Reflections On #FIFAWWC2019

She Kicks asks eleven international reporters to mark France 2019 before it fades, rating the team they covered and VAR out of ten and naming what impressed and what surprised them. The scores diverge sharply: Jeff Kassouf gives the United States nine, Sylvain Jamet gives France five for the usual mental weakness, and VAR ranges from Emma Coolen’s one to Molly Hudson’s eight, several arguing the real problem was the new laws rather than the technology. Rose Lavelle, Megan Rapinoe and Christiane Endler recur as the players who defined it. The surprises are more interesting than the ratings: the indifference of Nice to its own tournament, the Dutch supporters, and Jacqui Oatley’s verdict that the dinosaurs have finally died off.