ghters. It was the U.S. women athletes who would come to dominate the Games, winning 27 golds and 61 total medals -- six more than the mens overall tally. This was edifying, especially f

MARSEILLE, France -- The World Cup winners against the hosts, the resumption of an old rivalry, the Marseillaise sung loud in Marseille -- Frances semifinal against Germany makes for a mouthwatering semifinal on Thursday.Germany goes into the game missing key players through injury or suspension, while France is so far untested against top-level opposition at this tournament.Though politics and wartime history are certainly part of the France-Germany rivalry, there are plenty of football grudges too.Few French fans could forgive the World Cup semifinal in 1982 when a physical West German team beat France 3-3 on penalties. German goalkeeper Harald Schumacher became a national hate figure in France after charging into Frances Patrick Battiston, leaving him unconscious and with multiple injuries.France has won five of eight meetings with Germany since German reunification in 1990 -- including a 2-0 win in November -- but those victories were all in friendlies. The French lost the one game when it really mattered, going down 1-0 in the quarterfinals of the 2014 World Cup. Indeed, France hasnt beaten the Germans at a major tournament since 1958.Mats Hummels, the German goalscorer in 2014, misses Thursdays game in Marseille through suspension after picking up a second booking in the quarterfinal win over Italy. Germany must also face France without forward Mario Gomez and midfielder Sami Khedira, who are both injured. There are also doubts over the fitness of veteran midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger.By contrast, France coach Didier Deschamps has a fully fit squad. However, his team has so far avoided the other leading contenders at its home European Championship.While Ireland and Icelands fans entertained the French public, their teams didnt stretch Frances players to the limit in its two knockout games to date. Conceding a goal against the Irish and two against Iceland is also unlikely to lift lingering concerns over the French defense. The hosts toughest test so far came in the group stage, when they were held to a 0-0 draw by the solid if unadventurous Swiss.France would do well to be cautious in the semifinal. The last time Germany faced the host nation in the semifinal of a major tournament, it was more a demolition than a victory.While Germanys injury-depleted team may struggle to repeat its 7-1 crushing of Brazil at the 2014 World Cup, the world champions remain a big threat to French dreams of dominance at home.A fired-up crowd in Marseilles Stade Velodrome will just drive Germany on, coach Joachim Loew said Monday.I dont know how many thousand fit, but the vast majority of fans will be behind France in Marseille, youll have this energy, he said. Super, when its like this, no really, its a motivation.---This story has been corrected to show that France beat Germany 2-0 in a friendly last November. Cheap Nike Air Max 1 Wholesale Wholesale Nike Air Max 1 Cheap . -- Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Alrdridge were again the go-to duo for the Trail Blazers against the Kings. http://www.cheapnikeairmax1.com/ . They reached the 100-point plateau for the fourth time in five games, bested the visiting Trail Blazers by 34 in the paint and scored 19 of the final 25 points in regulation. Cheap Nike Air Max 1 China . Vettel was 0.168 seconds faster than Red Bull teammate Mark Webber around the Suzuka circuit. Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg was two tenths of a second off Vettel. "The car balance is decent, but I think we can still improve," Vettel said. Wholesale Air Max 1 China . The No. 1-ranked Nadal tweaked his back warming up for the Australian Open final, which he lost almost four weeks ago in a major upset against Stanislas Wawrinka. His first stop after the layoff is the clay in Rio as he tests the back and tries to stay healthy for the French Open in three months. I watched the Rio Olympics with my two teenage daughters. It was the U.S. women athletes who would come to dominate the Games, winning 27 golds and 61 total medals -- six more than the mens overall tally. This was edifying, especially for my girls, who found themselves unexpectedly stirred and rooting for women whose excellence and achievement were not up for debate-women whose dedication, fortitude and will broke through the media clutter, leveled false gods and showed us all what greatness can and should look like.And then there was Simone Biles.Biles, 19, came into the Olympics not simply a favorite but a legend, her exceptionalism as rousing as a drum line, an athlete soaring so far above her peers she may as well have been eyeing them from space. The Nadia Comaneci narrative-that of the adorable imp who stunned the world with unprecedented perfection-wasnt for her.It was assumed that Biles would be perfect, her superiority a given. Her mind-bending world championship triumphs had already offered a preview of coming dominance: Biles the proverbial gun at the knife fight. And this, arguably, is a much harder burden to bear.There is the risk of potential humiliation, of letting people down, of not being the gilded, galloping unicorn youve been advertised to be. A favorite is not allowed to falter. A lock can never be a surprise. Worse, confidence can read as smugness, inviting schadenfreude. America is nothing if not invested in the narrative of the underdog.Biles has never been the underdog in the gym. She has had agonizing struggles over the years, notably entering foster care after her birth mother lost the ability to care for her and her sister because of drug addiction. Biles, whose grandparents became her parents when she was 6, took pains to busy herself with things she could control, like learning how to do back handsprings in her yard. When the role life handed her was too limiting, Biles rewrote the script and gave herself better lines.So it was with her gymnastic career, in which she quickly conquered every skill and maneuver on offer. And still she kept workinng, doing the hard math.ddddddddddddShe learned how a slight feint to the right midair would rotate her body like a pinwheel in the wind. She calculated how many steps it took to launch her body twice her height above the mat. She embraced dismounts no one else dared try. Then she added flair. Joyful punctuation-a shimmy, a leap, a swivel of the hip-showmanship married to excellence that delighted all fortunate enough to see her compete.There are others who have inhabited their significance thus, the rare few who possessed enough confidence to play, even as they fought to be the best in the world. Babe Didrikson Zaharias. Jim Thorpe. Muhammad Ali. Artists, like Biles, who left us gasping and misty-eyed at their performances even though we already knew the ending. Magicians who mastered every trick, then invented new ones.Such was the case with Biles in Rio, where she cemented her status in the athletic firmament with every stuck landing, a physical planting of the flag on a planet all her own. My girls watched her, applauding victory after victory, never tiring of her virtuosity, Biles pre-eminence a comfort of sorts, like that of a superhero coming to save the day. She bobbled once on the beam, a steadying hand that let us know she was, in fact, human, but that second no more defined her Olympic showing than a stray thread on a couture suit.Here was a woman who knew, to the millimeter, how far she had to run. Here was a woman who bent physics to her will. Here was a woman who found balance in the air. Here was a woman unafraid of a blind landing. Here was a woman who wouldnt choke, wouldnt let us down, a woman we could trust to take care of business.Here was a woman who also happened, just by her very existence, to be forcing every coming generation to do better. Because she did better. (A lot better.) And with that mandate came the comfort of knowing better could still be done, that our future could be as bright and certain as we dared allow. 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