The Daily Drool: Women’s World Cup Week: Homare Sawa

Doesn’t Homare look like a total badass in this picture? Well, she sure is. She is considered the best woman footballer in Japan, bar none. She made her debut in Japan’s highest domestic league at the tender age of 12. At 15, she made her international debut scoring 4 goals in her very first match.  That some serious shit. Now 32, this will be her fifth straight World Cup appearance.  She has played in the now defunct WUSA and the Asian Football Confederation and currently plays in the Women’s Professional Soccer league in the US. She holds the Japanese record for international caps (166) and is Japan’s leading female goal scorer with 75. She’s the captain of the squad and they were gold medalists at the Asian Games. She was also voted Best Player of the Tournament for the 2011 Algarve Cup which is where this picture comes from. All that talent packed into a wee 5′ 5″ frame. Amazing. I hope you’ve enjoyed this week of kickass ladies!  It’s so nice to see some fierce sisters out there making their mark. Best of luck to all the teams.

Update: As watishista! Jenny kindly reminded me, Homare scored a hat trick yesterday in Japan’s 4-0 rout of Mexico. I was zonked out on post-surgical painkillers and asleep almost all of yesterday, so I missed the match. I did read about the game later and meant to add that info to this post, but quite frankly, I forgot. Also, I thought she was tomorrow’s Drool not today’s. Ah, my addled brain. Anyhow, further evidence of her badassery.