Japan's Sawa eyes World-Olympic double

09 September 2011 11:00

Japan's captain Homare Sawa is eyeing a double win for her World Cup-winning squad after they booked one of Asia's two places in the women's football tournament at the London Olympics next year.

"We are still on the way," the gutsy 33-year-old midfielder said after Japan secured their third Olympic ticket in a row by drawing 1-1 with North Korea on Thursday at the Asian qualifying tournament being held in China.

"Luckily we could produce the best possible result at the World Cup. But in Japan, conquering the Olympics is what matters most for women," Sawa wrote in the Nikkan Sports daily published on Friday.

"I am happy that we have won the World Cup but it won't mean anything if we ended there," the most-capped female Japanese footballer said.

Her team has yet to lift an Olympic medal, losing to Germany in the 2008 third-place playoff.

A Japanese World Cup-Olympic double at London 2012 would be a first in consecutive years for any country in women's football.

The United States triumphed in the inaugural 1996 women's Olympic tournament and went on to win the 1999 World Cup, but lost to Norway in the final at the 2000 Sydney Games.

Sawa, who has played in three Olympics and five World Cups, scored a 117th-minute equaliser in the World Cup final this July against the USA before Japan won the competition on penalties.

She has scored 80 goals in 176 internationals and scooped the World Cup golden boot in Germany this year for her five goals in the competition.

With their qualification for the Olympics, Japan's women footballers have again lifted the nation's spirits after the trauma of March's quake-tsunami disaster.

"Olympic ticket for Nadeshiko," read a front-page headline in the Asahi Shimbun, citing the team's nickname -- a frilly pink flower seen in Japan as a symbol of feminine grace.

"I feel relieved because there has been what you may call pressure, responsibility and whatnot," said Sawa.

The victory has lifted the domestic women's game out of its previous oblivion and turned the Nadeshiko players into stars, but there has been a price to pay for their newfound fame.

Sawa said she had been grabbed violently on the arm by a stranger in a media area after training and had been feeling scared ever since.

"I understand that the World Cup victory could mean such a thing... But I could not readjust my frame of mind well."

Source: AFP