On The Road To The World Cup, U.S. Women Tie Japan 2-2
U.S. forward Megan Rapinoe takes the ball as Japan’s Hina Sugita stays close on the first day of the SheBelieves Cup in Chester, Penn., on Wednesday night.
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With just a little more than three months to go until the Women’s World Cup in France, the U.S. squad is looking for proof it has all the right ingredients to affirm its ranking as number one in the world. But as the team left the pitch Wednesday night after a 2-2 tie with Japan, they acknowledged there’s still some tinkering to do – and that if they’re to defend their World Cup title, they can’t afford to make many mistakes.
It was the first day of the SheBelieves Cup, a tournament hosted by the U.S. in the run-up to the World Cup, which kicks off June 7. The game offered a rematch of the 2015 World Cup final, when the U.S. beat Japan 5-2. But both squads have changed significantly since then, and this four-team tournament provides a chance for each team’s coach to try new lineups — and see who will be making the trip to France.
But summer felt far away on this cold night outside Philadelphia, as a biting wind rolled off the Delaware River. Many players wore gloves, and spectators hesitated to take off their hats for the singing of the national anthem.
There were many young fans in the stands to catch the doubleheader — an earlier game saw England defeat Brazil 2-1 — and a high pitched chorus rose in excitement every time Megan Rapinoe, Tobin Heath, or Alex Morgan started on a breakaway run in the game’s early minutes.
Things started to go the Americans’ way in the 23rd minute, when Heath made a low cross that found Rapinoe, who slid it past Japan’s goalkeeper.
No. 17 on the field. No. 1 in our hearts.@TobinHeath does what she wants. pic.twitter.com/UJtQSviref
— U.S. Soccer WNT (@USWNT) February 28, 2019
The U.S. followed with numerous shots by Rapinoe and Morgan, but none found their way into the net.
In the 67th minute, Japan finally got its chance. Emi Nakajima bent a left-footer up and over U.S. goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher to tie the score.
We’re all tied up!
Nakajma gets Japan level after the USWNT fails to clear the danger. 1-1. #SheBelieves pic.twitter.com/9DUWrYLlVw
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) February 28, 2019
The momentum shifted to Japan, until the U.S. brought Christen Press off the bench midway through the second half. Almost immediately she found the ball and sent it to Morgan, who knocked it into the goal with her chest.
MORGAN GIVES THE U.S. THE LEAD!
That would be her first of 2019 and No. 99 for her USWNT career ?? #SheBelieves @alexmorgan13 pic.twitter.com/mhggcJk8ah
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) February 28, 2019
The U.S. seemed to have the game in the bag … until stoppage time, when Japan’s Yuka Momiki made a goal off the crossbar to tie it up in the 91st minute.
? Japan provide a late twist and score a last-minute equalizer against the USWNT! pic.twitter.com/xCoKzCm9fF
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) February 28, 2019
This was the U.S. team’s third match of 2019. The first was a 3-1 loss to France last month at Le Havre, the port city where the U.S. will play Sweden in the group stage of the World Cup. A few days later, the USWNT beat Spain, 1-0.
After the game, Rapinoe said the result showed that the team needs to work on closing games — and controlling them. “I think we still take too many risks when we don’t need to,” said the veteran forward. “And we should probably be more patient and wait for a great opportunity, instead of a half chance.”
She noted that it was the team’s third very different lineup as many matches. “We’re obviously still nailing that down.”
U.S. coach Jill Ellis said she was disappointed in the result, but not in the players or their performance.
“I thought there were some really good things” in both halves, she said. “I felt like we played as a team. We made two mistakes in the back that cost us. For sure we left things on the table. But in terms of our team play – what I asked the team to do defensively, the work ethic, the attacking — we got into their goal zone 34 times.”
She said she was going to take the positives from the game — and the team’s job is simply to keep getting better if it’s going to win another World Cup: “We have to play seven games to win this thing.”
The U.S. will face England on Saturday in Nashville, Tenn.
What North Korea's Economy Looks Like
NPR’S Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Travis Jeppesen, author of See you Again in Pyongyang about his article in The New York Times Magazine describing North Korea’s economy.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
The U.S. negotiating position at the summit underway in Hanoi rests on an assumption that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wants to develop his country’s economy – wants to open it to the world – and that he wants this badly enough that he may be persuaded to bargain away some, or all, of his country’s nuclear weapons. In truth, North Korea’s once fully communist system was already cracked open back in the 1990s, fueled by famine and by the loss of Soviet support. And today, the black market flourishes on scales both small and large. Travis Jeppesen writes about this in an essay headlined “Shopping In Pyongyang.” It’s in The New York Times Magazine. Jeppesen has made multiple trips to North Korea, including to study Korean at a university there. He joins us now from Berlin. Travis Jeppesen, hello.
TRAVIS JEPPESEN: Hello.
KELLY: So start with the data, or what little there is of it, because data on North Korea’s economy is famously hard to come by. What do we actually know about its size, about the black markets, about its interaction with the rest of the world?
JEPPESEN: Well, like you said, data is very hard to come by. For one reason, the North Koreans don’t publish this kind of data. However, there are some South Korean economists who have studied this phenomenon by taking surveys mostly with North Korean defectors, and many of them have concluded that 90 percent or even more of daily consumer transactions take place in these markets.
KELLY: When you say these markets, what are you talking about?
JEPPESEN: They were originally black markets that sprung up during the years of the famine, but in recent years, a lot of them have been legitimized by the government and have become fully functional white markets. And then there are a variety of sort of semi-legal grey markets. And so if you have money in North Korea, you can buy virtually anything you want.
KELLY: Another phenomenon underway in North Korea is the rise of a class of nouveau riche. Their name is the donju. Describe who they are.
JEPPESEN: These are kind of the – what we would call the yuppies of North Korea who enjoy positions of a certain prestige in society. Oftentimes, they’re wearing expensive jewelry, Rolex watches or Western brands.
KELLY: You described meeting one for a drink at his favorite gastropub, and he shows up in Dolce & Gabbana and neon Nikes.
JEPPESEN: Yes, yes. Yeah.
KELLY: And how do they have money? They’re participating in the grey economy, black, white – where’s their money coming from, and what are they spending it on?
JEPPESEN: The donju, because they are now given permission essentially, to engage in moneymaking activities, they basically are taking commissions, and they’re taking kickbacks. They are able to enjoy the profits that they make, and they pass along the rest to their protectors in the government. So it almost forms an alternate taxation system in a country where there is no official income tax.
KELLY: To be clear, this is not the norm in North Korean society. There’s still poverty throughout much of the country.
JEPPESEN: Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah. Even though, you know, you can see these people in increasing numbers on the streets of Pyongyang, it is true that probably the vast majority of North Koreans are still living in poverty. And certainly, I saw evidence of great poverty.
KELLY: Let me ask you the big picture question, which is what risk does all of this interaction with the outside world pose for Kim Jong Un – I mean, in the sense that loosening his regime’s grasp on the economy might risk loosening the regime’s grasp on power?
JEPPESEN: Yeah, it’s an interesting question. However, if we look at the great big example next door, China in the 1980s under Deng Xiaoping was able to find a way to sort of open up the economy while at the same time maintaining its one-party system. So I believe that Kim Jong Un is hoping he can go in a similar direction.
KELLY: That’s writer Travis Jeppesen. Thanks so much.
JEPPESEN: Thank you very much.
KELLY: Jeppesen’s book about his time in North Korea is called “See You Again In Pyongyang.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SPOON’S “INSIDE OUT”)
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