Soccer: Women's FIFA World Cup Quarterfinals Start Today

The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup in soccer is continuing today and tomorrow, with eight national teams playing in the quarterfinal stage.  The pairings are remarkable, when you look at them: superpower rivals USA and China play this evening while the afternoon game is between traditional European rivals France and tournament favorite Germany.  Tomorrow has Pacific foes Japan, the defending champion from 2011, playing Australia while the two other British Commonwealth national teams have their own private game: England vs. host nation Canada.  I wonder whether these games were deliberately set up this way, or did they just randomly fall into place...no matter, we're in for some great games!  Unfortunately, I'll miss today's contests since I have to go to work...but tomorrow I should be able to see the other two.

There was another World Cup soccer tournament going on, too, this one being the U-20 (under 20) Men's World Cup.  FoxSports had been showing games in the earlier group stages and tournament rounds, but I didn't see any final match shown...maybe they did show the championship game and I was at work when it happened...but all the same I'm disappointed that I didn't get to see Brazil play Serbia for the title, which the latter won 2-1...

There's also a concurrent national teams tournament focusing on the Western Hemisphere, but I haven't been able to follow it as well as I might have liked...let's face it, I like league play more and the only league around right now is North America's Major League Soccer.  As for all the tournaments involving national teams, as I've said before, I tend to be a bit turned off by the overly nationalistic attitudes taken by the fans, media, and even the players...