Prior to this year’s Women’s World Cup, Team Japan’s main distinction was being the only Asian team to qualify for all six tournaments. In all those attempts, the team had emerged from its group just once, in 1995, only to lose 4-0 to the United States in the quarterfinals. But in this year’s championship game, buoyed by the hopes of their disaster-torn nation, Japan staged two late comebacks against a resilient U.S. squad to become the first Asian soccer team to win a World Cup.

Team Japan’s strengths have sometimes been perceived as weaknesses, leading to diminished expectations. For starters, their team-oriented approach meant the Nadeshiko lacked a top-notch scoring threat.

When praising Team Japan’s leading scorer and team captain, veteran midfielder Homare Sawa, her coach lauded Sawa’s ability to steal, hold, and advance the ball — but not score with it. And Japan’s technical and precise ball-control strategy sometimes makes their game seem emotionless. But this year’s devastating earthquake and tsunami provided the passion, while Sawa became the tournament’s top scorer.

That emotion, and Sawa’s scoring drive, became apparent early on. After refusing to settle for a draw against a weak New Zealand squad, Team Japan earned its second victory against Mexico thanks to Sawa, who became the oldest player to score a hat trick in the Women’s World Cup. The victory also vaulted Japan into the quarterfinals, making the next match relatively meaningless, and an English squad that needed a draw to advance handed them their only defeat.

This result matched Japan against Germany, the tournament host and a dominating force in women’s soccer, in the quarterfinal round. Winners of the last two World Cups, Germany also held two impressive tournament streaks: They hadn’t lost since 1999 and hadn’t been scored upon since 2003.

This year, the Nadeshiko equalled the intensity and ball control of the Germans, battling to a scoreless tie through regulation and the first 15 minutes of extra time. Then, minutes into the second overtime period, Karina Maruyama turned a lob pass into a great run through the stalwart German defense before striking the ball beautifully for the game-winner, the latest Women’s World Cup goal ever scored.

Hard on the heels of this stunning upset, Japan overcame a fast semifinals start from Sweden, who hadn’t lost a match at this year’s tournament. In the 10th minute of the match, Sweden’s Josefine Oqvist stole the ball at midfield and streaked past Japan’s backline to drive home the game’s first goal. Oqvist scored again minutes later, this time on a deflection into her own net after contending with Nahomi Kawasumi over a brilliant Aya Miyama cross.

With the score still knotted early in the second half, Sawa rose from a clot of players to drive a header past Swedish keeper Hedvig Lindahl, who’d come off her line. Kawasumi also capitalized on aggressive keeper play minutes later. After Lindahl came out to the edge of the box to clear a long ball, Kawasumi stole the clearance pass, lobbing the ball over Lindahl’s head to seal the Nadeshiko victory.

Playing in its first-ever World Cup final, Team Japan faced a Team USA that had staged one of the most dramatic comebacks in women’s soccer history against Brazil in the quarterfinals.

After Brazilian superstar Marta scored a late penalty-shot equalizer, and then looped a half-volley past U.S. keeper Hope Solo early in extra time, victory seemed hopeless for the shorthanded U.S. squad. But with seconds remaining in stoppage time, Abby Wambach delivered a game-tying header, establishing a new mark as the latest Women’s World Cup goal. Solo made the only save in the penalty-shot tiebreaker to give her team the victory, setting up a slightly less dramatic semifinal match against France, in which the U.S. scored the go-ahead goal with 11 minutes remaining.

In the final match, the U.S. squad dominated play early, peppering the Japanese goal with unsuccessful chances, the best being an Abby Wambach cannon shot that rang off the crossbar midway through the first half. Then, in the 69th minute, Alex Morgan took a counterattack breakaway through a persistent Japanese defense, burying the ball inside the far post for the game’s first goal. In Japan’s first dramatic comeback of the match, Aya Miyama tied the score on a weak U.S. clearance in front of the goal mouth with nine minutes left in regulation.

After the match entered extra time, Wambach and Morgan missed several scoring opportunities before Morgan fed an unmarked Wambach, who drilled a header home late in the first overtime period. With less than four minutes standing between her and defeat, Japan’s captain responded, first with a through ball to Yukari Kinga that caught Solo off her line. Christie Rampone kept the ball from finding the net, but Solo took a hard blow to her knee, possibly affecting the corner kick that followed, when Sawa volleyed a shot past Solo for the latest goal in Women’s World Cup Finals history.

The comeback equalizer didn’t end the drama, as the match would soon be determined by taking penalty kicks, where Team Japan keeper Ayumi Kaihori demonstrated her advantage of studying the U.S players’ tendencies in the Brazil shootout. She made two saves to Solo’s one, and Saki Kumagai sealed the championship with an untouchable shot into the upper left corner of the net.

Sawa received Most Valuable Player honors as well as the Golden Boot as the tournament’s leading scorer. "The team played so much of a part in me winning these awards that I can’t really take any personal pride in receiving them," she said later. "This [victory] is something that we gained as a team and we’ve had a lot of support from the Japanese people back home."

Team Japan’s comeback created a surge of positive emotion that was bigger and more powerful than any tsunami Mother Nature could create.