Japan picks Sawa, World Cup winners for London

Japan's women's football team is looking to experience at the Olympics, fielding a team full of players who won the World Cup last year, including Homare Sawa, the football association said Monday. The London Games starting this month will be the fourth Olympics for midfielder Sawa, 33, a veteran who has also played in five World Cups. In last year's World Cup final in Germany, she scored a 117th-minute equaliser against the USA before Japan won the competition on penalties. Midfielder Aya Miyama, 27, and defender Azusa Iwashimizu, 27, who both played in the German final, were also picked for the Olympics. A Japanese World Cup-Olympic double at London 2012 would be a first in consecutive years for any country in women's football.