In what was a distinctly unfriendly, the USA and Canada ramped up the intensity in a World Cup warm-up.
Entering the round of World Cup exhibition contests, nobody was really sure what to expect. Would we see the sleepwalking, no-contact world of the 2015 All Star Game, or would national pride overcome the fact that these exhibition games held little meaning in an absolute sense? Although the early contests elsewhere suggested that the pace would be respectable, nothing really prepared us for the thinly veiled animosity that was on display at Nationwide Arena Friday night.
The atmosphere did nothing to suggest exhibition game.