Good Monday morning, TSFers! The World Cup is four days away. I’m still not really feeling the hype, but maybe it’ll kick in before Thursday. It might take watching a couple matches for those feelings to well up, too. It might also be a skill issue, i.e. the media environment I’ve created for myself might be under-sharing positive sentiments about the tournament.
To follow up on my CF from last week where I pointed out a bunch of unpleasantness with the World Cup, FIFA and my government have made
things slightly better. The outcry about the water bottle stadium ban was so vehement that FIFA reversed their decision with a day or two and will now, once again, allow fans to bring refillable water bottles into stadiums. The U.S. government granted the Iranian team visas to enter the country to play their matches. They are even allowing them to stay overnight before their matches here rather than forcing them to travel the day of the match. How magnanimous!
We’re also getting the handful of World Cup warm-up match injuries that will keep players out of the World Cup. Moroccan players Noussair Mazraoui and Abdessamad Ezzalzouli were both forced off against Norway and may miss time during the tournament. The injuries may have happened regardless, but we’re still playing too much football. This is what happens. Fatigued bodies are more susceptible to injury.
Christian Eriksen collapsed on the pitch again over the weekend during a friendly between Denmark and Ukraine, neither of which are in the World Cup. Fortunately, his implanted defibrillator did it’s job. He briefly lost consciousness but regained it quickly and waved to his teammates as he left the pitch. He spent the night in the hospital and is expected to be discharged today.
Did y’all watch the U.S. lose 2-1 to Germany? I thought the USMNT looked pretty good. Kai Havertz scored the first and assisted the winner. Anything jump out at you from any of the other warm-up matches?
