WWC Report Card: Japan, with Shirasu Naoya

Shirasu Naoya judges Japan’s result almost perfect but their performance unimpressive: sometimes brilliant, often mediocre. He suspects Kozue Ando’s absence influenced them significantly, and argues they reached the final through experience and some luck while still not having found the best way to fight teams with physical strength. Australia’s performance, particularly the first half against the United States, was brilliant, and he contends that without Hope Solo the Americans would have lost. Several big names, he says, including Marta, Lotta Schelin and Christine Sinclair, looked beyond their prime. Carli Lloyd gets top marks and the artificial turf comes bottom of the class. Looking to 2019 he wonders whether young Japanese players Yui Hasegawa and Risa Shimizu can compete with bigger opponents.