists within the group stage win over Chile at Parc des Princes whereas Naeher, Dunn, Lavelle and Horan all featured within the quarterfinal victory over France, which the USA received behind a brace from now-retired Megan Rapinoe.

Parc des Princes is house to famed France membership Paris Saint-Germain and one of many house venues for Albert, who joined PSG in January of 2023, giving up her ultimate two seasons of collegiate eligibility. Albert had a powerful 2023-24 marketing campaign for PSG, showing in 27 matches throughout all competitions and scoring three targets whereas serving to PSG win the French Cup and take second within the league behind perennial powers Olympique Lyon. Albert made historical past within the USA’s July 31 win over Australia, approaching within the second half and scoring what proved to be the game-winning aim within the 77th minute. The strike from distance was Albert’s first worldwide aim, making her the primary participant in USWNT historical past to attain her first profession aim at an Olympics.

Horan, who led Lyon to the league title and this yr’s UEFA Ladies’s Champions league ultimate, kicked off her skilled profession with PSG, becoming a member of the membership straight out of highschool on the age of 18 and turning into the primary American lady to skip faculty soccer to show professional. Horan performed for PSG from 2012 to 2016 and scored almost 60 aim throughout all competitions earlier than returning stateside to play for the Portland Thorns.

EMMA ERA STARTING STRONG

The longtime head coach at Chelsea FC earlier than formally taking up the helm of the USWNT in late Could, USWNT head coach Emma Hayes is unbeaten (6W-0L-1D) in her first seven matches with the USWNT, with the primary 5 outcomes coming by way of shutout.

Hayes is the eighth head coach to guide the USWNT at a serious match and the primary to win his or her first main match match by a margin of three or extra targets. Hayes joins Anson Dorrance as the one head coaches in USWNT historical past to win their first three matches at a serious match, with Dorrance successful all six video games with the USWNT on the inaugural FIFA Ladies’s World Cup in 1991.

Hayes is trying to develop into simply the fourth USWNT head coach to win their first main match, with Dorrance main the U.S. to the 1991 FIFA Ladies’s World Cup, Pia Sundhage main the Individuals to a gold medal on the 2008 Olympics and Jill Ellis serving to the U.S. to its third World Cup title in 2015.

2024 MEDIA GUIDE

The 2024 U.S. Olympic Ladies’s Soccer Media Information and the 2024 USWNT Media Information are actually obtainable for obtain. The Media Guides options all of the historical past and statistics for the USWNT, in addition to full bios on technical workers and the present prime gamers, info on the USA’s Youth Ladies’s Nationwide Groups and normal necessary info on U.S. Soccer.

USA TEAM & OLYMPIC ROSTER NOTES

• 4 of the gamers on this roster have 100+ caps, led by midfielder and captain Lindsey Horan with 153. Crystal Dunn has 152 worldwide appearances adopted by Alyssa Naeher (109 caps) and Rose Lavelle (104).
• Jenna Nighswonger is the least skilled on the 18-player Olympic roster with 13 worldwide appearances.
• Fourteen of the 22 gamers on this roster had been born after the 1996 Olympics, the primary ever Olympics to function girls’s soccer.
• Ahead Mallory Swanson is the highest scorer on this roster with 37 worldwide targets, adopted by Horan with 35, Dunn with 25, Lavelle with 24 and Smith with 22.
• Swanson is tied for third in scoring with three targets at Paris 2024, trailing solely France’s Marie-Antoinette Katoto (5 targets) and Zambia’s Barbra Banda (4).
• Horan and Smith have two assists every this match, tied for the crew and match lead.
• 5 totally different gamers have scored for the U.S. at this Olympics: Swanson (3), Smith (2), Rodman (2), Williams (1) and Albert (1).
• Rodman and Smith both scored or assisted in the entire USA’s group stage video games on the 2024 Olympics, the primary time a pair of USA teammates had carried out so in an Olympic group stage since Alex Morgan and Abby Wambach at London 2012.
• Horan leads the U.S. with 1,182 complete minutes performed in 2024 – the primary participant to eclipse the 1,000-minute mark this yr – adopted by Alyssa Naeher (1,110), Sam Coffey (1,083) and Emily Fox (10,34).
• Naeher, Coffey and Naomi Girma have performed each minute to this point for the U.S. this Olympics.
• 13 totally different gamers have scored to this point for the USWNT in 2024 – led by seven targets from Smith, 5 targets every from Swanson and Jaedyn Shaw, 4 from Horan, two targets every from Alex Morgan, Olivia Moultrie, Tierna Davidson, Jenna Nighswonger, Williams and Rodman, and one every Dunn, Albert and Lily Yohannes.
• Rodman and Smith lead the USA with 4 assists in 2024, adopted by Swanson, Horan and Lavelle with three apiece and Midge Purce with two. Seven different gamers have one help on the yr.
• Total, 19 totally different gamers have been straight concerned in a aim for the USA in 2024, led by 11 aim involvements from Smith (7 targets, 4 assists) and eight from Swanson (5 targets, three assists). 

Present FIFA World Rating: 7
AFC Rating: 1
Olympic Appearances: sixth (1996, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2020, 2024)
Greatest Olympic End: 2012 (Silver Medal)
Report vs. USA: 1W-31L-8D
Coach: Futoshi Ikeda (JPN)

JAPAN WOMEN’S OLYMPIC SOCCER TEAM ROSTER BY POSITION (CLUB)

GOALKEEPERS (2): 1-Ayaka Yamashita (Unattached), 18-Chika Hirao (Albirex Niigata Women)

DEFENDERS (6): 2-Risa Shimizu (Manchester Metropolis FC, ENG), 3-Moeka Minami (AS Roma, ITA), 4-Saki Kumagai (AS Roma, ITA), 5-Hana Takahashi (Urawa Reds Women), 6-Toko Koga (Feyenoord Rotterdam, NED), 13-Hikaru Kitagawa (INAC Kobe Leonessa)

MIDFIELDERS (7): 7-Hinata Miyazawa (Manchester United WFC, ENG), 8-Kiko Seike (Urawa Reds Women), 10-Fuka Nagano (Liverpool FC, ENG), 12-Momoko Tanikawa (FC Rosengård, SWE), 14-Yui Hasegawa (Manchester Metropolis FC, ENG), 15-Aoba Fujino (NTV Tokyo Verdy Beleza), 16-Honoka Hayashi (Unattached)

FORWARD (3): 9-Riko Ueki (West Ham United FC, ENG), 11-Mina Tanaka (Utah Royals FC, USA), 17-Maika Hamano (Chelsea FC, ENG)

ALTERNATES (4): 19-Remina Chiba (Eintracht Frankfurt, GER), 20-Miyabi Moryia (INAC Kobe Leonessa), 21-Rion Ishikawa (Urawa Reds Women), 22-Shu Ohba (Ole Miss, USA)

JAPAN TEAM NOTES

• Japan’s head coach, Futoshi Ikeda, took over from Asako Takakura, who is likely one of the pioneers of Japan girls’s soccer and was the primary feminine coach of Japan’s senior Ladies’s Nationwide Group who coached the Nadeshiko from 2016–2021.
• Ikeda, a former skilled participant for Urawa Reds, is a former head coach of Japan U-20 Ladies’s Nationwide Group. He led Japan to the championship on the 2017 AFC U-19 Championship and certified for the 2018 FIFA U-20 Ladies’s World Cup, which Japan received. He additionally a former coach for the Japan U-17 Ladies’s Nationwide Group, making him very accustomed to Japan’s younger expertise and their pathway to the senior aspect.
• In a testomony to the expansion of Japanese girls’s soccer, 11 of the 18 gamers on the roster play professionally outdoors of Japan.
• Japan certified for the 2024 Olympics by way of the 2024 AFC Ladies’s Olympic Qualifying Event, a troublesome competitors that Japan entered within the Second Spherical. In Group C of the Second Spherical, Japan received all three video games by an 11-0 mixture, toping Uzbekistan (2-0), Vietnam (2-0) and India (7-0). That earned Japan a spot within the Third Spherical the place it defeated North Korea 2-1 on mixture to earn its Olympic berth. Japan tied the primary leg 0-0 in a match performed in Saudi Arabia earlier than successful the returning leg 2-1 on targets from Hana Takahashi and Aoba Fuino in entrance of 45,787 followers at Japan’s Nationwide Stadium in Tokyo.
• Whereas Japan’s Senior Nationwide Group has not reached a world championship ultimate since 2015, its Ladies’s Youth Nationwide Groups – significantly the Underneath-20s — have had an incredible run of latest success. Japan received the 2018 FIFA Underneath-20 Ladies’s World Cup and completed runner-up on the 2022 FIFA U-20 World Cup contested in Costa Rica.
• Then Eighteen-year-old Maika Hamano received the Golden Ball as the highest participant on the 2022 FIFA U-20 World Cup and in addition took house the Silver Boot after ending the match with 4 targets.
• Japan fell to eventual champions Spain 2-1 within the quarterfinal of the 2022 FIFA U-17 Ladies’s World Cup in an exciting match that noticed three targets scored within the ultimate 24 minutes of the sport. They had been additionally eradicated within the quarterfinals of the U-17 World Cup in 2018, falling to New Zealand on penalties.