Advertisement

U.S. and Japan exchange mild trash talk ahead of World Cup final

The United States and Japan have become unexpected rivals in the past five years, but that doesn’t mean they’ve become good at trash talk.

On Thursday, Japanese midfielder and captain Aya Miyama tried her best to add fuel to the fire with her comments about playing the United Sates for yet another prize.

“(The Americans) took the Olympic gold medal, but we aren’t going to hand over the World Cup. That is the kind of spirit we’ll play with.”

Take that America!

Burn.

OK, so Miyama’s comments don’t even register on the Scoville scale compared to the not-so-nice things Colombian players had to say about the United States prior to their round-of-16 matchup, but that didn’t stop Fox analysts from trying to poke the bear a little bit by calling Miyama’s comments “pretty strong.”

[Women's World Cup: Latest news | Scores and Schedule | Group standings]

United States captain Carli Lloyd, however, wasn’t biting.

“Love it. Bring it. We’ll be ready,” Lloyd said.

What’s up now, Japan?

I mean, really, what did they expect Lloyd to say?

“How dare they say they’re going to play with spirit!”

This game is going to be hotly contested regardless off the amount of off-field feistiness that occurs. Japan beat the U.S. to win the last World Cup in 2011, the United States defeated Japan to win the Olympic gold medal in 2012 and in 2014, the teams tied during a friendly in Portugal.

While I think we can all appreciate some good old-fashioned pot stirring, this is a World Cup final and it certainly doesn’t need it.

-----

Want to read my in-game ramblings about soccer? Follow Graham Watson on Twitter