We usually get a kick out of Shakira, but not so much this time…

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Mark Sinker: @the_vuvuzela Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
[7]

Brad Shoup: This time for EDM! Shakira meets a bullish track head-on, selling the verses like a cyborg coach, then pulling back for wonderful, meaningless sounds. The steroidal sense of stakes can be fun, too, so why not string those “la”s over some massive chords?
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Anthony Easton: Shakira’s usual excellent professionalism and solid vocal chops make this song less boring than it could be, but not as interesting as the lyrics would suggest. 
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Thomas Inskeep: This sounds more like a proper WC theme than the Pitbull track. On its own merits, this trumps that mediocre Rihanna duet, and returns to my favorite merit of Shakira: she’s a weirdo. I’ve argued for almost a decade now that she’s the South American, poppier counterpart to Björk, and I continue to stand by that assessment. Here, she took a song which is not about soccer (the original goes “Is it true that you love me/I dare you to kiss me,” etc.) and overlaid a slight sports theme atop it, at the same time that Carlinhos Brown was brought in to overlay a vaguely Brazilian musical feel to the track. This song makes absolutely no sense, and is all the better for it. Its kitchen-sinkness works, plus I can frankly listen to Shakira belt for hours, because her voice is one of the seven modern wonders of the world.
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Patrick St. Michel: Works best as a fidgety burst of energy, one where overly aggressive sounds that would be an annoyance in the club turn out to be an advantage when watching a “ten best goals of the tourney” highlight. The lyrics though are really goofy — thankfully this one brings plenty to distract. 
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Mallory O’Donnell: Still not sure why people are fooled by Shakira, but this is a pretty typical example of how relentlessly unoriginal she is. An electro track from five years ago meets a hard-house track from twenty years ago with a steamy helping of Lady Caca shoveled on top. Our star stumbles over her own lines at least four or five times because she’s too busy trying to catch her own reflection in the mirror. Who’s the fakest of them all?
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Alfred Soto: Whenever I wish she got beats commensurate with her voice and lyrics, she gets one. This isn’t it. I mean, in a memorable Shakira song “Then act like you mean it” would be about scoring a goal.
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Scott Mildenhall: That chorus is almost a satire on football songs. It falls in the same bracket as the abstract simplicity of lyrics like “hear the whistle; kick the ball”, as if Shakira were describing football to someone with no conception of organised sport, like Beckham to the Yanomami man in that documentary the other day. The whole awkward repurposing is utterly brazen, but it’s fun, as a song that rhymes “French” with “bench” can only be.
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Will Adams: Hyper-literal lyrics aside, the notable change in this World Cup-ready version is the hook: “Is it true that you want it/Then act like you mean it” is a much more menacing taunt than its counterpart, and combined with the booming drums (providing more oomph than Dr. Luke could ever hope to muster), it makes for a fierce anthem. Just not for soccer.
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