Olympic softball made its official comeback on Wednesday, 21 July, at Fukushima Azuma Baseball Stadium, which generated major headlines across the world from both news agencies, television stations and Olympic broadcast partners.
In the first Olympic softball games since 2008 -- and with Tokyo 2020 and softball in the global spotlight -- Japan, USA and Canada took respective victories over Australia, Italy and newcomer Mexico.
Here's a look at past head-to-heads and historical data for Day 2 (Thursday, 22 July) contests:
United States - Canada
- Canada were beaten by United States in the group stage of all four Olympic Games softball was on the programme.
- The smallest margin in an Olympic game between United States and Canada was USA's 4-2 win in 1996. The three matches in Olympic games between the North American neighbours since ended 6-0 in 2000, 7-0 in 2004 and 8-1 in 2008.
- United States defeated Canada at all six world championships from 1998 to 2014. That run included a 16-1 victory in the second round in 2010.
- United States lost 4-1 against Canada at the 2015 World Cup.
- United States and Canada met in the final of the 2014 World Cup. USA took the title courtesy of a 5-2 victory.
- United States and Canada met in the final of each of the past three Pan American Games. USA took gold in 2011 and 2019, but the Canadians triumphed in 2015 (4-2 win).
- Mexico and Japan met six times in world cups and world championships. Japan won all of these six matches.
- Mexico lost against Japan in the world championships in 2012 (first round) and 2016 (qualifying quarter-finals). They failed to get on the scoreboard in both defeats: 9-0 and 2-0 respectively.
- Mexico and Japan met in the round robin phase of each World Cup from 2014 to 2017. Japan won all four of those games, by an aggregate score of 33-7.
- Italy and Australia met in the group stage of the Olympic Games in 2000 and 2004. The Italians failed to score a run in both defeats, losing 7-0 in Sydney and 8-0 in Athens.
- Australia defeated Italy at each of the past four world championships (2012-2018).
- Australia recorded big wins against Italy in the group stage of the world championships in 2012 (11-1) and 2014 (10-0). They had narrow margins of victory at the event in 2016 (1-0 in the quarter-finals) and 2018 (3-2 in the group stage).
- Australia won 8-0 versus Italy in the round robin phase of the 2009 World Cup.
