Women's World Cup 2015: Lucy Bronze Will Be Key to England Victory over Japan

Lucy Bronze will have to step up to propel England over Japan when the 2015 Women's World Cup continues Wednesday night in Edmonton at 7 p.m. ET.

Bronze, 23, has been a revelation for England's backfield in the World Cup by playing solid defense and tying for the team lead with two goals. 

She will need to continue her heroics Wednesday night if England want to pull off an upset over higher-ranked Japan, who are No. 4 in the FIFA world rankings and won the 2011 World Cup. Conversely, England are ranked No. 6 and have now reached the semifinals for the first time with their run this year.

Japan have yet to lose in the World Cup and have only given up two goals in five games. Their offensive attack shouldn't be too difficult for England and Bronze to contain, but Bronze can certainly apply pressure to Japan's stout defense.

Playing in her first World Cup, Bronze has been one of the main reasons that England are having their best World Cup performance ever.

She's not only playing for herself, but she's playing to change the perception of her team in the eyes of everyone in England.

"At the start of the tournament people were used to English football failures in major tournaments,” Bronze said, according to Luke Edwards of the Telegraph. “We were always being lumped in with the men, it was just a case of here we go again whenever we went into one. We wanted to change that. That was a big part of what we have been saying all along. We didn’t want to be another English football team that let the nation down. We wanted to do the nation proud and I think that’s why people are jumping on it now, because we have made the country proud."

That shouldn't stop against Japan, considering England's ability to shut down Japan's balanced attack. With Japan having won each match by just one goal, they have had seven different scorers find the back of the net. Nobody on their roster has two goals, however, and Bronze has two game-winners on her resume this World Cup.

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Fittingly, Bronze is extremely confident heading into Wednesday's match, which will decide who takes on the Unites States in the World Cup Final. 

"We’ve come across Norway, a hard European team, a couple of South American teams and now we’ve beaten the host nation," she told Tony Leighton of Daily Mail. "Japan will be a different challenge again, but we’re looking forward to it. We know we can beat them, we know how we can beat them—England are going all the way!"

Defeating Japan and the United States in consecutive matches will prove to be a tall order, but if Bronze continues her stellar play, anything can happen for England.