Women's World Cup 2015 final: USA beat Japan 5-2 – as it happened

23 min: Japan had concede three goals for the entire tournament before this game. They’ve shipped one more than that in the first 15 minutes. Solo makes a save after a tired looking shot from Japan. Not sure why they look tired as there’s been quite a bit of rest while they’ve watched the ball plucked from the net.

21 min: If Carli Lloyd played for Stoke City:

19 min: This is stupid now. Really, really, really stupid. Japan are wandering around like zombies. But really, really friendly zombies that will help you achieve your life goals. Also, zombies with a really good national anthem. Lloyd, meanwhile, is making a case for the greatest ever World Cup final performance ever (man or woman).

What a goal! Kaihori is way out of her goal, and Lloyd roughly located in Wyoming, sees her off her line and shoots from inside her own half. Kaihori slips as she runs back and the ball sails into the set. Me oh my!

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Hope Solo looks visibly shocked as she is asked to touch the ball. It’s an easy one too, which she takes with ease. USA haven’t conceded two goals all tournament, they’d need to have a horrible game to do so in the next 75 minutes Make that three goals they need to concede! The ball deflects up on the edge of the area and Holiday thrashes a volley past Kaihori.

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11 min: USA understandably look confident as they stroke it around the park with plenty of short passes. Who do they think they are? Japan? The second goal can be seen here:

8 min: Reasons for Japan to be cheerful: 1) they have plenty of time to get back into this. 2) They have a really good national anthem.

7 min: That’s Lloyd’s fifth goal of the tournament. What a player. She raises her game when it’s needed. Japan, on the other hand, for a team famous for their cohesion have been terrible. Really odd air of panic.

Lloyd again! Rubbish defending again! Holiday plays the ball in short from a free-kick into the near post. Johnston flicks it on, it deflects off a Japanses defender and Lloys is there to snaffle it up.

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USA won around 958 corners against Germany, and almost scored from one in the early stages. Rapinoe takes their first of the final and THEY SCORE! No wonder Ellis looked so relaxed. It’s a simple goal: Rapinoe plays it short into the area and Lloyd runs in to finish. Simple.

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2 min: The US take the attack to Japan almost straight away, nothing results from it but a nice statement of intent for US fans. What’s this though? Japan try a long ball that comes to nothing. I didn’t think Japan were allowed to play long balls.

1 min: And we’re off. USA will start the game defending in the shaded half of the stadium. USA coach Jill Ellis is having a chuckle on the bench. She is very relaxed this evening. Maybe she’s just happy she doesn’t have to meet Sepp Blatter at the end of the match.

I have to say that the Japanese national anthem is brilliant, slow and majestic. Not really one for shouting at the top of your voice but a goody nonetheless.

The teams are out. A splendid evening in Vancouver, despite some cloud from wildfires drifting over the city (so, not a great evening if you’re a tree). We’ve got a packed house too and - as throughout this tournament - it’s mostly USA fans in the crowd. They belt out the national anthem with glee, having got some practice in yesterday on 4 July.

Prediction time. The Fox panel is having its say, they’re all going for USA (they were split 2-2 before the Germany game). Alexi Lalas slams the table as he says the USA will win, worrying the Fox Sports branded coffee cups no end.

Not to ape exactly what the Fox Sports panel sai... OK, to ape exactly what the Fox Sports panel said I think the USA will take this. Japan barely crept past England in the semi-finals and have been competent rather than brilliant in the tournamen so far. USA, on the other hand, ripped into Germany in the semi-final with Carli Lloyd revelling in the freedom to roam up front midfield. The US also have the size that troubled the Japanese against England, but are a far superior technical team to the Lionesses. Final score: 2-0 to USA.

Barack Obama appears on the TV - in a shocking revelation he reveals he wants USA to win.

The Guardian’s Les Carpenter is in Vancouver (yeah, we sent two people - it’s only every four years) and has a report on the atmosphere outside the ground:

Unlike many stadiums BC Place does not have large plazas or big meeting places. The crowd, which is almost entirely for the US, arrived early and clogged the few open areas outside the gates wearing all kinds of red, white and blue costumes. Lots of Captain America and lots of Wonder Woman. About an hour and a half before the game, the American Outlaws arrived. There were hundreds of them marching down Robson St toward the stadium. They sang and chanted and waved flags. The word is definitely festive. It’s not angry, belligerent or testy. Just very, very festive. Like a big party.

Here’s Caitlin Murray:

It’s worth noting that the USA and Japan are both using the same line-ups they used in their semi-finals. This is going to be a midfield battle, which I suppose is always the case when it comes down to it, right? Although the official line-up shows Alex Morgan and Carli Lloyd alongside one another up top, I suspect Lloyd will really tuck in behind Morgan, like a 4-4-1-1 or something along those lines as was the case against Germany.

Those teams again:

USA: Solo, Krieger, Johnston, Sauerbrunn, Klingenberg, Heath, Holiday, Brian, Rapinoe, Morgan, Lloyd. Subs: Harris, Leroux, Rampone, O’Hara, Engen, Boxx, Rodriguez, O’Reilly, Chalupny, Wambach, Naeher.

Japan: Kaihori, Ariyoshi, Iwashimizu, Kumagai, Sameshima, Kawasumi, Sakaguchi, Utsugi, Miyama, Ohno, Ogimi. Subs: Fukumoto, Kinga, Sawa, Kamionobe, Tanaka, Sugasawa, Iwabuchi, Kawamura, Nagasato, Kitahara, Yamane.

Can USA beat Japan tonight? Yup. Will they beat them? Yeahmaybekindaprobably. But for a far more eloquent rundown read Caitlin Murray’s analysis - she thinks Japan may well struggle to keep up with USA on set-pieces but still have the power to tiki-taka the Americans to death.

Email prediction: “This will be an absolute mauling, four or more,” says Michael Aston. “Japan haven’t played anyone...” Michael may want to cancel any upcoming holidays to England, Cameroon, Switzerland, Ecuador, Holland or Australia. Shame, I hear Quito is nice this time of year.

And your teams are in:

The two most important men in American are looking forward to the game:

Your referee this evening is Kateryna Monzul from Ukraine. She has 10 years of experience as an international ref, and is VERY excited about officiating the World Cup final if her picture is anything to go by.

Stats! Who wants stats? You’re getting stats.

• Both teams may want to avoid the strains and stresses of added time. The projected starting teams are the oldest in World Cup history. USA’s players have an average age of 29 and six months, the Japanese come in at 28 years and five months.
• Japan and USA have met 31 times since 1986, and the Americans boss the record books with a 24-1-6 record. They’ve also outscored the Japanes 87-20 over the period.
• Recent history is a little more even with the US leading on a 2-2-1 record. Japan beat the US in the Algarve Cup in March 2012.
• 8.4 million viewers in the US tuned into this year’s World Cup semi-final against Germany. That’s the most viewed World Cup semi-final ever in the US (men’s or women). Which may be good news for any members of the Brazil men’s team
  

A relaxed Jill Ellis appears on TV to talk about how her USA team will approach tonight’s game. She is asked how they’ll take on the Japanese: “They are good on set pieces, they move the ball so well,” she says. “We’ve got be make sure all lines are engaged today defensively”

Simon Evans has written this for us on Japan’s most most dangerous players if you want a few more details:

Joe Biden has got in his prediction early:

This is actually a decent shout from the (deputy) leader of the free world. Of the last nine games between the two sides, all but one have been decided by two goals or fewer.

JB has also been telling us about his travel prowess:

You will note this is one more World Cup than one Sepp Blatter, who is stating home to avoid the pol to catch up on back episodes of Orange is the New Black.

How they got here. USA swapped formation and unleashed Carli Lloyd on Germany as they won an impressive semi-final against the world’s No1-ranked team:

Japan meanwhile were pushed all the way by England before The Incident knocked the Lionesses out. If you’re only as good as your last game*, USA should win this one:

* LEGAL NOTE: All lazy cliches in this report are lazy cliches only, and should not be used as the basis of huge bets with bookmakers, legal or otherwise.

The Guardian’s woman on the ground, Caitlin Murray, is at the stadium now and has sent in a quick missive from Vancouver:

It’s a festive atmosphere with a flood of fans milling about in front of the gates, painting faces and chanting for USA. Much bigger buzz than there was in the group stage here, that’s for sure. I’ve been in the media center getting ready to cover the live action, and this press room is completely packed with nearly every seat taken. Large contingent of Japanese press are here to match the heavy USA contingent, but I see press from around the world. About to head up to take my seat in the press stands now.

Hello! And welcome to the Women’s World Cup final [checks year] 2015. USA are taking on Japan in the biggest showdown between the two countries since Karate Kid II. Although technically, Daniel had the backing of Mr Miyagi’s village in that work of genius. And it’s debatable whether you want to make too many allusions to a film where this is one of the key plot developments (thanks Wikipedia): “Daniel accidentally exposes corruption in Chozen’s grocery business during an encounter in the village”.

As you may know this is a rerun of the last World Cup final, in which Japan triumphed on penalties (feel free to run the Japanese national anthem in your head now)

The US got their revenge the following year though, in the Olympic final. This time around the US are favorites - provided they play like they did in their brilliant win over Germany, and not like the garbage they produced in the group stage.

Tom will be here shortly, in the meantime here’s Les Carpenter’s preview:

The words that spill from the mouths of the US women’s soccer players are extreme. Winning isn’t everything it’s the only thing, the whole thing, the biggest thing. For Carli Lloyd the entire value of her 32 years on earth rests on the result of a single soccer match.

“I want to win a World Cup because I have dedicated my life to this,” the US midfielder said.

To Abby Wambach, her more-famous teammate, the one who will never play in another World Cup, winning is enough to curse.

“The only thing I give a hoot about and you can use my expletive – the only thing I give an expletive about is winning,” she said last week.

While all players in any championship game talk about victories the rhetoric from this US team has a deeper air of desperation. The need take Sunday’s World Cup final is almost a consumption for them as if a defeat would be a fate too horrible to imagine.

Part of this probably comes from the sense of an end. A core group that has been together for three World Cups and two Olympics is aging now. Wambach won’t be the only American star of this recent run to be gone. Many of the names synonymous with the last burst of US success will disappear into international soccer retirement.

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