Long before it became the official nickname of their women’s national team in 2004, Nadeshiko was a Japanese ideal.
The word has two meanings: firstly, as the name of a sweet-smelling pink and white carnation, and then, symbolically, as a traditional archetype of Japanese womanhood, defined by not only grace and beauty but an inner strength and steely determination – a combination of attributes displayed on the field each time they play.
‘Nadeshiko Vision’ is also the title of the Japanese Football Association’s plan for global domination in women’s football, which is – scarily – coming true.
Ranked No.8 in the world, they have scored 28 goals at the AFC Women’s Asian Cup thus far and conceded only one, playing by far the most attractive, and effective, brand of football of any team.
“You know what Nadeshiko is?” Japanese coach Nils Nielsen asked reporters on Friday.
“It’s a flower. It’s a beautiful little flower. If you see it, you just have to stop and look at it.
“You smell it and think, ‘Wow, what is that?’ It’s Nadeshiko. It’s the Japanese women’s football team.”
It sounds whimsical. It isn’t. Even though he is the person in charge of this whole operation, there are times when Nielsen himself is blown away by what his players can do together in training and during matches.
“If you turn out the lights in the stadium so nobody could see anything, they could still find each other. They could pass the balls to each other,” he said. “They can play faster than almost any team in the world. When they have the day and the moment, when they are in the zone, it’s incredible to watch.”
And to think these profound little insights from Nielsen all came within the same answer to a single question.
If Saturday night’s final between the Matildas and Japan will be, as he put it, “a battle from another world”, then his matinée with the media was a pre-match press conference from another universe.
Nielsen, 54, a zany Greenlandic-Dane who has been in charge of Japan since December 2024, is himself the sleeper hit of the tournament.
After a series of eccentric post-match interviews during the knockout phase – in which he described Ellie Carpenter as a “cyborg”, said Mary Fowler was his favourite player in world football and told media to “take it easy” on Australia coach Joe Montemurro – anticipation was building for his latest appearance in front of cameras, at least from reporters eager to know what else he had up his rhetorical sleeve.
The signs, from the outset, were strong. As he walked into the room at Accor Stadium, he gazed for several seconds into a Japanese photographer’s camera with a faux-serious, eyes-wide-open expression – and then, when the press conference moderator opened by asking for his general thoughts on the game, he said: “You want all the thoughts? There’s a lot of them.”
Yes, Nils, give us all the thoughts.
He was then asked about his declaration after Japan’s semi-final win over South Korea that the Matildas were the “favourites” for the final, and if he really believed that.
Apparently not.
“I will be completely honest with you,” Nielsen said. “That question about who’s the favourite in the final, it’s like asking a bee to explain to a fly why honey is better than shit.
“We are talking about a final in a major tournament. Both teams can win. Why is it even interesting in a final to discuss who are the favourites?
“Next time I get a chance to see a fly, I will ask them, ‘Why the hell are you sitting on shit when there’s honey right next to it?’ And then they say, ‘For me, it tastes better.’ OK, go ahead. I don’t like shit, so you can have it. I go for the honey.
“Maybe Joe [Montemurro] has a different opinion. But the question itself, I cannot give you an answer.”
Well, we can offer one: Nadeshiko are raging hot favourites to collect what would be their third Asian crown, and for good reason.
Nielsen’s squad is unfathomably strong, with 16 of the 26 players in it signed to clubs in England’s Women’s Super League, the best domestic competition in the world. The rest play in the United States, Germany, Spain and Japan’s own WE League, the best in Asia.
But as good as they all are, collectively, they are worth even more than the sum of their fearsome parts.
“Sometimes, many of the people watching … they forget half their names, because it’s not about them,” Nielsen said. “It’s not about individuals. It’s about the team.”
As a football nation, Japan is reaping the rewards of long-term development planning and investment at a level the Australian game can only look at with envy. Their men’s team is widely tipped to be the first World Cup winners from outside of Europe or South America. Should that happen, they’ll only be retracing the footsteps of Nadeshiko: they won the World Cup in 2011, and then the next two Asian Cups in 2014 and 2018, defeating the Matildas in both finals. They’ve only gotten better since.
Japan were also the only team to inflict defeat upon Spain, the champions at the last World Cup in Australia in 2023 – and that 4-0 group stage win reflects a different aspect of their footballing capabilities. Spain had 77 per cent of possession but were sucker-punched repeatedly on the counter-attack, walking straight into the trap laid for them.
Though they are expected to dominate the ball in the final, Nadeshiko can play both ways – which means there will be no chance for even a second’s respite for the Matildas, who also haven’t beaten Japan in a competitive fixture for more than a decade.
“They seem to find solutions in whatever situation you throw at them,” said Montemurro.
“As much as a great team they are, they do have a couple of weaknesses. I’m not going to divulge those. If we find some continuity and rhythm with the ball, I think we could do some good things in the game. We just have to make sure that we’re prepared.”
