As U.S. advances, strong French team out of World Cup

For all of the joy and relief surrounding the U.S. women after their 1-0 quarterfinal victory over China on Friday, there was overriding sentiment that the best team had gone home earlier in the day.

Take nothing away from Germany, the world’s No. 1-ranked team and typically unbeatable when it came down to penalty kicks, but France unleashed an aesthetically sublime attack that twice came up inconceivably short: a wide-left miss in just the second minute by an unmarked Louisa Necib (she’ll be regretting that one for months) and a dead-cinch chip shot somehow botched by Gaetane Thiney in the second extra period.

Add those misfires to a bit of brutal misfortune — a penalty kick resulting from Amel Majri’s handball in the box, when she was doing everything in her power to avoid the point-blank shot — and France offered the Germans too many favors in a 1-1 draw that ended 5-4 on penalties.

The German women haven’t missed a penalty kick in World Cup play, ever, and their steely resolve was evident throughout a match that Fox analyst Alexi Lalas called “beautiful and memorable.”

The youthful Chinese, a far cry from the team that played the best-ever Americans on such even terms in 1999, seemed incapable of scoring, or even mustering a decent threat.

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First ballot.