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LYON, France — In the Netherlands team hotel, they have been watching the United States’ remorseless progress to yet another World Cup final.
They saw the reigning champions grind out a victory against Spain, Europe’s rising power, in the round of 16, thanks to a soft, fortuitous penalty converted by Megan Rapinoe. They took in that seismic meeting with France in the quarterfinals, the Americans’ fast start and their ruthless counterpunching ending the host country’s dream.
Then, 24 hours before the Dutch played Sweden in the semifinals, they watched England — the best-financed women’s soccer program in the Old World — throw everything it had at the United States, only to come up narrowly, agonizingly short: the Americans clamping their jaws and gritting their teeth and, by virtue of the slightest of offside decisions and a scuffed penalty, picking their way through.