Hinata Miyazawa has announced herself onto the global stage by becoming the unlikely leader of the golden boot race as we head into the business end of the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Sitting pretty on five goals from four games, the question being raised is how a little-known playmaker from the recently professionalised WE League has risen to prominence in such impressive fashion.
How has this promising youngster gone under the radar for so long and what has enabled this unexpected run of form on the grandest stage?
ELITE BEGINNINGS
Football has gone hand-in-hand with any off-field activity Miyazawa has pursued. Upon leaving high school in 2018, she swiftly accepted an offer from elite side Tokyo Verdy Beleza.
Keen to continue her studies alongside an amateur playing career, she also enrolled for a medical science degree at the renowned Hosei University.
The youngster’s studies seemed to have little hindrance on her football, however, and it is more likely the two pursuits complimented each other.
With Yui Hasegawa, Mina Tanaka, Risa Shimizu and Ayaka Yamashita all on the books at Beleza, this was something of a golden generation for Japan’s most successful women’s team. Despite such fierce competition Miyazawa made the grade in little time and went on to score 13 goals from 52 appearances over three seasons for the capital city club.
At 18 years of age Miyazawa had settled as an attacking midfielder and had established herself as a key component of Beleza’s high tempo passing game. Her pace was there from the early days but it was her technical skills and positional awareness that kept her in first-team contention.
The dawn of the professional-era presented a different opportunity for the Kanagawa native.
Mynavi Sendai are a lesser-known club but are not short on ambition. Once having the Matildas’ Caitlin Foord on their books, the northern Japanese side have a history of acquiring high potential talent seeking regular game-time and the excitement of a long-term project.
Miyzawa cited that the promise of learning a new style of football under manager Takeo Matsuda was an important factor in her decision-making process. As her studies could now be continued online as a result of the pandemic, the choice to head north was an easy one to make.
For the two seasons Miyazawa has spent with Mynavi they have achieved a fifth and fourth-placed finish, and with little Cup success to write home about it is safe to say that results have fallen short of expectations. A change in manager came towards the end of last season and the side now finds itself mapping out a course for correction.
All this is not to say that Miyazawa has not delivered at Mynavi. She typically plays a crucial role in chance creation, either on the wide left or in center midfield, and has proven to be highly versatile.
Without question she has piqued the interest of the world’s elite with her efforts down under. The question that will now come is whether or not she will join many of her former teammates and move to greener pastures, away from Japanese shores.
RISING UP THE NADESHIKO RANKS
Although Miyazawa is likely to have been an unknown quantity for many prior to this edition of the Women’s World Cup, she has long been involved in the national team setup.
Her first appearance in Nadeshiko colors came at the tender age of 15 for Japan at the 2015 AFC U16 Women’s Championship. She went on to play a key role in Futoshi Ikeda’s U20 World Cup winning side in 2018 – a performance that likely earned his trust.
At senior level she was seldom afforded an opportunity under previous coach Asako Takakura. It wasn’t until Ikeda took the helm in 2021 that Miyazawa was fully brought into the fold at senior level. She was selected for the 2022 AFC Women’s Asian Cup and played an important role in the EAFF E-1 Championship later that year.
Similar to her role at Mynavi, the 23-year-old contributes with chance creation and sharp link-up play more than applying the finishing touch of a well-worked buildup. Indeed it is her technical skills, spatial awareness and pace that renders her fitting for Ikeda’s preferred system and this is likely the reason he calls on her time and again.
SHINING IN A NEW SYSTEM
For the 2022/23 season Miyazawa managed just one goal in 20 games for Mynavi. Under Ikeda at international level she has scored just two from 13. With this dynamic playmaker currently sitting top of the Golden Boot standings the question remains as to why and how this sudden burst of goals have come about.
Firstly, Mynavi adopt a pragmatic approach and often sit deep, catching teams on the counter. Miyazawa is often deployed in the center of midfield and tends to occupy a deeper role than for Japan. Last season she posted a per 90 xG of 0.09 and with the above factors combined it is easy to fathom how goals are in much less supply for her in the WE League.
Prior to this Women’s World Cup, Japan played with a traditional poaching No.9. Miyazawa would play as either the left or right-sided attacker in a front three.
During preparations this proved largely ineffective and returned few goals. A fresh approach was to be implemented heading into the main event.
Above all, it is perhaps Ikeda’s decision to play with a deeper, chance-creating centre-forward in Mina Tanaka that has provided the platform for Miyazawa to make the headway she has.
As the left-sided attacker, she will latch on to clinical through-balls and use her pace to advance on goal going one-on-one with the keeper. She has had ample supply from her teammates and seems to have found absolute composure in front of goal. This was lacking across the entire frontline building up to the tournament.
From time-to-time Japan have also added a counter-attacking threat to their goal scoring methods. Miyazawa possesses pace in abundance and has the spatial awareness to identify viable counter-attacking opportunities. She has been able to exploit the space left at the back by opponents playing high up the pitch to devastating effect during this tournament.
This new goalscoring approach is one that showcases Miyazawa’s salient qualities as well as uncover attributes that have largely gone unseen until now. That is to say that she fits this tactical rejig like a hand in a glove.
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