wf046: Nadeshiko Friendly vs Norway

A loss due to the manager’s wrong choices. Courtesy from this site.

[The Second International Friendly Match of October 2025: vs Norway]
October 28, 2025, Kickoff 6:00 PM
La Linea, Spain / Estadio Municipal de La Linea

The host city, La Linea Spain, is located north of Gibraltar, and it takes more than four and a half hours to fly from Milan Airport to Jerez Airport; the former is near the venue Como Italy for the previous match and the latter is the nearest airport to La Linea. October 25th was likely spent traveling for the Nadeshiko, and on-site preparations seemed limited to two days.

[The opponent: Norway]
Norway ended at second place of group stage in their UEFA Nations League, whose semifinals are taken place currently. The top of the same group, who were defeated by Germany at the semifinal, was France. Taking their performance at last summer’s Euro (a 2-1 loss to Italy in the quarter final) into account, Norway are a strong team ranked between fifth and eighth in Europe. In addition to the super veterans up front, promising young players are beginning to make impacts in various leagues.

[Result of the match]
Norway (451 formation) 2-0 Nadeshiko (433 formation)
Scorers: 28’, 52′ Signe Gaupset

[Match review]
With Manaka Matsukubo departed due to injury, the Nadeshiko’s forward lineup was rearranged. On the other hand, Norway was without their star player, Caroline Graham Hansen, but key veterans like Ingrid Engen, Guro Reiten, Frida Maanum, and Ada Hegerberg were in the starting lineup.
The Nadeshiko performed with high possession throughout the whole match. Norway adopted a strategy of solidifying their defense in front of the goal and aiming for counterattacks. Indeed, the Nadeshiko dominated the match, with a 63% ball possession rate to 37% and 9 shots to 6, but the outcome was entirely separate.
Norway scored goals with two of their three shots on target. In contrast, the Nadeshiko only had three shots on target out of 9, including one that hit the crossbar, but failed to score.
20-year-old Signe Gaupset, who scored two goals, showed incredible speed and shooting technique, cutting through the Nadeshiko defense with her personal strength.

[Blogger Comments]
While each Nadeshiko player fought hard, their overall condition was inferior to that of their Norwegian counterparts. It’s possible that they failed to prepare properly. They were clearly out of gas by the end of the second half and looked sluggish throughout the match.
The match itself can be summed up simply as “the Nadeshiko’s self-destruction by failing to get goals on their chances” and “they were defeated by a young powerful forward,” but it’s also true that the Nadeshiko’s attack lacked power.
I attribute this to the fact that they were forced into roles that were different from their original team positions in a short period of time. Generally speaking, decisiveness in the front line is the result of players’ constant hard works at their own teams. So it’s not surprising that the Nadeshiko’s shots went out of the goal mouth when the players felt unfamiliar to their roles.
For instance, it’s strange that Aoba Fujino, who shines on the right wing for City, wasn’t deployed on the right side from the start. It’s also strange that Hinata Miyazawa, who has earned a reputation as an excellent defensive midfielder at United, was deployed as an attacking midfielder during the last minutes. She played in that position for the first time since last spring, before her injury. It seemed a clever move to use Kiko Seike as a centre-forward in order to reduce her defensive burden and increase her attacking power, but gradually she had moved to right wing, and this was exploited in the first goal conceded. Were instructions not given thoroughly by the manager? Substitute Jun Endo, who is a left wing at Los Angels, was deployed as left-back, a position she has not played in nearly two years and apparently does not seem used to.
Manager Nielsen had insisted that this friendlies series was in a “phase where results were required,” but his tactics, which could only be interpreted as viewing these two games as another “trial period,” gave the impression of inconsistency in his words and actions.
However, compared to the previous manager’s time period, there seems to be more diversity in the Nadeshiko’s offense.

One possible cause of troubles may have been in the translating processes in the Nadeshiko team.