It's a World Cup Semi-Final Preview 🇪🇸🇸🇪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇦🇺

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It’s Monday, August 14th. Give us four minutes, we give you everything World Cup.

MATILDAS MOVE A NATION: scenes across Australia (and above the earth) capture the elation of a nation as the Tillies prove triumphant over France in a historically-long World Cup penalty shootout, qualifying the team for their first-ever World Cup semi-final.

I. Spain meets Sweden in New Zealand to decide who’ll move on to the final in Oz (Tuesday, 4 a.m. EST, Peacock, Telemundo, Universo)

For much of this tournament, Sweden looked like a solid team collecting their victories without looking overly threatening. But a defeat of the reigning champions USA, and subsequent demolition of Japan’s inspiring set-up has them suddenly looking like maybe they'll take it all.

Certainly, they showed a versatility to their style against Nadeshiko Japan in the quarter-final, while remaining a threat in the air and on set-pieces. Because chaos is our closest friend, observing as Arsenal’s vertically-gifted center back, Amanda Ilestedt, makes a claim at the golden boot (she’s tied in second place with four goals) will be among the more exciting elements here.

As for La Roja, whose romantic style of football is more than just possession-based and hardly boring, a meeting with Sweden will test once more whether a nation with clearly impressive development can make more history and reach the final. For theirs is a team with perhaps more depth than any on earth. They seem to conjure technically elite players from the bench and from thin air, performing as they are while still missing twelve players due to ongoing disputes with their federation.

And while it may be tempting for some to hope this Spanish side stumbles (so as not to reward a manager and federation at odds with its striking players), Christen Press has shared a different perspective:

“Ultimately I will always root for the players on the field and I will hope that their success, their greatness, their beautiful performances, their goals… I hope the whole country can get behind them and I hope that it will help them get a voice.”

II. England’s Lionesses meet Australia’s ascendant Matildas in World Cup semi-final 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🇦🇺 (Wednesday, 6 a.m. EST, FOX, Telemundo, Universo, Peacock)

Near immediately after booking their seat in Wednesday evening’s semi-final (thanks to Lauren Hemp’s equalizer and a second-half goal from Arsenal’s Alessia Russo to overcome Colombia 2-1), England’s esteemed manager Sarina Wiegman was asked if she understood the sporting implications of an England vs. Australia clash.

Wiegman, who was born in the Netherlands, commented she knew it was big, but it might be even bigger than she expected, given that so many post-match questions were focused specifically on that: “it’s probably going to be bigger than I imagined now.”

The reigning European champions have maneuvered deftly through the World Cup making myriad adjustments to their formation, personnel and approach along the way to become the sole nation appearing in their third straight semi-final. Though, whether they can break their semi-final curse (for their tournament has ended here at the past two World Cups) remains up to a test with the host nation.

As for Australia, a nation now thoroughly gripped by the spirit of a seismic soccer success, the opportunity to play a World Cup final as the first host to do so since 1999 feels so close it must be fated.

England will be a tough test. But defeating them to find the final would be the sweetest script any Matildas-supporter could hope for. England may have more recent experience this deep in major tournaments, but Australia feels to have the momentum on their side. Sam Kerr looked good in her second half (plus extra time, plus penalties) appearance against France, when the Matildas showed the fortitude of champions overcoming Les Bleues after a record-setting 20 pens.

That Kerr might start against England, for the first-time in this tournament, may not only be a hot-topic but also game-changing fate.

France’s manager Herve Renard told the press that his side did not simply have to play eleven players that night, but rather a whole nation. England will face the same with heightened emotion, and a crafty fan base infiltrated the designated England section at Stadium Australia, due to a leaked ticket code. 

III. 🇺🇸

Tobin Heath commented to followers of her podcast this week, “Everyone is wondering what island the eliminated players go to post-World Cup. Well, ours go to the tropical, exhausting island of the NWSL”.

Indeed. Though, Crystal Dunn did make a stopover in Fiji.

Matchday 16 of 22 looms this weekend for NWSL’s returning footballers, as the league picks up for the first league-match since July 8th (they’ve battled on through a Challenge Cup tournament during the World Cup).

And with a league as tightly contested as ever, it is perhaps a grace of distraction for the 22 USWNT players who feature domestically, that they’ll have no time to linger over the wounds of their historic Round of 16 departure.

North Carolina Courage are perched in first place as matters resume, though meet second-place Portland Thorns on Sunday for an epic clash. The pair of top-ranked jousters are replete with two teams overflowing with multinational World Cup stars, who may enact revenge upon the league to make amends for World Cup heartache. (Sunday, 1030 PM EST, Paramount+)

That multinational amends making will be fun to watch. As the USA are not alone in the immediate re-focus provided by the NWSL, with players from Canada, Brazil, Nigeria, Ireland, Japan, South Africa, China and beyond have already, or will soon join them in the domestic competition.

Since departing Australia, the US players have been relatively reserved, for the most part, on social media. A number of moving reflections have come through in the days since their loss (though not everyone has posted). That includes Chicago Red Stars’ veteran keeper Alyssa Naeher, whose penalty performance will live long in many memories, saying she’d left a piece of her heart in Melbourne. Portland Thorns’ NWSL golden boot leader, Sophia Smith, vowed to come back hungrier than ever. And Washington Spirit’s stalwart of midfield success, Andi Sullivan, posted a moving message, as she quoted, “The Invitation”, by Oriah Mountain Dreamer, adding the caption: “for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive”.

IV. News and Notes

1. From the New York Times: Hinata Miyazawa, How Japan’s unlikely World Cup hero became a star

2. ESPN: What USWNT fans down under got up to after USA early-exit

3. Just Women’s Sports: Reasons to have hope for USWNT future

V. Parting Shots

After Australia overcame France on a record-setting 20 penalties, Sam Kerr gave her shirt to a young fan. The response is as phenomenal, and full of emotion, as that of the full nation to the Tillies win.