“I think our expectations are still the same. The target hasn’t changed. We still want to try and get our the group. It’s a different type of game.<\/p>\n
“We’re going to face a very competent Japanese team that are technically very good players. (They are) proficient with both feet.<\/p>\n
“We are very very respectful of their status in world football.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Asked if the average heights of the two squads could be an advantage, she played the question down with humour, referring to two of her smaller statured players:<\/p>\n
“To start with the height difference, when you look at the height difference, I think when you look at Kim Little and Erin Cuthbert, they’re a good match in that department!”<\/p>\n
“When teams play against Japan, they have a certain physical advantage,” she concluded but wisely decided not to add any more.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Surely however, the likes of centre half Jennifer Beattie must be relatively excited at the prospect of a few corners normally taken by the accurate Little, to try and win first ball or even target a header directly on goal.<\/p>\n
England and Argentina also meet today with the Lionesses expected to do what Japan failed to, and breach the Albiceleste defence.<\/p>\n
What could it all mean?<\/p>\n
The four best third place teams qualify for the knockout stages in this tournament.<\/p>\n
On the results so far, it looks like most of those third place sides will take three points, which means one win and a decent goal difference would see Scotland through.<\/p>\n
Having only lost 2-1 to England, a defeat today is unlikely to be the end of their hopes. A two goal win against Argentina in their final group game would almost certainly be enough.<\/p>\n
Should Scotland draw today, any win in their third game would be sufficient.<\/p>\n
If Scotland overcome the odds and win, a draw in their final game would secure second place and automatic qualification.<\/p>\n
[columns]
\n[column size=”1\/2″][blog type=”timeline” posts=”10″ cats=”839″ heading=”Scotland Women” heading_type=”timeline” \/][\/column]
\n[column size=”1\/2″][blog type=”timeline” posts=”10″ cats=”211″ heading=”Womens World Cup” heading_type=”timeline” \/][\/column]
\n[\/columns]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Scotland women’s coach Shelley Kerr was far more focused on her own side’s first game than that of her Japanese opponent at Thursday’s press conference on the eve of the match between the two sides in Rennes. Both sides had disappointments in their first games but of very different natures. Scotland lost 2-1 to England<\/p>\n
Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":216886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[301,2,839,211],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216873"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prostinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}