Birgit Prinz scored a record goal as defending champions Germany edged Japan 2-0 to reach the last eight of the FIFA Women's World Cup here on Monday.
Prinz broke the deadlock in the 21st minute after collecting a corner and fired a powerful shot into the net inside the box. The goal made Prinz the top striker ever in the Women's soccer showpiece tournament with 13 goals, one more than American legend forward Michelle Akers (Akers has 12 goals in the World Cup).
Playmaker Renate Lingor converted a 87-min penalty without problem to seal victory.
"The pitch today is much better than in Shanghai. We can play some skillful football with good passing," said Japan coach Hiroshi Ohashi.
"We prepared to get to the quarter-finals, so I'm sorry for the result. But I'm satisfied with the players' performance, we played in our usual way.
"I'm very happy with the result. Our team do good job in defence.We play a very skillful opponent," said Germany coach Silvia Neid.
"Of course I grew a little bit impatient before the second goal, if we could score the second in the first half it would have been much easier."
Germany topped Group A with seven points, they will meet the second placed team in Group B. Japan had to say goodbye as the third place side with 4 points. In the other game this evening, England trounced Argentina 6-1 to stamp the second place with five points to advance.
Japan changed their habitual 4-4-2 formation to 4-5-1, leaving major striker Eriko Arakawa on the bench. But the Germans dominated the first half with obvious advantage. Japan were lucky enough to avoid a big deficit after 45 minutes.
Midfielder Petra Wimbersky wasted two clear chances when an in-form keeper Miho Fukumoto denied her one-to-one shots. Sandra Smisek hit the crossbar with a header four minutes from the break.
Hiroshi Ohashi brought on Arakawa after the interval, and Japan seemed to get some attacking power. But the poor striker could not continue after fighting for a long pass with German keeper Nadine Angerer in the 61th minute and had to be replaced by Shinobu Ohno.
Then the Nadeshiko lost the attacking gunpowder and withered finally.
Source: Xinhua
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