2 goals in 2 minutes help Japan beat Costa Rica 2-0

Hikaru Naomoto and Aoba Fujino scored two minutes apart in the first half to lead Japan to a 2-0 Women’s World Cup victory over Costa Rica on Wednesday that put the Japanese on the brink of advancing to the knockout stage. Japan could advance out of Group C later Wednesday if Spain, ranked sixth in the world, beat 77th-ranked Zambia in Auckland.

The two teams kicked off in front of a sparse crowd of 6,992 at Dunedin Stadium, a huge differential from the record sales of over 1.5 million tickets for this year’s tournament. High fan turnout in Auckland and Sydney there were 117,000 combined at opening night in those cities have been partly offset by much smaller crowds in Dunedin, where attendance has dropped with each match from an initial high of 13,711.

Las Ticas kept the pressure high throughout the match, but the Japanese dominated with precision in ball handling and passes.