Everything about the 2019 World Cup you need to know

After a month of breathtaking soccer, the World Cup concluded with the United States lifting the trophy again. The US Women’s National Team won their second consecutive World Cup, beating the Netherlands 2–0. Goals from Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle were enough to top the reigning European champions in the final.

This World Cup had it all: an incredible 146 goals, a number of flashy celebrations, and more than enough VAR drama. Speaking of numbers, let’s take a look at 12 stats that caught our eye.

The U.S. Women’s National Team won the 2019 World Cup on Sunday, completing a marvelous run in France that gave the USWNT back-to-back World Cup titles. Aside from the thrilling run capped off by a 2-0 victory over the Netherlands, one of the best parts of the victory was the team’s celebration that ensued afterwards.

Specifically, Team USA goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris’ Instagram story of the post-victory shenanigans was nothing short of phenomenal. So good, in fact, we decided to rank the best moments from her story because it was just that amazing.

The USWNT is so great because it’s such a well-balanced team. Everyone has their role. Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan score the goals. Tobin Heath and Rose Lavelle style on and nutmeg people. Sam Mewis and Lindsey Horan play pinpoint passes. Crystal Dunn gives incredible work rate and speed. Julie Ertz, Abby Dahlkemper, Becky Sauerbrunn, and Alyssa Naeher form the solid spine of the team.

And Kelley O’Hara fucks people up.

I’m supposed to cover the United States women’s national soccer team critically, and I try very hard to do that, but I’m also an unabashed fan of the team. I started being a fan when I was a kid because I like soccer, and they play soccer well. Also, they’re women, and even though I’d never heard of trans people before a few years ago, I knew I wanted to be a woman. I could live vicariously though the USWNT players. I thought, I wish I could be like them when I grow up.

Obviously that didn’t happen. But as I’ve followed the team’s development and spoken to some of the players, I’ve come to like the team even more. The biggest reason is the USWNT becoming a bastion of queer hope and excellence along a similar timeline to me coming to terms with being a bi woman, and realizing that was not something to be ashamed of.

A fourth star is going above the crest on the USWNT jerseys. The United States women’s national team defended its title on Sunday, defeating the Netherlands 2-0 in the World Cup final. Megan Rapinoe scored the game’s first goal from the penalty spot, and Rose Lavelle sealed the result with a 69th-minute stunner.

Goalkeeper Sari van Veenendaal was key for the Netherlands throughout their World Cup run, and she had a spectacular first half of the final, coming up with four excellent stops. She denied Julie Ertz on a corner in the 28th minute, then made an outstanding double save 10 minutes later on efforts from Sam Mewis and Alex Morgan.

Following a month of incredible games, the 2019 World Cup draws to a close on July 7, when the United States and Netherlands battle to crown a champion. While we should celebrate the teams who made it this far, it’s also a sobering opportunity to remember the lengths many past players had to go to simply to legally set foot on the field.

As recently as the 1980s, four of the twenty-four countries involved in the 2019 World Cup had imposed outright bans on women’s soccer. In general, many of the countries involved are still trying to recover from the myopia of past regimes and the sexism of current federations in order to field competitive teams on the pitch, which is part of the reason we see nations who embraced women’s soccer early and invest time and effort into fielding world-class teams succeed at this tournament.

L Bar in Lyon calls to its patrons with a pink neon sign, a simple “L” in a circle, casting a glow on the sidewalk and the cramped wooden benches that serve as outdoor seating. Inside, the bar, amusingly enough, forms an actual L shape, a long, narrow corridor that lets out into a right turn and a slightly more open space scattered with stools, booths, and small round tables. Underneath a counter against one wall sit baskets stuffed with fun bargain bin costumes, including a Princess Peach dress and a Stormtrooper bodysuit. A fog machine periodically puffs into the air next to the door leading out to the alleyway you must take to get to the single bathroom; whenever customers open the door, fog swirls under the alley lights, making it look like the beginning of a Prince video.

On Friday night, two nights before the World Cup final, L Bar was packed to the brim. I had met up with friends for dinner and they, in turn, had suggested getting a drink there. They knew two important things: one, L Bar is air conditioned, which can be a hit-or-miss proposition in Lyon. And two, it’s a place where they could relax and be among community. And indeed, from the amount of English and the snatches of soccer conversation going on that night, it seemed as if every queer woman who had traveled for the World Cup had managed to congregate at L Bar.

All World Cup finals are historic; it is in their nature. But this one, at the Parc Olympique in Lyon, has a little extra resonance. It may be England’s fans who sing about football coming home, but France is actually living that dream.

For this is the home of Olympique Lyonnais, and their women’s team is the best in the world. Indeed, they might be the best team in the world at any sport, relatively speaking: holders of thirteen French titles in a row, winners of the last three Champions Leagues, losers of just two league games in nine seasons.

The United States women’s national team defeated England on Tuesday to make its third straight World Cup final, and now we know its opponent. The Americans will face off against the Netherlands as they try to repeat as World Cup champions.

You can watch the USWNT take on the Netherlands on Sunday, July 7. The game kicks off at 11 am ET from Parc Olympique Lyonnais in Lyon, France, and can be seen on FOX and Telemundo in the United States.

Christen Press had never experienced her big moment, that time where she was the decisive player in a big match on her way to a championship. She didn’t play in the last two games of the 2015 World Cup, she lost all three NWSL playoff games she’s participated in, she lost the only Champions League final she’s played in, and she missed the decisive penalty when the United States got knocked out of the 2016 Olympics.

Perhaps those struggles served to set her up for Tuesday night’s triumph. “I think that the most proud moments I’ve had in my career are after failures, when you kind of learn that the sun also rises and the world keeps spinning when you fail and when you succeed,” Press says.

It is a near-universal truth of the English sporting summer: whatever the sport and however England are doing, someone else must be doing things not quite right.

This tends to emerge first in the weirder corners of the press, but it seeps out into the world from there, so that even purportedly sensible people wind up pondering it.

In nearly every mixed zone and press conference and media availability, those in attendance ask USWNT players about Alyssa Naeher. Do you have faith in her? What is the communication like with her? How do you feel having her behind you?

Those questions are likely to decrease significantly after the World Cup semifinal against England, which saw the United States advance to the final after holding through seven agonizing minutes of stoppage to earn a nervy 2–1 victory. Naeher’s teammates showed exactly how they feel about her, running to her en masse immediately after the whistle blew.

Jill Ellis opted not to start Lindsey Horan in the World Cup quarterfinal against France, and pretty much everyone who follows the United States Women’s National Team got mad online about it. It was a shocking decision — Horan had been one of the tournament’s best players up until that point, and she’s the reigning NWSL MVP.

As you probably know by now, the USWNT won anyway. Megan Rapinoe and the USWNT defense were superb, so the fact the side struggled to control the midfield against France, something Horan could have helped remedy, was lost in post-match discussion. Ellis got away with that questionable decision — as she has with many others — because her margin for error is so high. Hers is the most talented squad in the world, and Ellis’ backups would be decent starters for any other team.

The hand wringing begins two-thirds of the way through the group stage of the Women’s World Cup. The writing on the wall appears as several teams secure a Round of 16 spot after just two of the three games, while others strive for just one goal, just one point to take home. It intensifies through the next round, as teams start to face one-off, do-or-die games. As the competitors dwindle and we wade deeper into the tournament, a different thought begins to consume many fans — will this be enough?

Every four years, teams get a chance at global exposure. International media outlets are present, games are actually being broadcast regularly on TV with professional production values, and fans are, in fact, watching. And every four years, those who get excited over women’s soccer during the other three years fret over the future — will this performance be enough for struggling teams to continue receiving support from their federations? Will failure be the confirmation a federation needs to reduce or stop funding the sport altogether? When the world is no longer looking, what will happen to smaller nations? For bigger teams, the ones in serious contention for the title, will anything less than the trophy result in scoffing I-knew-its; will disappointment lead to reduced leverage at the bargaining table of equality?

am laboriously typing this out on my phone on a train to Lyon. Catastrophe struck this morning — I opened up my laptop, only to find a dark screen. No amount of fiddling with the power button helped. Theories ranged from a random update borking the OS to the difference in voltage in French outlets frying the battery, adapter notwithstanding. Google and several plaintive cries for help into various work slacks yielded no solutions. Instead of a functioning laptop containing my entire work life, I held in my hands a very expensive mirror. I began to think of all the computer-related vocabulary I would need to successfully navigate a computer repair shop in Lyon.

My editor, Kirsten, who is often much smarter and calmer than me, suggested I ask for a loaner if any of my friends were flying out for the semifinal. I also realized that I knew at least half a dozen people who had traveled who could reach out through their networks to dozens more. One group DM to a bunch of Portlanders later, and someone had offered their Chromebook to me for game days. Based on the timestamp, it took six minutes from me asking to someone offering.

Megan Rapinoe was the standout star of the United States’ 2–1 win over France in the World Cup quarterfinals Friday night, scoring both of her team’s goals, but the American back line’s performance as a unit was just as important to its quarterfinal victory.

“Ridiculous” is how Rapinoe described her defense in a post-match interview. She continues, “Honestly I don’t think they’ve ever played that well together as a group. They stepped their game up huge. We talked about that before the tournament, we’re going to need everyone to have those moments where they play better than they ever have, and tonight was that moment for them, they were absolutely massive.”

I didn’t know how badly I wanted the United States to win the World Cup until it looked like they might actually lose. Then I changed my tune lickety-split; that blasé attitude became a cascade of sports anxiety, first against Spain, and then even more so against France because I had just witnessed how the United States performed against Spain. I figured the game would be a competition to see which team was the least bad, instead of which was the most good, and it kind of did turn out like that.

For the duration of the United States’ quarterfinal against France, I had to find ways to cope with all the emotions I was keeping bottled up inside my little body, as I was tucked away high in the press box in the very topmost row of the Parc des Princes. Media aren’t allowed to react whether it’s to cheer or to groan, so here are 10 ways my anxiety coping mechanisms manifested instead, ranked in order from least to most effective.

The United States women’s national team is advancing to the semifinals of the World Cup. There’s two elements to this: one, a tenacious defense that looked like they had decided on “death before dishonor” as their ethos for this game, and gay heartthrob Megan Rapinoe.

Rapinoe dropped two goals on France over the course of a tense game played out in the sticky heat currently swamping Paris. The first was an early wonder, the ball somehow scooting through a sea of legs and into the goal.

England had a two-goal lead on Norway at halftime of its World Cup quarterfinal, but the Three Lionesses’ defense looked under threat on the counter-attack throughout much of the game. In this situation, a lot of managers would start thinking about how to improve their team’s defensive shape, or get more possession to kill off the match. England boss Phil Neville opted to do the opposite.

In the 57th minute, Neville removed Toni Duggan, an experienced player who’s excellent at helping her team keep the ball in the final third. She is ostensibly the exact type of player that most coaches would want in the game with a 2-0 lead. Her replacement was Beth Mead, a young, direct attacking threat who almost always picks the ambitious option in front of the safe one.

There are eight teams left in the World Cup. This shouldn’t be news, unless you haven’t been paying attention, in which case WAKE UP, THERE’S A WORLD CUP ON, AND IT’S GOOD.

Here is the order we would like them to win the tournament. These rankings are subjective, which means two things. One, they cannot be wrong. Two, they are obviously wrong.

I would not be a good head coach of a soccer team. I only have a USSF E license and requested a demotion from a management position to a writer position because I have poor leadership skills. But if I did end up getting thrown into an Eddie situation, I’d like it to happen with the United States Women’s National Soccer Team.

If I spent training sitting in an Adirondack chair, sipping iced tea while occasionally yelling “KEEP IT UP GIRLS,” I would still be able to guide the team to the knockout stage of the World Cup. Hell, we might even win it. That’s how good the USWNT is. They’re just way more talented than everyone else.

France is charming. It’s hard to deny, with Paris sitting all gorgeous in the midst of abundant green countryside and the welcoming surrounding cities connected by a rail system that I literally have not shut up about since I took my first train to Reims and it went so fast.

But like any country — and I’m highly aware that no stones should be thrown from the glass house that is the United States — France has its problems. I explored some of them when speaking with Veronica Noseda of Les Dégommeuses about the gendered imbalance of power and resources in French soccer. Noseda touched on how the French concept of nationality contributes to the erasure of diversity by refusing to acknowledge it — for example, if I lived here, I wouldn’t be “Franco-Korean.” I would just be “French.” These are symptoms of a broader systemic racism in a country with a huge immigrant population, many of whom originate from former French colonies and other areas in Africa and Asia where France exerted its influence.

The United States scraped by Spain in the round of 16 at the World Cup, holding out against some rough fouls, lengthy waits on VAR calls, and their own inability to finish. A 2-1 win, with both goals coming from penalties, isn’t exactly a vote of confidence ahead of a quarterfinal matchup against France, but that’s just been the trend for the big powers in this tournament as they one by one showed their weaknesses. France was exposed earlier by games against Norway and Nigeria, but the United States eventually got their turn as they got picked apart here and there by Spain.

But both tournament favorites are through, and are now meeting up early, due to meet each other on June 28 in Paris. No one, from Megan Rapinoe to Alex Morgan to Jill Ellis, flinched away from the possibility when asked about meeting the host nation this early in the tournament.

Cameroon came into its women’s World Cup Round of 16 match against England as serious underdogs. The Indomitable Lionesses knew they’d need to play their absolute best, and have a couple of lucky breaks go their way, to advance in the tournament. Instead, several big refereeing decisions went against them — a questionable backpass and two VAR reviews.

The Cameroonians felt hard done by the referees, visibly showed their frustration, and appeared to lose their composure completely by the end of the match, when they put in a series of overzealous and dangerous tackles.

About a 40-minute drive from the site of the United States’ 2-0 triumph over Sweden in Le Havre lies Deauville, a charming little hamlet with a couple of resort-style hotels and a large but old athletic facility. The US media were housed there for the last game of Group F, in a hotel where breakfast was served inside a modest glass Louvre-style pyramid. En route to this hotel after the game, the USSF media bus wound through narrow country lanes in near-total darkness, broken only by the headlights the driver would flick from regular to hi-beam for long stretches. These were roads with no streetlights, lined by fields and forests, interrupted here and there by modest, rustic houses.

Of course, I’m working this World Cup, but vacation brain periodically takes over nevertheless. How can it not, when I’m living here for over a month? The World Cup article churn is intense, but I’m also in France, often traveling through some of the most beautiful countryside in the world as the US press corps follows the USWNT around like a pack of U-5 soccer players chasing the ball en masse. Rolling green fields alternate with copses of trees and verdant pastures, the hillsides studded with clusters of country homes and small barns and paddocks. The clouds here have a particular quality in summer, always seeming to bunch into enormous white puffs against a pure and luminous blue. This is the trap that city dwellers all-too-often fall into when they get away from the traffic and the gentrification and the overbearing corporate office buildings: I could live like this.