Womens WC - Argentina v Japan

Japan are hot favourites when they meet Argentina, and it’s easy to see why. The Japanese were runners-up in the 2015 World Cup, runners-up in the 2012 Olympics and won the 2011 World Cup. Whilst they don’t quite look a world beater anymore and a repeat of those results looks unlikely, they do remain the dominant side from Asia and are ranked 7th in the World according to the rankings (which we tend to believe far more than the Men’s weak rankings).

There warm-up events this year included a 1-1 draw with Spain and a 2-2 draw with Germany. They lost 3-1 to France. Earlier in the year they put up a decent performance in the SheBelieves Cup, losing 3-0 to England, but beating Brazil 3-1 and drawing 2-2 with USA. Overall they look in decent shape and have limited their challenges to sides who are expected to make the quarter-finals and beyond this summer. Captain and star player Saki Kumagai will martial the defence and can be one of the better players of the entire tournament.

Argentina are ranked 37th and a different league of team altogether. Their warm-up matches have been against a mix of NCAA college teams from the states and other global sides. They beat Uruguay 3-1, but lost 3-0 to Australia, 2-0 to New Zealand and 5-0 to South Korea. Look out for Estefania Banini who runs the midfield at US club Washington Spirit.

All of this said, can Japan really be as short as 1/9 for this one? They will surely win, but a few of the underdogs have shown really steel so far this week, and I’m not convinced this will be a complete walk in the park for Japan. You can get 5/6 on Argentina +3 with a host of the layers, and that looks big to me. You’d collect with any Argentina win, draw, or defeat by one or two goals. That’s a pretty wide net.

2pts Argentina (+3) to beat Japan at 5/6 (Betway)

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