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The United States may not have been in action on Independence Day, but France, which appropriately played a major role in the Revolutionary War, was on the field in Philadelphia against Paraguay in a massive round of 16 clash for a trip to the quarterfinals.
It was a hot day in the cradle of our nation and that complicated things for both teams in more ways than one.
While Paraguay is a great team, they were not the favorites against a heavily favored French team, led by superstar Kylian Mbappé, who has been shining in this tournament.
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French and Paraguayan players get into a shoving match during their round of 16 match Saturday in Philadelphia. (Images by Kyle Ross-Imagn)
Obviously, the heat itself is a factor, but it also made the pitch slower, something that was believed to favor Paraguay.
However, most of the first half action was played by his side as France put pressure on for the first half hour of the match.
It was intense, and that intensity boiled over in the 35th minute with some pushing and shoving after Mbappé and Paraguayan Andrés Cubas started a wild shoving fight.
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But although the intensity increased (and stayed high for most of the match), Paraguay weathered the storm and had every reason to feel good going into halftime with the game scoreless.
France had more scoring opportunities in the early part of the second half, including a near-break by Mbappé.
Frenchman Kylian Mbappé scored the winning goal from a penalty and, finally, the victory against Paraguay. (Images by James Lang-Imagn)
In the 67th minute, France received a penalty for a foul against Desire Doue that had to go to VAR for review, and it was Mbappé who took it.
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Mbappé has tended to do most of his damage in the second half, and that trend continued here when he nailed the penalty past Paraguayan goalkeeper Orlando Gill.
That was his 19th career World Cup goal, and his seventh in this tournament alone, tying him with Argentina's Lionel Messi for the tournament lead.
Paraguay seemed to fade after Mbappé's goal, but came back on late, forcing Mike Maignan to make his first save of the day around 89 and a half minutes into the game.
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It seemed that Paraguay's plan was to try to provoke the French, and they managed to get three yellow cards. In fact, they even tried to maintain that after the game with the players gathering near midfield to keep pushing and pushing.
But France is moving forward and will face Morocco in a quarterfinal match on Thursday in Boston.
