{"id":467120,"date":"2018-02-24T02:30:29","date_gmt":"2018-02-24T02:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2018\/02\/24\/black-queens-to-play-former-world-champions-japan-in-friendly-on-april-1\/"},"modified":"2018-02-24T02:30:29","modified_gmt":"2018-02-24T02:30:29","slug":"black-queens-to-play-former-world-champions-japan-in-friendly-on-april-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/02\/24\/black-queens-to-play-former-world-champions-japan-in-friendly-on-april-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Queens to play former World Champions Japan in friendly on April 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"medsection1\">\n<!-- End of html generated by this->header() --><\/p>\n<p class=\"floatLeft\">Soccer News of Saturday, 24 February 2018<\/p>\n<p class=\"floatRight\"><strong>Source: <\/strong>jwsports1.com<\/p>\n<p>2018-02-24<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-left\">\n<p class=\"article-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/68897157.295.jpg\" alt=\"BLack Queens  Japan  \" title=\"BLack Queens  Japan  \" width=\"295\" height=\"198\" \/><span class=\"image_caption\"><span>Both nations will be using the fixture to prepare for their respective continental tournaments.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"noPrint\">\n<div id=\"537626303\" style=\"width:300;height:250;margin:0;padding:0\">\n<p>\t\t  <noscript><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" name=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" src=\"http:\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/afr?auid=537626303&amp;cb=151125813921649\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\"><a href=\"\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/rc?cs=b2ad7fa7fd&amp;cb=151125813921649\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/1519439429_925_ai\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/iframe><\/noscript><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"clear:right\">Japan will host Ghana in an international friendly on Sunday 1 April at the Transcosmos Stadium, Nagasaki.<\/p>\n<p>The friendly, sponsored by the MS&amp;AD Insurance Group Holdings, Inc. will be presented as the MS&amp;AD Cup 2018.<\/p>\n<p>This will mark the fourth year MS&amp;AD has organised the annual women\u2019s cup match, which will be televised live on TV Asahi.<\/p>\n<p>Both nations will be using the fixture to prepare for their respective continental tournaments.<\/p>\n<p>Ghana have automatically qualified for the 2018 Africa Women\u2019s Cup of Nations (AWCON 2018) as hosts.<\/p>\n<p>Japan, the reigning Asian champions, have qualified for the AFC equivalent as well: the 2018 Asian Women\u2019s Cup.<\/p>\n<p><b><\/b>Road to France 2019<\/p>\n<p>The two continental showdowns will double as the qualifiers for the 2019 Women\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Ghana have missed the last two World Cups while Japan have qualified for all past editions, reaching the finals in the last two.<\/p>\n<p>Nadeshiko went all the way in the 2011 edition, in one of the greatest Women\u2019s World Cup finals of all time.<\/p>\n<p>This will Ghana\u2019s third successive friendly against the world\u2019s top ten, after Germany and France in 2016 and 2017 respectively.<\/p>\n<p>The Black Queens are ranked second in Africa while Japan are ranked ninth in the world and second in Asia.<\/p>\n<p>The two last met, albeit at the junior level, in the 2016 U-17 Women\u2019s World Cup where Japan cruised to a 5\u20130 win.<\/p>\n<p><!-- uploaded by: 26 updated by: -1 --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Start of html generated by this->footer() -->\n<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a style=\"display:none\" rel=\"follow\" href=\"http:\/\/megatheme.ir\/\" title=\"\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633\">\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Soccer News of Saturday, 24 February 2018 Source: jwsports1.com 2018-02-24 Both nations will be using the fixture to prepare for their respective continental tournaments. Japan will host Ghana in an international friendly on Sunday 1 April at the Transcosmos Stadium, Nagasaki. The friendly, sponsored by the MS&amp;AD Insurance Group Holdings, Inc. will be presented as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":467122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-467120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}