Heather Reid reports from China

Saturday - Getting ready to leave Shanghai and return to Hangzhou for the all-important Matildas game v Norway tonight.

I was fortunate to see the double header in group A last night at the Hong Kou stadium in Shanghai with about 56,000 Chinese, Japanese, German, England and a handful of Argentian and other fans.

Greetings all - Ni Hao

The first match was an important one for Japan as they'd gained a point from their earlier 2-2 draw with England and they needed a win to keep their hopes of a quarter final spot alive. I've watched Japan play many times before but I haven't seen Argentina before so I was keen to check out their performance.

The South American's had been trounced 11-0 by the World Champions, Germany in the first game of the WWC and it was clear from their game last night that they need more discipline and team coordination if they're going to match it with some of the other big players at world championship level.
Japan set the pace from the opening minutes and dominated the game with shots on goal and corner kick but the Argentine defence denied the Asian team any goals. As they did in the last minutes of the game v England, however, Japan scored a dramatic injury-time goal when Yuki Nagasoto converted a rebound over the sprawling Argentine goal-keeper.

The three points for the win means that Japan only needs a draw against Germany (!!) to secure a quarterfinal berth. That challenge will be a huge one as Germany are the current European and World Champions and need a good win in their final round match after only getting a point from England in the second match last night.

The main game last night for me was England v Germany. Seeing England play was another new thing for me and I was very keen to see how they'd fare against one of the strongest, most talented and skillful teams in the women's game. These teams have met each other about 16 times before with England failing to secure a win. Interestingly, both teams are coached by former national players with impressive records of their own.

Hope Powell and Silvia Neid know each other very well and the game proved to be a wonderful display of tactical cunning and outstanding play from both teams. England took it to the defending champions from the opening whistle and almost scored a tricky goal in the 6th minute when the German goal-keeper was caught off her line.

A long ball from the England midfield forced the keeper to try and head the ball out of danger but she failed to connect properly with the ball and she almost scored an own goal!. The game settled into a very tough and exciting challenge with the final 0-0 being a bit disappointing for the England fans.

Powell said she thought the game was a tough one for her charges and hoped it was also tough for Germany. She said her tactics that were aimed at stifling the strong German strikers like FIFA Female Player of the Year, Prinz, paid off. Her players stuck to the game plan and did very well to get the all important point.

Neid was happy with her defenders but the strikers didn't choose the easy way up front. Having played and beaten England so many times she was impressed with the strategy adopted by Powell.

She said "England played well in defence and were tight on our attackers". She wasn't concerned about the impact of their 11-0 win against Argentina and felt that the point taken against England is enough for the team to now make an impact on Japan.

My tip is that the Germans will comfortably beat Japan and progress to the quarter finals in comfortable style. England are a point behind Japan now so they must beat the Argentinians in Chengdu to progress to the next phase - and I'll be there to see them play on Monday as I move to Chengdu for the Matildas game v Canada on Wednesday.

Now for the big game tonight for the Matildas. This will not be a very tough match as they are up against Norway - winners of the pilot World Cup in '88, world champions in '95 and Olympic gold medallists in 2000.

The Viking women came back from a 0-1 position against Canada in their opening game to win 2-1 with Bente Nordby having played in all four editions of the WWC. She will be matched, however, by Australia's captain marvellous, Cheryl Salisbury who is also in her fourth WWC.

Salisbury is an outstanding player and she played alongside Nordby with the World Stars v China last month as part of the launch of the WWC. The match-up tonight will be anything but friendly and I'm sure we'll be a very excited and nervous group of fans in the very impressive Hangzhou stadium.

It seems the Matildas will be without Joanne Peters and Sally Shipard for the game but Tom Sermanni is confident he's got the depth within the squad to cover for these midfielders.

I'll be joining the parents and other Aussie fans in the stadium tonight and will try and get the local Chinese supporters to cheer for "ao da lia" (Australia) as loud as they possibly can. The Norwegian fans are well-organised and use their cow-bells with resounding noise.

We'll need a lot of help to make sure the Aussies can here us and our thoughts will be with you at home as you enjoy the game on SBS.

More from me tomorrow with hopefully good news on the Matildas second WWC match.

Cheers

Heather