Maika Hamano’s solitary strike proved decisive as a resilient Japan edged Australia 1-0 on Saturday to secure their third Women’s Asian Cup title in front of a record crowd in Sydney.
The Tottenham forward unleashed a brilliant long-range effort in the 17th minute at Stadium Australia, sealing victory and adding to Japan’s previous triumphs in 2014 and 2018—both of which also came against Australia with identical 1-0 scorelines.
Those finals were also against Australia and also ended 1-0.
“I feel relieved, I think it was a 50-50 game just as I predicted,” Japan’s Greenlander coach Nils Nielsen said.
“It’s very difficult to play Australia in Australia and I have to say they made themselves proud.
“In the end, I’m just happy. The girls fought with everything they had.”
The edge-of-the-seat decider culminated a landmark tournament with more than 350,000 fans through the turnstiles, reinforcing the growth in popularity of the women’s game.
This was around six times as many as the previous record set in 2010 in China, with the 74,397 fans at the final setting a new attendance mark for a single game in tournament history.
The Asian Cup doubled as qualifying for the World Cup in Brazil next year, with Australia, Japan, South Korea, China, North Korea and the Philippines all punching their tickets.
The Japanese team stacked with English-based players were invincible in their run to the final, fluid across the park and defending well to steamroll everyone in front of them.
While Australia proved a much tougher test, nothing could stop them as they accumulated 29 goals and conceded just one through their six games to reinforce their status as Asia’s number one team.