Top women contenders must find something new

SHANGHAI, China (AP) Now that the top contenders have made it to the quarterfinals of the biggest and strongest ever women's Olympic football tournament, they each have to come up with something their rivals aren't expecting.

The four quarterfinals are all about familiar foes or neighbors meeting each other, and that means their tactics and head-to-head play on the field could cancel each other out.

World Cup runner-up Brazil faces 2000 Olympic winner Norway and world champion Germany takes on Sweden in a rematch of the 2003 World Cup final, while the two outsiders must beat powerhouse neighbors.

Japan takes on former world champion China and Canada meets defending Olympic champion United States, which has an overwhelming head-to-head advantage.

"The most difficult thing is to avoid a battle," said U.S. coach Pia Sundhage, who hopes the Canadians won't adopt over-physical tactics. "We hope to play soccer and find a rhythm. A battle will be some sort of 50-50 situations. We like to keep possession and find a rhythm, and I think that will be our chance to win the game.

"The first 10 minutes will be tough and whoever dictates the tempo has the chance to win the game."

The matchups on Friday are U.S.-Canada in Shanghai, Brazil-Norway in Tianjin, China-Japan in Qinhuangdao and Germany-Sweden in Shenyang.

While Brazil-Norway is too close to call, if the games go according to form then it should be Brazil-Germany and U.S.-China in the semifinals. The final is Aug. 21 at Workers' Stadium in Beijing.

But Canada and Japan have recently shown that there is now much stronger depth in women's football.

Although their 2-1 victory over Argentina was expected, the Canadians drew 1-1 with China and only lost 2-1 to the favored Swedes, collecting four points for one of the two best third-place finishes to guarantee a place in the last eight.

"That's insane," Canada forward Melissa Tancredi said. "For us to be in the Olympics for the first time and to be in the quarterfinals, three matches away from a medal, is a great feeling."

Japan appeared to have no chance of that when it went into its final group game against the Norwegians in Shanghai with only one point. But it came from a goal down to win 5-1 with some top quality, counterattacking play.

The Japanese also finished as one of the best third-place teams.

Norway coach Bjarne Berntsen praised the Japanese for their amazing fight-back, but he believes the overall strength of the women's game has improved over the past few years.

"I really think that three, four or five teams are still at the top at the moment and are the real contenders for the top titles. But now to be at the top, we teams have to work much better, harder than before," he said. "I don't really see four or five teams any more. I see 10-12 teams who are among the best in the world.

"At the last World Cup, we saw a very good Australian team who aren't here because of the very tough qualifying conditions. I think that New Zealand have shown very good progress. I still think that only one of four or five will win the gold, but the competition now is much stronger."