PARIS -- France and the United States will soon be on opposite sides of one of the biggest games in the history of women's soccer. The two most abundant fan bases in this tournament will turn the Parc des Princes into a seething cauldron of nearly 50,000 voices, a "s---show circus" of epic proportions as Megan Rapinoe giddily and memorably phrased it.
But before the World Cup co-favorites were rivals standing in each other's way of advancing to the semifinals, each had help from the other to make Friday night a reality.
Beyond emerging as a rival the U.