Thanks to friends of the World!

	Round 1	Japan 2 – 1  New Zealand	Win
	Round 1	Japan 4 – 0  Mexico	Win
	Round 1	Japan 0 – 2  England	Loss
	Quarterfinals	Japan 1 – 0  Germany	Win
	Semifinals	Japan 3 – 1  Sweden	Win
	Final	Japan 2 −2    U.S.A.	Win

Nadeshiko Japan is the Japan women's national football team, became  the best female players in the world 2011. The team played the U.S.A. and won the final on penalties after the game finished 2-2 after extra time in this very early morning,on 18 July.

"Nadeshiko Japan" was a nickname of the team7 July 2004 by chosing from among about 2,700 entries.    "Nadeshiko", a kind of dianthus, comes from the phrase "Yamato Nadeshiko"(大和撫子, "ideal Japanese woman").

The "Japan Women's Football League"　(L. League) was established in 1989,  and the women’s national team qualified for the "1991 FIFA Women's World Cup" in China.  L. League has been going to be popular, however, in 1999, Japan failed to qualify for the 2000 Summer Olympics, and this helped to cause the withdrawal of a series of teams from the L. League. Japanese women’s football was on the verge of decline.

photo by wikipedia; transferred to Commons by User:Kafuffle

Sawa Homare(澤穂稀）lead the Japanese national team as captain to a World Championship victory and received the Golden Boot and Golden Ball awards as the top scorer (5 goals during the 2011 World Cup) and top MVP in the tournament. After a 2-2 tie in front of a sellout crowd in Frankfurt Germany (with 1 goal by Sawa in the 117th minute),Japan won the penalty shootout 3-1, defeating the U.S.A. to win their first ever FIFA World Cup.