Two games. Seven goals scored. None allowed.
Japan has arrived at the World Cup with its foot on the gas and emerged with two easy wins. Four days after opening with a 5-0 thrashing of Zambia, Japan dispatched Costa Rica, 2-0, with goals three minutes apart midway through the first half.
Hikaru Naomoto and Aoba Fujino did the honors on Wednesday, becoming the fifth and sixth players to score for Japan in its first two games. But it has been the manner in which Japan has won — with an abundance of speed and technical ability and a defense that has surrendered only two shots on target through two games — that raise an intriguing question:
Might be time to start including Japan, a World Cup champion only a decade ago, in the conversation about which team might win this year’s tournament?