The Rio de Janeiro Olympics are slipping through Nadeshiko Japan's fingers as the former world champions drew 1-1 with South Korea in an Asian final qualifier on Wednesday.
Mana Iwabuchi broke the deadlock in the dying minutes with a lucky goal for Japan, but Jung Sul-bin quickly restored parity to hand South Korea a point that crippled the Asian champions in the six-team, round-robin qualifying competition.
Australia, which hammered Vietnam 9-0 earlier on Wednesday, tops the group with six points from two games, followed by China on four points after its 1-1 draw with North Korea.