A few million people will watch the United States take on China on Friday night, but the undercard match is the real main event. Germany and France are two of the top teams in the world, ranked No. 1 and No. 3, and they've been drawn together in the quarterfinals. FIFA placed the top-seeded teams in their groups before the draw, putting these teams on a collision course early in the tournament when they probably should have been Women's World Cup finalists.
Germany vs. France should be the best game of the Women’s World Cup
If you’ve only been watching the USWNT games, we recommend changing that and tuning in for this one.
Matt Kryger-USA TODAY Sports
But the loss of one of these teams is our gain. If they each had to run a gauntlet on opposite sides of the bracket, we might have never seen them play each other. Instead, thanks to FIFA’s extremely shady decision, we get to watch them on Friday afternoon.
This game is absolutely worth your time, and it has a chance to be the match of the tournament. Here’s why you should watch.
Dzenifer Marozsán lives to clown people
Germany's No. 10 plays in a two-woman center of midfield, next to a more defensive-oriented player. She serves as a bit of a deep-lying playmaker, but she can surge forward too, since she has the dribbling ability and pace of players who usually play farther up the pitch. She has an argument for being the best player in the world right now.
Eugénie Le Sommer could score from space
This is just rude. France's No. 9 is actually a roaming second striker, not the out-and-out center forward. You'll see her pop up just about everywhere in the attacking third.
As teams, their passing is insane
So, you’ve been watching the United States? And you think they look OK, but not that impressive, right? Well, check out these sequences of play. It looks like Germany and France play entirely different sports.
Best team goal of the @FIFAWWC for #Fra, 1-0 from Delie #FIFAWWC pic.twitter.com/gFr77M7Njq
— Andrew Jerell Jones (@sluggahjells) June 21, 2015 So much about their play is impressive, but it’s mostly about making decisions way more quickly than everyone else. They don’t dwell on the ball. They don’t think. They just do.
And now, after playing a bunch of teams that aren’t on their level, Germany and France get to play each other. It’s going to be awesome, it’s on at 4 p.m. ET, on big network FOX, and you should watch.
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