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Paris (AFP)
Argentina is facing a comeback in the Women's World Cup after a 12-year absence Monday against Japan at Parc des Princes.
While Argentina was absent, the Japanese became one of the powers of women's football: they won the World Cup in 2011 and qualified for the Olympic final the following year and the World Cup final in 2015.
"This is a technically talented team, very fast, very neat," said Sunday the Argentine coach Carlos Borrello at a press conference in Paris. "We have to keep the ball in order to run less, otherwise we will have to run more."
"The most important thing about Japan is the speed, the change of pace and the permanent movement of all players," he said. "The player with the ball always has pbading options."
"I love the way Japan plays."
Borrello coached Argentine women from 2003 to 2012 and led them to the 2003 and 2007 World Cups and to the 2006 Copa America win. After her departure, things collapsed. Upon his return in 2017, Argentina had been without a coach for two years.
"We lack decades of development to reach global levels," said Borrello. "But football has something special, pbadion, fury inside."
"I trust my players," he said, referring to the famous "garra" Argentinian, a claw but rather a metaphor of the refusal to let go in competition. "They are warriors, they are fighting."
Japan has already won a World Cup in France, winning the under-20 title last summer. Moeka Minami, Saori Takarada and Jun Endo have been promoted to a young team of 11 players aged 18 to 22, who are preparing for the Tokyo Olympic tournament next year.
This could explain why Japan struggled this year by losing warm-up matches against Australia, France and England.
Captain Saki Kumagai, a member of the winning group of the 2011 World Cup, will be one of the players who will bring experience. She is particularly motivated to succeed this time, because she is based in France where she won four consecutive titles in the Champions League with Lyon.
"I want to play semifinals and finals in Lyon," said Kumagai.
Argentina has its own Lyon player in striker Sole Jaimes, who rose to the title of French champions earlier this year, played five games and collected three medals. The club has swept all the competitions.
? AFP 2019
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