Reporting from Tokyo and Seoul— As Japan's Saki Kumagai ready for her decisive penalty kick within the shootout that ended Sunday's Women's World Cup final, a wounded nation held its breath.
For Japan, this was quite a soccer game. it had been a chance to prove on a world stage that a rustic devastated four months ago by a killer earthquake, tsunami and nuclear catastrophe still possessed the center and soul of a fierce competitor.
The dramatic final kick, defeating a taller and stronger U.S. team in an exceedingly nail-biting seesaw contest, established Japan because the initial Asian country to win the women's World Cup.
But it conjointly allowed a beaten-down nation to declare to the globe that it had been now not simply a victim.
"This may be a massive psychological carry for all folks," said Ai Asada, 26, tears in her eyes, as she celebrated the ultimate penalty kick at the Footnik sports bar in central Tokyo.
Nearby, Saori Shiratori was sobbing. She had traveled an hour by train to look at, and she or he wasn't disappointed. "At a time when things are going thus unhealthy for Japan, this news makes me thus happy," she said. "We've created history."
Despite a 3:45 a.m. beginning time in Japan, eager fans streamed into bars and community centers across the state to look at the telecast from Frankfurt, Germany. At the Footnik, quite one hundred spectators packed in many hours early to look at on an oversized movie screen.
Twice the Americans went ahead, and Asada winced and hid her face in an exceedingly Japanese national team towel. Then, when Japan came back to tie it once and however, she threw her hands into the air, screaming and hugging her boyfriend and high-fiving everybody round her.
As the penalty shootout materialized, the sun was rising over Tokyo. Moments later, Kumagai sliced her kick past U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo, giving Japan a game-ending 3-1 advantage within the further session.
It was a replacement day — and therefore the celebration was on.
"We're No. one within the world," said one celebrant in an exceedingly straw hat outside the sports bar, smoking a cigarette and shaking his head. "It's outrageous."
The feeling was similar at the soccer stadium in Germany, where a breathless team captain Homare Sawa indirectly evoked her country's response to the March eleven disaster that left quite twenty five,000 dead or missing.
"We ran and that we ran," said Sawa, who scored the goal that tied the score at 2-2 and was the tournament's high scorer with 5 goals. "We were exhausted, however we tend to kept running."
With every game, Japan's calamity was never off from players' minds.
To inspire them, coach Norio Sasaki had shown photos of devastated cities along Japan's northeastern coast that were washed away by the tsunami. The players knew that every goal, every victory — over such soccer powerhouses as Sweden, Germany and, finally, the U.S., that it had not defeated in twenty five previous contests — would offer individuals back home a lot of hope, a touch a lot of courage.
Along with the superstars, there conjointly were the players who served as emotional reminders of the national rebuilding task that remains: Team member Aya Sameshima worked at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that was crippled by the tsunami.
The team — referred to as Nadeshiko Japan, when a pink carnation signifying the psychological toughness of ladies — created a banner for the globe Cup series thanking the globe for its support when the disaster.
And then its members played their hearts out.
Still, soccer fans had wondered: Would the team fold, place up a valiant fight however within the finish genuflect before the higher squad?
At every crucial juncture, the players rose to the occasion. With simply eight minutes to travel in regulation and therefore the U.S. team up 1-0, able to win its third World Cup title, the japanese scored to even the count, sending the match into beyond regular time.
There, the situation played out again: The U.S. was 3 minutes from victory in beyond regular time before Sawa came up with an unlikely goal that propelled the already exhausting match to penalty kicks.
In the shootout, the U.S. surprisingly missed its initial 3 kicks, permitting the japanese a comparatively simple path to victory.
At the Footnik, individuals watched with hope and, to some extent, disbelief.
"The U.S. was most stronger. i believed we tend to had a decent team, however I did not assume there was any likelihood we might win," said Yuri Itoga, 36.
"When we tend to won, I went crazy and hugged everybody I might," she said. "This ecstatic feeling may be a ton a lot of intense as a result of we tend to suffered the disaster in March. It makes me feel like i can not simply sit around and do nothing.
"I'm on such a high straight away i do not assume I will head to bed."
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