On Sunday, the United States and Japan play for the World Cup championship. It’s on Fox, with the pregame show starting at 5 p.m. CT and kickoff around 5:45 p.m.
Here are five oddities, curiosities or (possibly) interesting facts about the game and its participants:
1.
This is the third straight world championship to feature these two teams. They met in the final of the 2011 World Cup. (Japan won on penalty kicks) and in the 2012 Olympic gold medal game (the United States won 2-1.)
Megan Rapinoe and teammates after winning gold at the 2012 London Olympics. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
2.
Abby Wambach has played in 24 World Cup games, tying her for the second-most ever with Julie Foudy, Birgit Prinz of Germany, and Formiga of Brazil. They trail Kristine Lilly (below), who played in 30.
Kristine Lilly in the World Cup, Sept. 18, 2007, Shanghai, China. (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
3.
The Americans have played 513 minutes without allowing a goal, the second-longest streak for a single World Cup.
Germany went 540 minutes — the entire tournament — without giving up a goal in 2007, but that only begins to tell the story of the Germans’ feat. Counting minutes from the previous World Cup (2003) and the one that followed (2011), the German streak totaled an incredible 679 minutes.
4.
The United States is unbeaten in 33 World Cup games (29-0-4) when it scores first.
5.
Carli Lloyd is the third U.S. player to score in three straight games in a World Cup. Michelle Akers did it in 1991, Abby Wambach in 2003 and 2011.
Below: Lloyd’s PK against Germany:
finishers 