Better From America

he least-eagerly awaited World Cup ever – for me anyway – is finally underway and, to be completely fair to all concerned, so far, so good.

Despite FIFA’s repeated attempts to derail their own tournament before it started, things seem to be going well – on the pitch especially – after the opening few days, although it does already feel as if weeks have passed, and England haven’t even played yet.

But the games that have taken place have given us plenty of entertainment, and goals too.

There have already been some standouts, not least with the three host nations looking good, and some early shocks too, including a seismic one. That 32 teams progress from the groups does remove some of the jeopardy, but for now, you’d never know.

Morocco, surprise semi-finalists in 2022, have shown intent again; their quick passing and inventiveness was just like watching Brazil against er, Brazil.

Sweden also served notice of being a dark horse, despite not winning a qualifying game until the play-offs, by which time Graham Potter had taken over and began a rebuild of his career and his adopted country’s national team. They will be a threat given they arguably have some of the best attacking options available to anyone. Maybe Chelsea and West Ham were too quick to press the panic button. Although not as quickly as Tunisia.

And we don’t need goals to be entertained. Cape Verde and their forty-year-old goalie held joint-favourites, Spain, to a goalless draw. The Dominator-meter (a new thing, more on those later) was almost blowing a gasket. Yes, Spain always have a least one major faux par in a World Cup - even when they won it in 2010, they lost to Switzerland – but that is going some even by their standards. For context, Cape Verde has a population of around 500,000 (with one goalkeeper apparently; one who now has 5m social media followers) which makes it a little bigger than Iceland. Germany put seven past another debutant, Curacao, but they really are tiny, compared to Cape Verde. So much for the fear of too many mismatches.

Scotland won a game at the finals for the first time this century, and avoided the kind of slip-up they are renowned for. This had every chance of being another Iran or Costa Rica, but with their fans virtually taking over Boston, and with the aforementioned Brazil and Brazil still to play, they couldn’t afford to have one this time and, despite not exactly dazzling, they got the job done this time.

Talking of unique occurrences, this World Cup has thrown up a few things that fans – armchair and in the stadium – haven’t seen before. Here’s the low-down.

Hydration Breaks

The biggest worry about a World Cup in the United States was that they’d try to make it into a game of four quarters rather than two halves. Thank goodness we’ve avoid that. Instead, the hydration breaks – halfway through each half – are designed for players to take on water in the extreme conditions. Except there haven’t been many games played in extreme conditions, with most games taking place in a climate akin to a warm August night in Wigan.

The breaks – in all games regardless of the weather (see what they did there?) – offer the coaches a chance to get tactical points and even changes across. Some teams who were losing have been galvanised by the breaks and equalised shortly after one, while some teams have seen the momentum leave them after the imposed stoppage. USMNT Manager, Mauricio Pochettino doesn’t like them, while USWNT boss, Emma Hayes, has even rechristened them ‘Momentum Breaks’ so it seems that not everyone is on brand. I don’t know if, while the BBC (obviously) and ITV stay with the on-field footage, the US TV viewers are watching an advert instead. But I know one thing: thin end of the wedge.

Snicko

Cricket is the birthplace of Snicko (Snickometer to give it it’s full name). And as the USA hosted the ICC World Cup two years ago, we might have guessed that it would find its way into the football one. Except – apparently – it already was in it and has been used in previous tournaments. The technology – a chip in the Adidas Trionda  – can detect when the ball is touched, and was used to prove a Swedish goal was not offside. It was first used in Qatar in 2022 to prove a Cristiano Ronaldo ‘goal’ was scored by someone else instead. Which begs the question ‘how on earth is it still around after that?’

Snicko has actually been replaced (by UltraEdge) in English cricket but it still used in Australia and New Zealand, and caused major friction in the winter’s Ashes series because of human error by the operators (although it was working perfectly when it detected the admittedly louder sound of Snicko being thrown under the bus by the Australian Cricket Board).

Lightning Stoppages

This hasn’t happened yet in the World Cup, but it will at some point. The United States uses recommendations from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – and who wouldn’t? – when it comes to thunderstorms in the vicinity of sporting events. If a lightning strike is detected within eight miles of the stadium, the game is stopped and cannot restart until 30 minutes after the last strike, as happened in England’s friendly in Orlando.

This rule – used in the NFL and MLS – became more widely known to UK fans when Chelsea’s game against Benfica in the World Club Cup was stopped on 86 minutes and didn’t restart for two hours. ‘When thunder roars, go indoors’ is the mantra they use in North American stadiums, and is similar in sentiment to another; ‘if Infantino is heading your way, don’t stay.’

Referee Cam

This one is, for me,  a bit like BGT. I think it’s a bit crap but can’t help but watch if it’s on the screen. Like something lifted directly out of a computer game, it shows us what the referee sees (or rather what the GoPro camera attached to them sees). It’s got a weird hazy hue to it, the pitch and goals look distorted but there’s still something strangely captivating about the images too, although I’m not sure what, or why. Ally McCoist summed it up best when he said he could live without it, and I’m in the same camp. Again, exactly like BGT.

VAR Room

Before a game, the teams are shown. Then they show the referee, and the assistant referees and then then fourth and fifth(?) officials before finally showing us the VARs (video assistant referees) in their hut. Well, until the Australian VAR either used his five seconds of fame to either do something that either was completely harmless or an involuntary, subconscious twitch or even a sign of white supremacy.

FIFA were asked about it but took longer to respond than they did with the images proving the Swiss player was onside against Qatar. They were happy with the explanation from the official but, from now on, the VAR team will still be shown but they’ll be facing the monitor like naughty school kids.

I actually felt a bit sorry for FIFA by then. Damned if they do, and if they don’t.

And they do have their fair share of bad luck too.

I mean, for an IT glitch to happen at the exact millisecond that the Swiss forward took a step out of an offside position was bad enough, but to have thousands of people buy match tickets and then not show up is completely unacceptable.

Especially when you consider how much they paid for them.

Maybe they just couldn’t afford the train fare on top.

Come on, England!