World Cup

To say Germany had Sweden’s number in major international tournaments would be an insult to number-having everywhere. In nine knockout-round matches between the two all time, the Germans had won all of them.

Well, all but one after Saturday.

Sweden overcame an early goal to rally past the second-ranked team in the world 2-1, providing perhaps the biggest upset of the Women’s World Cup to advance to the semifinals.

Sweden joined the U.S., England and the Netherlands in the final four and will play the Dutch on Wednesday.  

Anyone who has been to the Netherlands can attest: the Dutch are tall. Based on national statistics, the European nation is among the very tallest in the world with an average height of 5-6 for the women, and these Oranje national team players are even taller. 

The Oranje certainly exemplify this with perhaps the most dominant aerial abilities of any team left in France. Stefanie van der Gragt is 5-10, Vivianne Miedema is 5-9, Jill Roord is 5-8 and Anouk Dekker is 6-0. 

At 3:42 a.m., as the USWNT was dreaming about advancing to the Women's World Cup semifinals, the newest USWNT fan entered the world. Sydney and Dom Dwyer welcomed the newest addition to the Dwyer family just in time for her to witness greatness. The second Sydney Leroux baby may have been a good luck charm for the U.S.

The United States is into the semifinals of the 2019 Women’s World Cup, continuing its incredible streak of reaching the final four in all eight editions.

The USWNT did it by seeing off host France, seen by many as the biggest challenger to the No. 1 team repeating as world champion. The 2-1 win on Friday night in Paris was coach Jill Ellis’ 100th win in charge of the Americans, including 11 wins and one draw with no losses in World Cup play. 

Hope Solo may disagree, but maybe we should give the Englishwoman a bit of respect for what she’s accomplished with Team USA.

Megan Rapinoe may just win the Golden Boot — and help the USWNT win a fourth Women’s World Cup in the process.

The USWNT winger scored in the fifth and 65th minutes to lead the U.S. to a 2-1 win over France in the 2019 Women’s World Cup quarterfinals on Friday in Paris. The anticipated showdown came down to the wire but the U.S. held on for an impressive victory over the host nation.

As much of a cliché as this sounds, England is very much a team that is greater than the sum of its parts.

This isn’t to say England has bad players — Fran Kirby and Lucy Bronze are among the best in the world at their respective positions. Yet it would be hard to say the Three Lionesses are the best in the world in any one particular area. There are better passing teams, better possession teams, better defending teams and quicker and stronger teams.

But when England puts it together, there might not be a better team.

Legendary referee Pierluigi Collina, who now serves as the chairman of FIFA’s Referees’ Committee, took center stage at a FIFA media briefing today about officiating and VAR at the 2019 Women’s World Cup, much like he did last summer in Moscow for the men’s tournament.  

After watching Jessica McDonald’s story from the USWNT 23 stories, we learned what motivates her to pursue her dream of playing professionally. Her mother had her and her brother right out of high school and struggled to give them the life they deserved, so she ended up being raised by her grandmother.

Friday. On Friday, you don’t work. On Friday, you watch perhaps the most anticipated match in the history of the Women’s World Cup. The USA vs France World Cup 2019 predictions, previews and general hype train is building to a crescendo, like a Marta message to the children.