DUNEDIN (NEW ZEALAND): Hikaru Naomoto and Aoba Fujino scored two minutes apart in the first half to lead Japan to a 2-0 Women’s World Cup victory over Costa Rica on Wednesday that put the Japanese on the brink of advancing to the knockout stage.
A sparse crowd of 6,992 spectators saw the match in Dunedin, the lowest attendance so far at the tournament in Australia and New Zealand.
Japan’s passage into the knock-out stages from Group C will be confirmed later if Spain beat or draw with Zambia, who the Japanese hammered 5-0 in their opening game.
The 2011 world champions Japan sit top of the group with a perfect record of six points and have yet to concede a goal.
Spain will surely join them when they face Zambia, the lowest-ranked team at the World Cup, later Wednesday.
Costa Rica, well beaten 3-0 by Spain, was floored again by a devastating first-half spell from the Japanese who grabbed two rapid-fire goals.
Outclassed Costa Rica’s tournament is realistically already over.
Substitute Gloriana Villalobos managed their one and only shot on target so far at this World Cup with nine minutes left.
Japan took the lead through Naomoto on 25 minutes and they made it 2-0 when they again sliced through Costa Rica’s shaky defence moments later.
The 19-year-old Fujino turned her marker, dribbled into the penalty area and powered her shot inside the near post.
The scoreline would have been much higher were it not for fine saves by Costa Rica goalkeeper Daniela Solera, who had another busy night between the posts but should have done better with both goals.
The shot-stopper was badly shaken with 25 minutes left after a mid-air collision with Japan replacement Riko Ueki when both players went for a cross.
With their final pool match against Spain still, to come on Monday, Japan’s seven goals so far are a record for them in World Cup group stages.
(With inputs from AFP and Associated Press)
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