“It’s an advantage to have experienced players who have been into the late stages in the past because the deeper you get in the tournament, the more wild it gets, honestly,” she said.

The game against France last Friday felt about as wild as things can get. The matchup was endlessly hyped, ceaselessly analyzed and enthusiastically awaited. Outside analysts predicted the winner would go on to lift the trophy.

And yet somehow, the game still lived up to its billing, with the Americans emerging victorious, 2-1, inside an emotionally supercharged Parc des Princes in Paris.

“That was an extraordinary game,” Coach Jill Ellis said this week. “I don’t think I’ve ever been in a stadium quite like it.”

Goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, who has been a member of the senior national team since 2014 but has not started in a major championship until this tournament, marveled at the atmosphere, too (even as she noted that her nephew somehow fell asleep inside the stadium in the 86th minute).

“It was the loudest stadium I’ve played in for sure,” Naeher said.

Forward Alex Morgan said in the moments after the closing whistle that the matchup had been a final masquerading as a quarterfinal.

But the Americans know the final, the real final, is still a game away, and that a formidable England team stands in their way.