Japanese second division club JEF United Ichihara Chiba are celebrating their 25th anniversary with a legends match against Tokyo Verdy and both clubs will wear special kits that should make goal celebrations a little extra enjoyable.
Carli Lloyd made history with the greatest World Cup final performance of all time, completing a hat trick in the first 16 minutes of the United States’ 5-2 win against Japan. And doing it with a goal scored from the halfway line just to prove that real life is just a game of FIFA 15 against someone’s grandpa for her.
For the Japanese fans on the receiving end of Lloyd’s wrath, it was not a pleasant experience. Here now are some of their reactions to the heavy defeat…
You know how cup finals are usually tightly contested affairs that take time to develop and can be decided by the slimmest of margins? That did not happen in the 2015 Women’s World Cup final. When the U.S. spoke about getting revenge against the team that beat them on penalties in the 2011 final, it turns out they weren’t kidding.
While England wept and wondered what they had done to deserve the cruelest of sporting fates after losing their Women’s World Cup semifinal 2-1 on a last-minute own goal, the ecstatic Japanese players did…whatever this is.
I don’t know what they’re doing, I don’t know why they’re doing it, but I do know that it’s transporting my mind into another dimension. One where nothing bad could ever happen, the trees are made of lollipops, and everyone is a winner.
Own Goal in the 92nd minute. 2-1 #JPN. Wow. #WWC2015 pic.twitter.com/EJKXQIdrwO
— Ben Jata (@Ben_Jata) July 2, 2015
This might be the worst thing that has ever happened to anyone ever. With the score even at 1-1, and after England threatened to take the lead several times in the second half of their Women’s World Cup semifinal against defending champions Japan, Laura Bassett scored an own goal in the second minute of injury time.
Japan’s second goal against the Netherlands in the Women’s World Cup was a sequence of perfection. It couldn’t have been executed better if they practiced that alone for the last three weeks. It ended up being absolutely necessarily too, since they ended up conceding a goal at the opposite end of the spectrum during injury time.
The Netherlands had a chance to take an early lead against Japan when Manon Melis slipped past the world champions’ back line, but then her right foot thought “dribble” just before her left foot thought “shoot.” This proved to be a problem.
Melis ended up on the ground as the ball trickled over the endline and Japan went up 1-0 a few minutes later. This was very much out of character for Melis, however. She was voted the top player in Sweden’s Damallsvenskan in 2010 and she has 55 international goals in 125 appearances.
But these things can happen to anyone. Just ask Steven Gerrard…