Skip to footer

Women's World Cup TV schedule: US vs. China in Friday's quarterfinals

The United States needs to go through China again if it hopes to capture another World Cup title. Both squads, minus two key Americans, are ready to go.

|
Michael Chow-USA TODAY Sports/REUTERS
United States forward Abby Wambach (center) leads her team in a run during a training session for the 2015 Women's World Cup at Lansdowne Stadium in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, June 25, 2015.

For the first time in 16 years, the United States will take on China in the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup soccer tournament Friday night in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

The two nations last met in the championship match of the 1999 Women's World Cup, which the US won on penalty kicks at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. Women's soccer in the United States and elsewhere has grown from that moment.

Some members of this year's Chinese team were old enough to watch the '99 final on television.

“I was in primary school, but I remember watching it very well," defender Shanshan Wang told FIFA.com. "That was when my dream started, when China played so well [in 1999] to reach the World Cup final. Sun Wen was my favorite player and my hero at that time.”

Now, China and the US meet again, with an opportunity to advance in this year's tournament. After losing their opening match to the host Canadian team, the Chinese have won two of their past three matches.

Defender Shanshan Wang and midfielder Lisi Wang have scored two goals each during the tournament. In three previous encounters, China has yet to defeat the US in World Cup play.

“I hope we can show the world what we have got and impress the audience with our performance,” Chinese captain Haiyan Wu said to FIFA.com. “We want to let them know that China is a very good team.”

For the United States, it's a matter of replacing talented midfielders Megan Rapinoe and Lauren Holliday, who will miss the China game due to yellow card accumulation. Veteran midfielder Shannon Boxx, who has come off the bench in prior games, could see significant playing time at one of those spots. US head coach Jill Ellis could also think creatively to fill the other spot, perhaps moving one of her substitute defenders into the middle of the pitch.

When it comes to winning soccer, it's also about putting the ball in the net. The Americans have scored six goals in their four games, but some worry about the team's offense hasn't been aggressive enough. Midfielder Carli Lloyd gave ESPN.com's Jeff Carlisle an interesting explanation:

"I think it's females in general," she said. "I think we all tend to overthink things, overanalyze things. We want to be at our best, that's the facts. We all want to be playing well, peaking. But it's a game we've played our whole lives, and when we step on the field, we've just got to let instincts take over."

You can watch the US and China in the Women's World Cup quarterfinals, beginning at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Friday. Fox will televise both the US-China match, as well as Friday's other quarterfinal between France and Germany, which will get underway in Montreal at 4 p.m. Eastern.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Women's World Cup TV schedule: US vs. China in Friday's quarterfinals
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2015/0626/Women-s-World-Cup-TV-schedule-US-vs.-China-in-Friday-s-quarterfinals
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe