National Teams

That was a strange one. In the end, France delighted the 34,872 in attendance at the Allianz Riviera with a 2-1 victory over Norway to move to the top of Group A and all but guarantee passage to the Round of 16, but how they got there was a wild ride.

The first half wasn’t so wild. The atmosphere inside the home of OGC Nice was wonderful, but neither goalkeeper made a save of note in the opening 45 minutes. Thankfully, the home supporters only had to wait one minute to see the opening goal in the second half.

Nigeria put on an excellent performance Wednesday against South Korea, securing a 2-0 victory and a vital three points in Group A. However, instead of talking about Nigeria’s win, everybody seems to be talking about Nigeria’s first goal, a South Korea own goal, which was marred by controversy.

The goal came when a ball was played into South Korea’s box and was mishit by South Korean defender Kim Do-yeon, deflecting off her foot and into the goal.

Did VAR get the call right?

Spain is widely considered a rising power in women’s soccer, and la Roja had a tremendous opportunity to accentuate that sentiment with a victory over two-time world champion Germany on Wednesday. But they blew it, and their failure is compounded by the fact that they’re now possibly on a collision course with the USWNT in the Round of 16.

The majority of the first half was dominated by Spain, and two glorious opportunities fell to Nahikari García to open the scoring in the opening 14 minutes. 

The U.S. women’s national team was drawn into a fairly easy group for the Women’s World Cup, with only one match really expected to challenge the reigning champions. So when does USWNT play Sweden?

It’s been 576 days since the Italian apocalypse at the San Siro in Milan. It was on that fateful evening that Sweden held Italy to a 0-0 draw in a playoff for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, sending the Scandinavian country through 1-0 on aggregate while the Azzurri missed out on their first World Cup in 60 years. 

The USWNT defeated Thailand 13-0 on Tuesday, making actual analysis of the game about as meaningful as discussing who won the big fight between the ice cube and the Sun. So we quickly moved on to one of the great, redundant bits of virtue signaling in sports — the argument over “running up the score.” 

Many utilized the build-up to the USWNT’s World Cup opener against Thailand to criticize manager Jill Ellis, which is an ingenious position to take because you’re right if they win (“In spite of her!”) and you’re right if they lose (“Told ya!”), but after watching the States utilize “the Zdeněk Zeman method” at kick off before shifting into a sort of 2-3-5 in possession, I gotta say, I

Last we saw Christiane Endler in the States, she was saving an Alex Morgan penalty, albeit in an eventual 4-0 loss to the USWNT back in September. On Tuesday, in Chile’s first-ever Women’s World Cup appearance, Endler made what has to go down as the best save of the tournament so far.

Sweden came into its match with Chile as the huge favorite. Everyone expects Sweden to finish second behind the USWNT and advance easily to the Round of 16 ahead of Chile and Thailand. 

For the third game in a row, Manchester United’s David De Gea found himself out of the starting 11 for the Spanish national team in favor of Kepa Arrizibalaga. The Chelsea keeper has proven his worth, having allowed one goal over the three games he’s started, with the goal coming off a cheap deflection against the Faroe Islands.