• Japan emerged as surprise FIFA Women’s World Cup™ winners at Germany 2011

• A FIFA+ documentary Nadeshiko reveals how the team overcame adversity to lift the trophy

• Iwashimizu, Kaihori, Maruyama, Miyama, Sameshima and Sawa star in it

17 July 2011 is a date that Japanese football fans will never forget, a date when the Nadeshiko beat USA on penalties in the FIFA Women’s World Cup™ final to lift the trophy for the very first time. It was also the very first time they had beaten the Stars and Stripes and the first time Japan had won a female or male FIFA tournament. Later named the Player of the Tournament, captain Homare Sawa had one word for it: “Unbelievable!” It was an appropriate word too, given that only a few months earlier the country had been hit by an unprecedented natural disaster. On 11 March that year, Japan was struck by what would later become known as the Great East Japan Earthquake. The biggest natural disaster the country had ever seen, it wreaked havoc, destroying families and homes and scarring the nation. Plunged into darkness and uncertainty, Japan grimly pondered the huge task of rebuilding the affected region, managing its damaged nuclear power plants, and responding to the energy crisis triggered by the disaster.

It was at this time of national crisis that the country’s women’s footballers travelled to Germany 2011 in June that year. At the time in Japan, women’s football did not enjoy the popularity it does now. The team’s nickname of Nadeshiko Japan – which made use of the term Yamato Nadeshiko, meaning the epitome of Japanese female beauty – failed to capture the imagination of the fans and the media, while the tournament itself did not attract a great deal of attention. Furthermore, the cancellation of the domestic league due to the disaster had the players questioning whether they would be able to take part in the tournament at all, especially as power shortages meant floodlights could not be switched on for evening training sessions. Talking to FIFA+ about those dark, uncertain days, Aya Miyama recalled her feelings at the time. “Should we really be playing football?” she said. “Aren’t there more important things that we should be doing now?” Given the precarious position the country found itself in, such questions were understandable. Undaunted, the Japan players rose to the challenge, deciding that it was their duty to “send the nation courage and energy by playing well in the tournament”. It was a sentiment that drove that campaign in Germany. Japan beat New Zealand 2-1 in their opening group and followed up with a 4-0 defeat of Mexico. A draw in their final game, against England, would have taken them through to the knockout stage as group winners. Yet despite their defence performing well against England’s formidable attack, the Nadeshiko forward line struggled to make an impact and the match was lost 2-0.

Waiting for them in the next round was another European heavyweight in the shape of Germany, a side Japan had never beaten before. The task was daunting, impossible even, as Azusa Iwashimizu conceded in the FIFA+ documentary: “We felt that next game would be our last of the tournament”. As Miyama explained, however, there were some positives to be taken from the England game, which led to a change in mindset. “We got all our bad football out of the way against England and we were able to make adjustments for the next match.” The Germans dominated the early stages, with Japan defending stoutly and waiting patiently for chances to hit on the break. “We couldn’t get forward at all,” recalled goalkeeper Ayumi Kaihori, who said it was all one-way traffic. The hosts and defending champions, Germany carved out chance after chance but could not put them away. Then, three minutes into the second half of extra-time, came a Japanese miracle as Karina Maruyama scored the game’s one and only goal. “The ball came through to me and all I could see was this bright line showing the way to goal,” said the hero of the hour, whose cool finish instilled the Japanese with belief.

The buoyant Nadeshiko then beat Sweden 3-1 in the semi-finals before facing the world’s top-ranked team, USA, in the final. Like the Germans, Japan had never beaten the Stars and Stripes before. Only 12 years earlier, the Japanese had lost to the Americans 9-0, a game in which they failed to muster a shot on target. A convincing defeat to USWNT in the build-up to the tournament did little to raise hopes that the match would end in anything other than victory for the favourites. Little wonder, then, that Aya Sameshima said she had nothing but “fears” before the match. With the odds stacked against them, and aware that they had no chance of winning a physical battle against the imposing US players, the Japanese decided to play a creative passing game. It made for an intriguing battle, so intriguing in fact that the match went down in women’s football history as an instant classic. Just they had done against the Germans, Japan could do nothing but defend in the early stages as USA dictated. Yet, as if protected by some invisible force, they stayed in contention, with the players urging each other on and telling one another to “bring energy to everyone back home”. Though the pre-match favourites twice took the lead, Japan came back both times, the second of them with only three minutes of extra-time remaining, with Sawa their saviour. In the penalty shootout that followed, Kaihori took centre stage, saving two US spot-kicks to earn the highest praise from team-mate Maruyama: “She’s a great keeper but in that shootout she was a goddess.”

Saki Kumagai then stepped up to convert Japan’s fourth kick and secure the country’s biggest ever achievement on a football pitch. In the process, the Nadeshiko had shown that there was life after disaster and had put women’s football in the spotlight in Japan, triggering an increase in its profile and popularity. Rising to the occasion, Japan showed they believed in themselves and each other, working and fighting together to revive the nation. The country’s football fans will never forget their remarkable achievement or the impact it made on the country and its society. Watch the exclusive FIFA+ documentary Nadeshiko.

• Homare Sawa was down as Japan’s fourth penalty taker in the final but told head coach Norio Sasaki that she could not take her kick and was subsequently omitted from the first five. Sasaki told her replacement, Kumagai, that he only picked her because she wore the No4 shirt. Kumagai only found out ten years later that he was joking.

• Kumagai looked up to the sky just before she took the trophy-winning penalty, the reason being that she did not want Hope Solo in the US goal to know what she had in mind.

• Iwashimizu picked a red card deep into extra-time after committing a professional foul to stop a US attack. It was the first time she had ever been sent off in her career.