Japan beats Costa Rica 2-0 to qualify for knockout stage at Women's World Cup

Go Japan! My niece is into her footie. She is having a ball watching the games!! Congratulations!!!

Great job Nadeshiko Japan!

Hats off to the scorers - Hikaru Naomoto and Aoba Fujino. Things ticking along very nicely for the Japanese ladies - in particular the mean-spirited defense who have not yet conceded a goal.

Beat Spain next up, and the first Knockout game should be just a bit easier. Bring on Wellington!

“Two goals in 2 minutes help Japan beat Costa Rica”

Seems like an odd way to put it. Since the only way to win a soccer game is to score more goals than your opponent, helping doesn't come into it. The Japanese team beat Costa Rica by two goals to nil.

Didn't watch the first half, but apparently Japan were running well.

The 2nd half was way below par for a world cup match.

Partly understandable as Costa Rica are ranked so low (34th) and Japan appeared to have it in the bag.

But still you'd expect a better skill show.

And that heavy bump on CR goalkeeper Solera looked really bad. She was down for the count. No free kick, in fact Japan got a corner??? How's that???

But what really amazed me was where's the concussion protocol??? She should have been looked at by doctors off-field.

I think someone erred there. Head knocks are serious business these days.

And as the tournament grows and the minnows are out, so will the game quality and tension - I hope.

Great work! Let's have a repeat of the 2011 tournament result, please!

Wow. That is unbelievable. Costa Rica are in the top few countries competing at this championship. It looks like this will be Japan’s trophy.

The two teams kicked off in front of a sparse crowd of 6,992 at Dunedin Stadium, a huge differential from the record sales of over 1.5 million tickets for this year’s tournament.

How can one make a comparison between all the tickets sold for a tournament, record number or otherwise, and one game.

Hell even 100,000 would be a "huge differential" , it's a senseless and meaningless statement.

If it were the men's national team, and the men's wc it would have been a sellout. Keep treating them as "flowers" and not athletes and people are not going to get excited about anything!

Great job Samurai Women of Japan!

There, fixed it for ya! Show some respect for the athletes here! They aren't flowers and it's disrespectful to call them such!

They aren't flowers and it's disrespectful to call them such!

Indeed. 女武者 might be the best label. If labels are needed of course. ;^ )

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onna-musha

They aren't flowers and it's disrespectful to call them such!

Cool your jets. The nickname is in reference to 大和撫子, Yamato yadeshiko, "the ideal of a Japanese woman". And it exists since 2004, the team calls itself that.

They aren't flowers and it's disrespectful to call them such!

Lighten up Francis.

Early days but the team confidences could be a few rungs up the ladder for the knock out phase.

Huzzah!

Go Girls!!

Go Girls!!

they are almost mostly women. Not girls. Sexism prevails.

but they are Japanese heroes.

I didn't watch first two halves as I'm not big fan of girls soccer but good to hear they won.

I didn't watch first two halves as I'm not big fan of girls soccer but good to hear they won.

How about the second two halves?

And that heavy bump on CR goalkeeper Solera looked really bad. She was down for the count. No free kick, in fact Japan got a corner??? How's that???

When I looked at the replay, it seemed to me that the heavy contact on Solera was from her own defender.

The Nadeshiko did seem to take their foot off the gas in she second half, and the timing of some substitutions further killed momentum. But I'm guessing that was a decision the coach made to conserve players for the long haul since it looks like this team is capable of a deep run in the tournament. The final group match v Spain to decide the group winner may not be a big priority for either side now, since both have advanced to the knockouts. Still...bragging rights and a (theoretically) easier match in the round of 16 are at stake.

Go Nadeshiko!

Great news!

Cool your jets. The nickname is in reference to 大和撫子, Yamato yadeshiko, "the ideal of a Japanese woman". And it exists since 2004, the team calls itself that.

These women didnt pick the name for the team, it was decided upon by a bunch of idiots who can not see women as the equal of men.

Nadeshiko Japan are doing fine. All the best.