For the first time in World Cup history, the four remaining teams are the top four in FIFA's rankings. No upsets. No giant-killings. A 48-team field built for chaos somehow delivered the most chalk semifinal draw the tournament has ever produced.
No. 1 France meets No. 3 Spain in Dallas on Tuesday. No. 2 Argentina faces No. 4 England in Atlanta on Wednesday. Either final is a dream match. All four of them deserve to be here — which, honestly, makes this more interesting, not less.
It also raises an obvious question for American football fans trying to follow along: which college football powerhouse does each team remind you of? The parallels aren't perfect, but they're close enough to be useful.
France is Ohio State, Argentina is Alabama
France is Ohio State. Two World Cup titles, eight semifinal appearances, a factory-level pipeline of elite talent — Les Bleus are the program that reloads every cycle and arrives at the tournament with a genuine claim to win it. Their attack this summer has been built around Mbappé, Dembélé, and Michael Olise. Their defense has barely been tested. Didier Deschamps has managed the squad since 2012, and this will be his final World Cup in charge. Championship or bust. Sound familiar?
Argentina is Alabama under Nick Saban. That's the whole comparison. La Albiceleste has won the 2021 Copa América, the 2022 World Cup, and the 2024 Copa América, with Messi at the center of all of it. They don't just win — they make winning feel inevitable, even when it shouldn't. The fan base sings for 90 minutes straight. The pressure doesn't seem to touch them. The Crimson Tide had the same quality under Saban: not just stockpiling talent, but weaponizing expectation.
Spain is on a different level right now — and England is still waiting
Spain is Georgia, and this comparison is about form, not legacy. La Roja are the reigning European champions, and they've conceded exactly one goal at this World Cup — to Belgium in the quarterfinals. Lamine Yamal is 17 and already undropable. Rodri runs the midfield like he owns the building. Center backs Laporte and Cubarsí have been dominant. Georgia won back-to-back national titles in 2021 and 2022. Spain is aiming to win the World Cup just months after lifting the Euros. The pipeline never stops.
England is Texas. Every tournament, every season — this is the year. "It's coming home." "We're back." The Three Lions haven't won a World Cup since 1966. The Longhorns haven't won a national title since 2005. Both programs carry brands bigger than their recent results justify. Both have stars capable of changing a game — Bellingham, Kane, Arch Manning — and both have spent years promising a return to the top without quite getting there.
- France: Ohio State — elite talent, elite stability, elite expectations
- Argentina: Alabama (Saban era) — the measuring stick everyone else chases
- Spain: Georgia — the hottest program in the sport right now
- England: Texas — enormous brand, enormous hope, sixty years of hurt
England has reached four World Cup semifinals, including two of the last three. That's genuine progress. Argentina in Atlanta, though, is a different kind of test — and the Argentines have already shown in this knockout round that they don't lose composure when the moment gets heavy. England's odds of reaching the final hinge on whether Bellingham and Kane can do something Argentina's defense hasn't allowed yet.
No matter what, the final is going to be worth watching. France vs. Spain or Argentina vs. England — both fixtures carry history, stakes, and enough star power to justify the hype. For once, the chalk delivered something worth getting excited about.
