Japanese women ashamed of warm-up loss

20 July 2012 16:21

Japan defender Azusa Iwashimizu has said her side do not want to disappoint at the 2012 Olympics after a 2-0 defeat to France.

Iwashimizu admitted the 2011 Women's World Cup champions were disappointed with their Olympics warm-up loss.

But the 25-year-old defender believes Japan learnt a lot from the match against France.

"We do not want to disappoint anyone, and Japan has set their hopes on us, so we will fight and do our very best," Iwashimizu said.

Japan head into the women's football tournament in London as the favourites after triumphing in Germany last year.

However, striker Yuki Ogimi believes there is no shame in losing to France, who made the semi-finals of the 2011 Women's World Cup.

"France are an excellent team and individually we all benefitted, and we want to play against more strong teams like France so we can play well in the London Olympics," Ogimi said.

But Ogimi conceded that Japan need to improve their mental strength if they start games poorly.

"At the beginning of the match, the French were clearly in control and attacking, forcing us to play defensively," Ogimi said.

"Therefore, sub-consciously we felt we might not win and were unable to play to our full potential.

"We made mistakes we would not usually make, and now we need to prepare ourselves mentally and have the mentality to win, which as a result would improve our tactics and strategies."