'Korea's 4-1 rout' Japan defeats Australia, host country, without allowing any runs → to become the top in Asia... Women's Asian Cup 'Three Times in Tongsan'

*This content was translated by AI.

This is the power of Japanese soccer, which won a great victory in Korea-Japan match. Japan has regained the top of Asian women's soccer.

The Japanese women's national soccer team won the 2026 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women's Asian Cup final at Stadium Australia in Sydney, Australia, at 6 p.m. on the 21st (Korea time) by beating host Australia 1-0.

As a result, Japan regained the top spot for the first time in eight years since the 2018 tournament, building its third career championship.

In this final, Japan pulled out the same lineup as the last semifinal against South Korea / vs. Korea. It launched a 4-1-4-1 formation with Riko Ueki as a one-top and Yui Hasegawa in the right back line. Hamano Micah, Nagano Fuka, Miyazawa Hinata, and Fujino Aoba were in charge of the midfield, and Kitagawa Hikaru, Kumagai Saki, Koga Toko, and Takahashi Hana formed the four-back line. Ayaka Yamashita defended the goal.

Against this, Australia took a 4-2-3-1 tactic. Starting with main striker Sam Kerr, all of the best members, including Caitlin Ford, Katrina Gori and Mary Fowler, were put in to win the title at home.

Japan scored the first goal early in the first half. In the 17th minute, Hamano received Hasegawa's pass and shook the net. Hamano attempted a bold right-footed shot from outside the penalty box, and the ball split into the bottom right corner of the Australian goal.

After the first run, Australia fought back, but it had a hard time penetrating Japan's organized defense. Towards the end of the second half, Australia launched a full offensive, putting all of its offensive resources into action. On the other hand, Japan began to solidify its defense resources by replacing them one after another. Japan blocked Australia's strong chase with hand-to-hand defense and eventually secured a one-point lead to the end, winning a new victory.

Prior to this championship, Japan showed off its overwhelming power against South Korea in the semifinals. In the semifinals held on the 18th, Japan won a 4-1 victory over South Korea to win the final ticket.

At that time, Korea faced off as best members such as Jeon Yoo-kyung (MoldeFK), Park Soo-jung (AC Milan), Jang Seul-ki (Gyeongju KHNP), Choo Hyo-joo (Ota and Lapid), and Kim Hye-ri (Suwon FC Women) under the direction of Shin Sang-woo, but lost by 3 points, realizing the power gap.

South Korea had only a 30% ball possession during the semifinals and suffered from a big 6-21 loss in the number of shots. In the first 15 minutes of the first half, he lost the ball to opposition pressure during the final build-up process, giving Ueki the first goal, followed by Hamano's additional goal 10 minutes later. In the second half, South Korea, which gave up a header goal by Saki Kumagai and a net goal to Chiba Lemina, had to be satisfied with Kang Chae-rim's comeback goal. The loss ended the tournament without breaking the chain of winless Korea-Japan match, which has been 11 years since 2015.

On the other hand, Japan, which gained momentum by beating South Korea, proved to be the strongest in Asia by overpowering host Australia in the final. It is a three-time championship following 2014 and 2018.

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*This content was translated by AI.