Women’s World Cup 2019: How to Watch USA vs. France

Thanks to the peculiarities of the seeding at the 2019 Women’s World Cup, one half of the knockout round bracket is considerably stronger than the other, and it happens to be the half in which the U.S. women’s national team (USWNT) is competing. Because of this, we get what would’ve been an outstanding finals matchup in the quarterfinals. The USWNT and host-nation France, two of the favorites to win the tournament, will square off Friday at 3 p.m. ET (on FOX, Fox Sports Go app and Fubo.TV) in what will be the most important match of this World Cup so far and what could go down as the most crucial contest of the entire tournament.

The USWNT made waves from its first match of the tournament when it set multiple World Cup records in a 13-0 demolition of Thailand. None of its matches since have been nearly as lopsided, but it was still dominant in group stage wins over Chile (3-0) and Sweden (2-0).

The USA received its first true test in its first match of the knockout stage, a 2-1 victory over Spain. Against La Roja, the USWNT didn’t look nearly as sharp as it did in any of its group stage victories and conceded its first goal of the tournament on a bit of sloppy play out of the back between keeper Alyssa Naeher and defender Becky Sauerbrunn shortly after Megan Rapinoe opened the scoring with a penalty kick in the seventh minute. The Americans’ saving grace was another penalty in the 75th minute also converted by Rapinoe, though some consider the USA lucky as both penalties were borderline calls.

France took a similar path as the USWNT in the group stage, although it wasn’t quite as dominant as the USA. Les Bleus, the hosts of this World Cup, entered the tournament among the favorites and did nothing to change that status after it collected a full nine points in their group.

France also faced the toughest test of the round of 16 when it drew with another would-be favorite, Brazil. The French thought they had opened the scoring on a goal from Valérie Gauvin midway through the first half, but it was called back after a controversial ruling from the Video Assistant Referee (VAR). Gauvin eventually did open the scoring in the 52nd minute, only for Brazil’s Thaisa to level the match 11 minutes later. France finally pulled ahead in extra time as captain Amandine Henry scored the winner in the 111th minute.

VAR has been one of the biggest stories of the 2019 Women’s World Cup. VAR decisions played a part in both the USWNT’s and France’s round of 16 victories, helping the U.S. and hindering France. (However, France was assisted by a VAR ruling its its 1-0 group stage win over Nigeria.) Considering how heavily VAR has been utilized throughout the tournament, there’s a strong chance it will play a role in the quarterfinal match between the USA and France.

Befitting its status as the most important match of the 2019 Women’s World Cup so far, tickets to the sold-out contest at the Parc de Princes in Paris are a hot commodity on the secondary market. On Wednesday, the cheapest tickets to be found on resale site StubHub were over roughly $220, with the most expensive climbing over $11,000. This isn’t surprising considering the USA has far and away the largest contingent of traveling supporters in the World Cup and France is playing on home turf. It will be interesting to see how the crowd is split on Friday.

Either way, there will be a lot of red, white and blue in the stands.