The final match of the 2015 Women’s Soccer World Cup was played today.
It was Japan vs USA.
The USA won, so they are the 2015 Women’s World Cup champions! Japan got silver (2nd place), and England won third place!
おめでとうございます！（Congratulations!）
Coincidentally, in the previous Women’s World Cup (in 2011), the final match was played between Japan and America then too. Japan won that time.
America has a strong women’s soccer team. They currently hold the record for the most World Cup champions (three times), and they’re the only team that have been in the top three in every World Cup since the first one in 1991!
The FIFA soccer championship World Cup matches are currently being played in Brazil.
The first game was yesterday. Home team Brazil beat Croatia, 3-1.
This is the first World Cup with any Japanese referees. Three Japanese referees officiated yesterday’s Brazil – Croatia game.
The games that Japan and the games that America are scheduled to play are here:
Dates / times shown are Brazil time (Japan Standard Time is twelve hours later)
Do you watch the World Cup?
I’ve never been very interested in soccer. I watched a few World Cup games when Japan co-hosted the games with Korea in 2002. I think I’ll give it another try, and watch some of the games that Japan and America play. Maybe I’ll become a soccer fan. 😉
Do you know the FIFA soccer “World Cup“? Do you watch it?
It’s like the Olympics or “Super Bowl” for soccer.
I remember when Korea and Japan co-hosted the World Cup in 2002 and many matches were held in the Tokyo area. I tried to get interested in the event. I watched the games that Japan played, as well as the games that America played.
But, if I’m honest, I find soccer pretty boring.
I guess I’m in the minority with that opinion though because soccer, especially the World Cup, is very popular around the world.
In Japan, too.
It wasn’t always like that. When I first came to Japan, soccer wasn’t very popular here. Baseball was by far the most popular sport in Japan then.
When Japan co-hosted the 2002 World Cup, soccer-fever took off in Japan. And it’s been very popular here since.
Anyways, in anticipation of the 2014 World Cup, which will be hosted by Brazil from 2014 June 12th – July 13th, McDonalds in Japan is offering a special “World Cup” menu.
It says 「一番ウマい国はどこだ。」 (“Which country is the best?”)
They offer a Brazilian BBQ burger, German pork sandwich, Italian Risotto balls, Chicken McNuggets with Italian Basil and Cheese dip, Japanese “Ramune” floats, and more.
Is McDonalds doing a World Cup campaign like this in your country too?
I grew up in Tampa Bay, Florida so naturally my favorite American football team has always been the Tampa Bay Buccaneers … but I guess I’ll be supporting a Los Angeles team from now on.
My favorite rock band, KISS, have just purchased their own professional American football team!
They’re called L.A. KISS.
Not a very good football team name … but that’s the name of the band, so I guess it can’t be helped.
I’m not really a big soccer fan. But yesterday Japan and Korea played the championship game of the East Asian (Soccer) Cup.
So I watched their soccer games on TV yesterday,
Japanese and Korean sports teams have a rivalry…so people in both countries really want their team to win every time these two countries compete.
Countries that play in the East Asian Cup are: Japan, South Korea, North Korea, China, Taipei, Hong Kong, Australia, Guam, Macau, and the North Mariana Islands.
(South) Korea and Japan made it to the final round. They played the championship game in Korea yesterday.
First the women’s teams played. The South Korean women’s soccer team beat the 「なでしこジャパン」 (Japan women’s soccer team) with a score of 2-1.
But in the men’s championship match, the “Samurai Blue” (Japan men’s soccer team) beat the South Korean men’s soccer team with the same score (2-1).
So, now the Japan men’s soccer team are the 2013 East Asian Cup champions.
I wrote this post about the Women’s Soccer World Cup championship game being played by Japan against the USA today.
As you probably already know, Japan won the game in penalty kicks.
Here’s a video I found on Youtube that shows the penalty kick attempts by both the USA and Japan.
The announcers in the video sound English. I don’t often watch TV in English anymore…so what mostly got my attention when I watched this video was the way the announcers butchered the Japanese players’ names! 😉
The video ends before it has a chance to show Japan’s team celebrating their win as the 2011 Women’s World Cup Champions.
But here’s what it looked like:
Did you watch the game?
It started at 3:45AM Japan time so I didn’t stay up to watch it. I saw the highlights on the news this morning.
On the news here, they also had a Japanese reporter and cameraman in a sports-bar in New York during the game to get the American fans’ reactions.
Each time the U.S. team scored a goal, the Americans in the bar erupted into a “USA! USA! USA!” chant. I guess I’ve been living in Japan so long that I was taken by surprise a bit by that. It was like a culture shock! 😉
From 2011 June 26 until this Sunday (July 17th), the Women’s World Cup international soccer championship games is being held in Germany.
On Wednesday (July 13th), two semi-final matches were held. America played against France and Japan played against Sweden.
The U.S. and Japan each won their games with a score of 3-1.
So, now the final match for the 2011 Women’s World Cup Championship will be held on this Sunday, 2011 July 17th. Japan will play against the U.S.
I’m not sure which country to support!
I’m American. I was born and raised in America. But I’ve been living in Japan since 1990…most of my life now. Japan has become my home.
Well, I’ll support both teams. 😉
Have you watched any of the 2011 Women’s World Cup matches? Will you watch the championship game on Sunday?
Did you watch the Japan vs Sweden game last Wednesday? After Japan won that game, the team members held up a banner thanking the world for supporting Japan after the 2011 March 11 disaster.
Their banner said:
“To Our Friends Around The World
Thank You For Your Support“.
The Japanese Womens soccer team holding their banner
Yesterday was the final match of the 2011 Asian Cup soccer games that were being held in the country of カタール国 (Qatar).
The Asian Cup is a soccer competition of countries in the Asian region (including Japan, North and South Korea, China, Vietnam, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Australia and others) and is held every four years.
I’m not really a big soccer fan. I think the Japanese comedian “Beat Takeshi” had an excellent idea to improve the game of soccer.
But I did watch the final match last night. It was Japan’s “Blue Samurai” vs Australia’s “Socceroos“ (maybe it’s a cultural difference…but don’t Australian people think the name “Socceroos” is embarrassing?)
As is “par for the course” for the game of soccer, the score of the Japan v. Australia game remained 0-0 for almost the entire match…until Japan’s Tadanari Lee (who is actually a naturalized Japanese of Korean descent) scored the only goal of the entire game.
Tadanari Lee of Japan's "Samurai Blue" national soccer team.
So now Japan are the 2011 Asian Cup soccer champions.
The Japan team was crowned the soccer "Kings of Asia".
So now out of the fifteen “Asian Cup” soccer competitions that have been held since these games started in 1956, Japan has been the champion team the most often.
Japan has held the title four times: in 1992, 2000, 2004 and now in 2011.
Here is a four-and-a half minute video of the highlights of the Japan vs. Australia champion game that was played last night (2011 January 29).
The video shows the failed goal attempts (which are a regular event in a soccer game) and the winning goal (which was actually quite excellent teamwork between aforementioned Tadanari Lee and Yuto Nagatomo):
Japan won their first game in the 2010 World Cup (being played in South Africa now until 11 July, in case you didn’t know).
Japan defeated the African country of Cameroon with a score of 1-0 in the first soccer match for both countries’ teams in this years soccer World Cup.
The Japanese player Keisuke Honda was voted as the game’s MVP as he scored the only goal in the match.
Keisuke Honda (of Japan's "Samurai Blue" soccer team) scoring the only goal in Japan's match against Cameroon, 2010 June 14.
In other World Cup related news…
Islamic militants in the African nation of Somalia are apparently in charge of parts of that country and have imposed numerous, strict and outrageous laws…including making it a capital offense to watch the World Cup soccer matches on TV.
A group of the militants forced their way into private homes of people who were watching the Germany-Australia match.
The executed two of the soccer fans and arrested thirty others!
The 2010 World Cup has begun. The World Cup is the international soccer championship games.
(I wrote this post about a drink Pepsi-Japan released recently in honor of the World Cup.)
I don’t think soccer is a very exciting game. But I remember seeing on TV here about ten or so years ago a soccer game organized by the famous Japanese comedian Beat Takeshi that was much more entertaining than how the game is usually played.
He made all of the players wear binoculars strapped by their faces. It was quite funny. Beat Takeshi always has excellent shows even today.
Tokyo Five 
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