REIMS, France — Come Saturday morning, the Women’s World Cup will have been winnowed from 24 teams to four. And the only certainty is that either France, the host nation, or the United States, the tournament’s three-time and defending champion, will be gone.
That’s the inevitable outcome after the U.S. women brawled to a 2-1 victory over Spain on Monday in the medieval town of Reims, playing their ugliest but toughest soccer yet to clinch a spot in the quarterfinals.
Their reward: a date with France, whose players weathered their own trial the night before in vanquishing Brazil by the same score.