KEY POINTS:
The hotly-favoured Americans are in danger of not making it through to the business end of Fifa's Under-17 Women's World Cup after going down 3-2 to the classy Japanese in a group C thriller in Hamilton yesterday.
Continuing a day of upsets, Brazil, in the so-called group of
death, were also upended, beaten 3-0 in front of a crowd of 10,795 at Wellington's Westpac Stadium by a fired-up England.
It has not been a great start for South American teams at the 16-nation tournament with Paraguay thumped 6-2 yesterday by the super-impressive French in the late game in Hamilton where both teams finished the match a player short.
With their 1-1 draw against Denmark on Wednesday, Colombia are the only South Americans with a point after the first round.
In yesterday's other game, African hope Nigeria surprised Korea Republic with their 2-1 win in Wellington.
The Americans were given a dream start at Waikato Stadium when Vicki DiMartino gathered and added the final touch to a Cloee Colohan long throw after just three minutes.
Led by the inspirational Mana Iwabuchi, Japan then took control but it was not until the 32nd minute that she found the equaliser.
The US also started the second half strongly and when Mandy Laddish slipped a shot past Saki Nakamura their hopes again soared.
But any chance of holding on was dispelled when Natsumi Kameoka rattled their net with a superb 35m strike in the 69th minute.
A looping volley from Kei Yoshioka six minutes later dashed American dreams and left them facing a tough path to the quarter-finals. They face Paraguay on Sunday before what appears to be Wednesday's crunch clash with France.
England made an advantage in possession count against Brazil.
Dan - in this case Danielle - Carter was England's star, scoring in the 72nd and 90th minutes with Lauren Bruton adding the second in the 76th.
Nigeria scored the quickest goal of the tournament so far when Soo Adekwagh chipped home from 20 metres after 20 seconds in Wellington. Amenze Aighewi stretched the lead to 2-0 on the hour before Ji So Yun grabbed the 86th-minute consolation for the South Koreans.
France, led by Pauline Crammer's hat-trick - the first at the tournament - scored three goals in each half to give their post-section hopes an early boost. They played the last 22 minutes one short after Lea Rubio was sent off. Jacky Gonzalez followed her to the dressing-rooms late in the game.
After today's rest day, the second round follows on Saturday and Sunday with the much-anticipated games between New Zealand and Denmark and Japan and France the likely highlights.