Over six-thousand miles away from home, cornered inside their rival country's gym, filled with a feverous, drum-beating Japanese crowd, the United States trailed Japan 12-11 heading into the final bout of the 3rd Women's World Cup.    With the title up for grabs, the U.S. turned to 158-pound Tocarra Montgomery (Cleveland, Ohio/Cumberland College).    Awaiting Montgomery on the elevated, yellow mat was Japan's most popular wrestler, five-time World Champion Kyoko Hamaguchi, who defeated Montgomery 4-1 on Sept. 14 in the World Championships finals in New York City.    Six minutes. One match. For the World Cup title.    Hamaguchi struck the first blow, taking Montgomery down for a 1-0 lead. Montgomery escaped and reeled off two consecutive double-leg takedowns for a 2-1 advantage. Hamaguchi then got in on a single leg, lifting Montgomery's leg off the mat, but Montgomery countered with a gutsy leg trip, taking the Japanese star to her back for three points and 5-1 advantage after the first period.    "I'll never forget the atmosphere in the arena for Tocarra's match," Jenny Wong said. "The Japanese crowd was roaring."    Hamaguchi came out firing in the final, pressure-packed period, attempting a flurry of attacks, but Montgomery fended off all but one takedown attempts for a 5-2 win.    With ten seconds left the crowd, sensing defeat, fell silent.    "They were stunned," Steiner said. "Nobody thought we were going to beat Japan, in Japan."    The only noise in the gym came from the U.S. contingent of seven wrestlers, coaches Terry Steiner and Chris Horpel, and a trainer and her two daughters.    "The coaches knew if we made Japan wrestle our style, we would win," 105.5-pounder Patricia Miranda said. "There's not a team in the world that makes Japan wrestle."    Coach Steiner also stressed the importance of being aggressive and used last month's World Championships runner-up finish to Japan as motivation.    "They have our trophy," Steiner said. "We're the team that breaks people."    No. 1 Japan and No. 2 U.S. entered the dual-meet with unblemished 5-0 records, dispatching national teams from Russia, Germany, China, Canada, and Greece to mere faces in the championship finals crowd.    The U.S. started strong with 2003 World silver medalist Patricia Miranda beating Makiko Sakamoto, 4-3, at 105.5 lbs. World bronze medalist Jenny Wong followed with an upset of 2003 World Champion Chiharu Icho, 4-2 at 112.25   lbs.    "I was nervous before the match," Wong said. "But I moved my focus away from my opponent and instead on what I could control."    Japan won the next three bouts, but not without a fight. Sally Roberts had the four-time World Champion Seiko Yamamoto on the ropes before falling 3-2.    "I was really disappointed," Roberts said. "I felt like I let my team down, but I came back to rally around everyone else."    At 147.5 pounds, two-time World Champion Kristie Marano pinned Norie Saito, snatching the momentum back for the U.S. and setting up the dramatic final match.    "Going into the last match the crowd sensed that we weren't going to lay down," Steiner said. "Where one fell short, the other one picked it up."    Earlier in the day, U.S. dismantled Germany 23-3, sweeping all seven matches. On Saturday afternoon the U.S. team shut out Greece 28-0, and had solid victories over Canada (18-9), Russia (19-9) and China (16-12).    The U.S. team received word that they would compete only nine days before the event, forcing coaches and athletes into a mad dash for training and travel preparations.    "There was nothing perfect about the trip, it was a scrambled mess" Steiner said. "But we did a pretty good job of getting our timing back."    After a week of practice, the U.S. team left Colorado Springs on Oct. 7 at 7:00 a.m., arriving at 5:30 the next night. Upon landing in Tokyo, Coach Steiner immediately sought after a wrestling facility.    "We had to get the trip out of us," Steiner said. "So we ran sprints, got a good warm-up and did some drilling."    Along with the travel and training uncertainties, the opponents were somewhat unknown as well.    "I was really concerned with Russia," Steiner said. "They had three Junior world champs, new faces that we had never seen before."    The Canada national team also posed a threat.    "They have stacked weights so in a dual meet format they can fill in seven slots," Steiner said.    Four U.S. women claimed individual gold medals for having the best performance in there weight class: Miranda, Roberts, Marano and Montgomery.     Miranda was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Wrestler after going 6-0 over the two days of competition.    "To go over to Japan and beat them was a big step for our wrestlers individually," Steiner said. "We realize we can beat anybody in the world."    "The Japanese media wanted me to say that we were going to kick their ass, but I wouldn't do it" Steiner said. "I thanked Japan for the rivalry, because we need that challenge, every day we face it."    "The World Cup is over, and there's whole other challenges ahead of us," Steiner said.    "Four golds in Athens is not unrealistic."