An Aya Miyama header from a sharp cross led Japan's under-19 women's team past the United States' U-19s, 1-0, on Thursday night to clinch the title of a four-nation tournament at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.

Miyama nodded home Nahomi Kawasumi's cross from the right wing in the 79th minute as the Japanese, the better side most of the evening, won their second match at the Philips Lighting Women's Invitational U-19 event.

Head-to-head results are the first standings tiebreaker, so Japan (2-0-0) clinched the title with victories over China (1-1-1) and the Americans (1-1-0), the only teams that can catch the Japanese.

China edged the Netherlands, 1-0, in the first game of Thursday's doubleheader.

All four nations are preparing for qualifying tournaments leading to the Nov. 10-27 FIFA U-19 World Championship in Thailand.

The tournament concludes Saturday, with Japan meeting Netherlands (0-2-0) in an 11 a.m. opener on grassy Training Field 4 and the U.S. women facing China in a 1 p.m. match on the field turf at Training Field 5.

Miyama, who set up both goals in Japan's 2-1 victory Tuesday over China, was the most dangerous of the Japanese, who dominated play in the first half and weathered the Americans' second-half pressure.

Solid defense, especially in the back, kept the Americans in the game and prevented Japan from making much of their first-half dominance.

Japan outshot the United States, 9-1, in the first half — the only American shot a deflected Megan Rapinoe blast from distance just before halftime — with Maiko Nakaoka testing goalkeeper Kelsey Davis (a high school junior from Thousand Oaks, Calif.) from 45 yards in the 15th minute and Mami Yamguchi hitting the crossbar in the 42nd.

The U.S. women struggled to possess in midfield, and Rapinoe — a University of Portland-bound striker — was stranded without the ball nor much support.

At halftime, U.S. coach Mark Krikorian brought on UCLA's Bristyn Davis (for Rapinoe) and Florida State's Julia Schnugg (for Texas recruit Stephanie Logterman), and switched from a 4-2-3-1 formation to a two-forward attack, and the Americans finally found a rhythm. It didn't lead to much — Japan was as solid defensively as the Americans, and it was much more coherent in midfield — until Miyama broke the deadlock.

''For the most part, in the first half we had no possession, no chances,'' Krikorian said. ''[Japan] had the ball and dominated the game. And then in the second half, we changed our system a little bit, put an extra person up front to see if we could hold the ball a little bit more, and I think we had more success, and certainly territorially the game became a little more even.

''And then we did get chances at the end, but that's not good enough. We have to have more chances, and we have to be consistent for 90 minutes.''

UCLA's Stephanie Kron was behind the Americans' most dangerous chances, all in the closing minutes. A fine cross from the right nearly found California-bound midfielder Chioma Igwe at the far post, and two superb inswinging corner kicks from the right nearly pulled the United States even in the 89th minute.

A header off the second of the corners was cleared off the goal line by Maiko Higashiyama, and goalkeeper Maiko Otomo secured the rebound by Notre Dame's Jen Buczkowski.

In the first game, You Jia beat Dutch goalkeeper Loes Geurts at the near post in the sixth minute to lead China. You and Sun Ling also hit posts for the Chinese.

The Americans' games in the tournament are being played on field turf because a similar surface will be used for all matches at the May 28-June 6 CONCACAF qualifying tournament in Montreal and Ottawa.

PHILIPS LIGHTING WOMEN'S INVITATIONAL
UNDER-19 TOURNAMENT
at Home Depot Center (Carson)

W L T GF GA Pts
 Japan 2 0 0 3 1 6
United States 1 1 0 2 1 3
China 1 1 0 2 2 3
Netherlands 0 2 0 0 3 0

Tuesday, April 6
China 1 (Liu 15) Japan 2 (Kubota 44, Yamaguchi 80)
United States 2 (Hanks 3, Orand 79) Netherlands 0

Thursday, April 8
China 1 (You 6) Netherlands 0
United States 0 Japan 1 (Miyama 79)

Saturday, April 10
Japan vs. Netherlands on HDC Training Field 4, 11 a.m. PT
United States vs. China on HDC Training Field 5, 1 p.m. PT

THURSDAY'S SUMMARIES

United States 0 Japan 1. Goal: Miyama 79.

United States — K. Davis (Comeau, 46); Buczkowski, Krzysik, Sauerbrunn, Lopez; Schmit, Igwe; Logterman (Schnugg, 46), Redmond (Orand, 76), Kron; Rapinoe (B. Davis, 46).

Japan — Otomo; Iwashimizu, Toyoda, Nakaoka (Okuda, 46), Higashiyama; Utsugi; Ito (Kawasumi, 46), Miyama, Sakaguchi; Yamguchi, Kubota (Iseki, 82; Yamazaki, 94+).

Yellow cards: U.S. — Schnugg 69, B. Davis 70, Buczkowski 94+; Japan — Yamaguchi 94+.

Referee: Ramon Hernandez (U.S.).

Att.: 175.

China 1 Netherlands 0. Goal: You 6.

China — Weng Xiaojie; Gao, Weng Xinzhi, Y. Sun, Y. Guo; Hou; Fan, You (Lou, 68), L. Sun (Y. Wang, 90); Liu (D. Wang, 76; L. Guo, 79), Xu.

Netherlands — Geurts; Snoeck, Leeuwen, van Dalen (Bakker, 84), Hogewoning (Van den Berg, 46); Brummel, Brouwer, de Vries (Dekker, 71), Stuart (Vermeulen, 46); van de Ven (Melis, 60), Smit.

Yellow card: Netherlands — Leeuwen 40.

Referee: Amy Willing (U.S.).

Att.: 50.