Controversy No. 3: The heat
Tom Lutz informs me that, contrary to what I said previously, our sun cannot go supernova.
That will be of little comfort in France, which just saw a record temperature of 45.9C. That’s nearly 115 degrees in US temperatures. Or, as we sometimes call it, Death Valley hot.
But at Parc des Princes, it’s merely 30 degrees. That’s 86 in the USA, the land of stubborn measurements. And we’re told it’s not the same humidity as those of us who dwell on the US East Coast swim in every day.
France lineup
Unchanged from the last game.
And it’s pretty much as projected from our team guide.
Wendie Renard has made the odd uncharacteristic mistake here, but she and Griedge Mbock are a generally sound defensive partnership. And like the US women, they have more attackers than they can possibly start, with Delphine Cascarino being the in-vogue supersub.
US lineup
AKA Controversy No. 2: Lindsey Horan’s omission
Lindsey Horan is a tremendous two-way midfielder. She has experience playing with an against the French players. She sat out the round of 16 game against Spain until the very end, perhaps because she was carrying a yellow card, and a second would put her out of action for the game against France.
As it turns out, that didn’t matter. Out of the four main US midfielders — Horan, defensive destroyer / attacker Julie Ertz, two-way player Samantha Mewis, and playmaker Rose Lavelle — Horan is the one that sits.
Another option Jill Ellis would have had — sit Becky Sauerbrunn, one of the finest defenders in women’s soccer’s relatively brief history but coming off some minor injury concerns and a major mistake against Spain, to move Ertz to center back. Didn’t do that.
It’s the familiar lineup at the back: Alyssa Naeher in goal, Sauerbrunn and Abby Dahlkemper at center back, attack-minded Crystal Dunn at left back, attack-minded Kelley O’Hara at right back, Ertz behind Mewis and Lavelle in the middle, Megan Rapinoe trying to do better on the left flank than she did against Spain, Tobin Heath trying to see more of the ball on the right than she did against Spain, and Alex Morgan trying to be fouled out of the play a lot less than she did against Spain.
Personally, I’d put Dunn at forward in place of Rapinoe, and I’d go back in time to include Casey Short on the roster so she could play left back.
Controversy No. 1: Equal pay
Please check out the work Caitlin Murray and Sam Morris did with respect to the comparative World Cup bonuses that the US women might achieve in the next 10 days and the US men might achieve before the sun goes supernova.
This is, of course, part of a couple of larger questions, and not just the glass ceiling in American workplaces.
The tough part is that FIFA’s bonuses are pretty far from equal. In 2018, France got $38 million. This year, the winner will get $4 million.
So your options are these …
Preamble
It’s Brazil-Germany in the men’s World Cup. It’s Ronda Rousey vs. Cris Cyborg, had Rousey stuck with MMA and gone back up to her old weight class. It’s Kelly Clarkson vs. Susan Boyle in an all-star battle of reality-contest singers.
It’s big. Grande. Incroyable.
Super Bowls are hyped for two weeks. This game has been hyped since the World Cup draw was made in December, assuming the USA and France would win their groups and their eighth-final games. (As it turns out, each team made hard work of it.)
So this could be a contest of titanic proportions.
Or it could be Mike Tyson knocking out Michael Spinks in 91 seconds. But let’s hope not.
The winner faces England, which will be the next epic match.
Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s Caitlin Murray on how today’s game may be settled:
The set piece battle
“We take set pieces very seriously,” Megan Rapinoe said in France before the USA’s first game of the tournament. “Those are moments you can practice, you can set things up, you can potentially catch the other team off guard, go quickly or if you’e got tricky plays. We have a lot of specialists in all the different areas of set plays.”
Although the Americans are traditionally been strong on set pieces, such scenarios haven’t been the deciding factor for the Americans yet. France, meanwhile, have scored five of their goals in this tournament from set plays.
Samantha Mewis, standing at almost 6ft tall, is the tallest outfield player the US have ever had. Wendie Renard, the French center back, has at least two inches on her and is the tallest player in this World Cup. If there’s a play the US will have to watch on corner kicks, it is surely Renard.
“She’s great in the air and a really well-rounded player,” Mewis said Wednesday. “We all have so much respect for her and I think our setup on set pieces will remain the same – we just have to make sure were doing our jobs and executing because she’s definitely dangerous.”
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