{"id":1311890,"date":"2019-06-27T15:32:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T21:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/france-may-not-have-trophies-but-its-hardly-an-underdog\/"},"modified":"2019-06-27T15:32:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-27T21:32:00","slug":"france-may-not-have-trophies-but-its-hardly-an-underdog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/france-may-not-have-trophies-but-its-hardly-an-underdog\/","title":{"rendered":"France may not have trophies, but it\u2019s hardly an underdog"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
France’s Amandine Henry celebrates at the end of the Women’s World Cup round of 16 soccer match between France and Brazil at the Oceane stadium in Le Havre, France, Sunday, June 23, 2019. France beat Brazil 2-1. (AP Photo\/Francisco Seco)<\/strong>
AP | AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

PARIS \u2014 The United States has its ranking and its trophies, and that\u2019s all the motivation France needs.<\/p>\n

The Americans face the French on Friday night at the Women\u2019s World Cup, a match that\u2019s been described as a final in the quarterfinals. It really has it all: The defending champions against the upstart hosts. The City of Lights. A sellout crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got a great trophy cabinet and we still have everything to prove,\u201d French captain Amandine Henry said.<\/p>\n

The only downside? The country is in the midst of a heat wave and temperatures are expected to soar into the 90s, although a 9 p.m. local time start should bring some cooling.<\/p>\n

Les Bleues, ranked No. 4 in the world, finished atop its group before overcoming a determined challenge from Brazil on Sunday night to reach the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

France also reached the quarterfinals at the 2015 World Cup in Canada but fell to Germany on penalties after a 1-1 draw. The team\u2019s best finish at the tournament was fourth in 2011 after losing 2-1 in the third-place match to Sweden. France had lost 3-1 in the semifinals to the Americans.<\/p>\n

But France has seen its profile rise considerably in recent years, coinciding with the growth of its domestic professional league. Seven players on France\u2019s roster play for Lyon, which routed Barcelona 4-1 to win the women\u2019s Champions League for the fourth straight year and sixth time overall.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom where we were four years ago, and where France was four years ago, I think both of us are much stronger teams. I think just the women\u2019s game in general has grown tremendously,\u201d U.S. star Megan Rapinoe said. \u201cI guess the task for each team is to be the team that is growing as fast as the game is, keeping up on that and even being the one that is pushing the game forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

France is seeking to become the first nation to simultaneously hold the men\u2019s and women\u2019s World Cup trophies. The men won last year in Russia.<\/p>\n

The United States already has three World Cup trophies, most of any nation. The Americans emphatically beat Japan 5-2 to win in Canada, highlighted by Carli Lloyd\u2019s hat trick.<\/p>\n

Vying for a fourth title in France, the United States faced a physical knockout-round opener against Spain.<\/p>\n

Rapinoe scored on a pair of penalty kicks for the 2-1 victory in Reims on Monday night, although the game-winner in the 75th minute was the result of what many thought was at best minimal contact between Spain\u2019s Virginia Torrecilla and Rose Lavelle. The foul was confirmed after video review.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, they do have some shortcomings, but so does every team in this tournament,\u201d French coach Corinne Diacre said. \u201cSpain played very well indeed. But we know the United States will be difficult opposition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until Jennifer Hermoso scored for Spain, the United States had not conceded a goal in eight straight competitive matches dating to the 2016 Olympics, outscoring opponents 44-0. It was the first goal the United States had allowed this year since a 5-3 win over Australia in an April friendly.<\/p>\n

The Americans have played the French 23 times, with France winning just three. But the last three matches have tilted toward France, with two wins and a draw. The last meeting was a friendly in January, when Kadidiatou Diani \u2014 who wasn\u2019t named to France\u2019s World Cup roster \u2014 scored twice in a 3-1 victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s impossible to have any pressure. Quite the opposite, in fact. It\u2019s additional motivation for us. We\u2019re coming up against the best team in the world. So the only pressure we have is to have a good performance,\u201d Diacre said.<\/p>\n

The game Friday night doesn\u2019t come without controversy for the U.S. team, which often finds itself the center of attention.<\/p>\n

Rapinoe was caught on video earlier this year using an expletive in explaining that she would not visit the White House if the team wins the World Cup. It got the attention of President Donald Trump, who called her out on social media.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the day before the match, she said she stood by her comments, except the coarse language. She even suggested the uproar might help her team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, if anything, it just fires everybody up a little bit more,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

France’s Amandine Henry celebrates at the end of the Women’s World Cup round of 16 soccer match between France and Brazil at the Oceane stadium in Le Havre, France, Sunday, June 23, 2019. France beat Brazil 2-1. (AP Photo\/Francisco Seco)AP | AP PARIS \u2014 The United States has its ranking and its trophies, and that\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1311890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-22 02:25:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1311890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311890\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1311890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1311890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1311890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}