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Well, here we are playing Japan again, except things have gone in opposite directions for these two teams since the World Cup last summer.
Japan crashed out of AFC qualifying, lost their venerable head coach AND got chastised in the press by Nadeshiko legend Homare Sawa, and are just trying to get back to normal.
The United States of course won the World Cup, went on a whirlwind victory tour, met President Obama, got a ticker-tape parade in New York, and raked in a lot of cash.
Now the WNT is likely looking at this match as part of their Olympic preparation; even if some of the shine has come off of Japan, they still have a lot of canny technical players and experience to make it an interesting 90 minutes. As for Japan, well...
Japan's Yuki Ogimi told us their objective for tomorrow is "not to concede 5 goals in 15 minutes." #USAvJPN
— Julie Stewart-Binks (@JSB_FOX) June 1, 2016
Lineups:
USA starting XI: Solo; O'Hara, Johnston, Sauerbrunn Klingenberg, Brian, Long, Pugh, Dunn, Morgan, Heath
Subs: Mewis, Engen, Krieger, Press, Sonnett, Horan, Naeher
Today's #USAvJPN Starting XI: Solo; O'Hara, Johnston, Sauerbrunn (c), Kling; Brian, Long, Pugh; Dunn, Morgan, Heath. pic.twitter.com/UMTjX0bBEY
— U.S. Soccer WNT (@ussoccer_wnt) June 3, 2016
Japan starting XI: Yamashita, Ariyoshi, Kumagai, Sasaki, Muramatsu, Sakaguchi, Utsugi, Nakajima, Ogimi, Iwabuchi, Chiba
Location: Dick's Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City, Colo.
Kick-off time: listed as 9 PM ET by USSF, 9:30 PM ET according to TV schedule
Available TV: Fox Sports 1
Available streaming: Fox Soccer 2 Go