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| ▲ | antonyt 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Not OP, but I would guess: "hydration breaks" to inject commercials, half-time shows that felt alien to much of the core audience, and various rule-bending shenanigans (Ronaldo, Balogun). | | |
| ▲ | dmarcos an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | Hydration breaks a tad weird. Half time shows were pretty subtle, didn’t change the length of the break except for the final. There’s no soccer competition without someone complaining about refereeing. Def always things to improve but I had fun, all people around me seemed to have fun. I flew in an out and always was either public transportation or uefa provided shuttles… It was really well run. Not something you can call a “shit show” | | |
| ▲ | Jtarii an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | Balogun and Ronaldo red card overturns had nothing to do with "refereeing". It was clear corruption and favouritism. Also the treatment of the Iranian team was comically awful. | | |
| ▲ | nkg 23 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Oh boy, how could I forget about the Iranian team, and the other players/referees/staff that were rejected or stuck at the airport for hours ? It was worse than a sh-t show actually. |
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| ▲ | watwut 17 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > There’s no soccer competition without someone complaining about refereeing. Yeah, but most of them go without president calling Infantino to change the referee verdict. All the while the president says "I dont even know the game". > It was really well run. Not something you can call a “shit show” I can. Oh and not allowing referee in due to his race and mistreating teams due to politics. | |
| ▲ | drcongo an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | > There’s no soccer competition Ahhhh, you're American! | | |
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| ▲ | another-dave an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | The fact that you had 'hydration breaks' in enclosed, fully air-conditioned stadiums is very telling. | | |
| ▲ | tzs 5 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | An argument I've heard is that since hydration breaks can affect the game, if you are going to have them they should be mandatory and at the same time in all games in a tournament rather than doing them like they did when they were originally introduced in 2014. Then they were only done in games when the conditions on the field got dangerous. | |
| ▲ | nxm 37 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Not all stadiums were enclosed | |
| ▲ | fragmede 27 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | Telling of what? I imagine if you're running around like eg Ronaldo would be during a game, it doesn't matter how air conditioned the space is, he'd still need to hydrate, on account of all the running that happens. I'm no football expert, but I'm lead to believe that does happen during matches. |
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| ▲ | cryptoegorophy an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Also a funny trump red card | |
| ▲ | vehemenz 27 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | I think your attitude, which is all too common, is that we should do things according to the "footballing nations" without any other consideration for the rest of the world. North America is part of the world. The US itself is far and away the world's biggest sporting nation, and many there see football's informality and cynicism as antiquated and, honestly, embarrassing. The world outside of the US wants to protect "their" game, though it's not theirs to begin with, ignoring the existing, systematic issues with it, even making contrived arguments about the word "soccer" itself. FIFA's shenanigans off-the-field were a problem, but they're not unique to the World Cup nor its location. I'd argue the last Copa America and Cup of Nations had worse issues with officiating/corruption. | | |
| ▲ | snakey 19 minutes ago | parent [-] | | This is the most american centric take I’ve seen all week! Bravo! There are many other nations with just as much influence in sports outside of the US. The only difference being that the US doesn’t care about them. Football is a global game, everyone’s, not another thing for the US to dictate and ruin. |
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| ▲ | nkg 26 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | First, it was a new formula of the tournament with more teams which explains the headlines about a someone setting a new record every 2 days. Second, the hydration (ads!) breaks were clearly used to tweak some tactics, player positionning, etc, making it another half-time. It's a strategic opportunity. Why not introduce a 2 min drill, then ? - yuck- That's not football. Third, I won't talk about that specific red card or that penalty kick, but the fact that players and staff complained so much about the refereeing issues hurts the trust we can have into the game as a whole. And that 27 min half-time... Seriously ?! | | |
| ▲ | dmarcos 12 minutes ago | parent [-] | | The 27 min half time was only in the final. Every world cup introduces changes that will stick or not (e.g golden goal rule). Hydration breaks probably won’t stay. I’ve followed the sport all my life and referee complains I would say less than usual. I like having more teams. Might even extend to 64 next time. These are difference of opinion. Nothing singles out this world cup as a “shit show” as the OP. It was a great experience to me and pretty much anyone I encountered in the stadiums. | | |
| ▲ | xxs 5 minutes ago | parent [-] | | >Hydration breaks probably won’t stay. It was already introduced in the local women league... |
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| ▲ | curun1r an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | The Iranian team’s treatment is a prime example. The Somalian ref being denied entrance is another. And the Balogun red card is a double example (it shouldn’t have been a red card in the first place, but the precedent that the President of the host country can get a call overturned is even worse). | | |
| ▲ | scrumper 41 minutes ago | parent [-] | | I am the last person to defend FIFA - I love the UEFA's stance here - but only Balogun's suspension can be pinned on FIFA. Those other things are down to USA politics. Bad, for sure, not really down to FIFA. Other than those awful hydration breaks, they didn't ruin it much. I didn't love the extended half time in the final, but I was only hate watching Argentina anyway so didn't care much. Better to have the standard interval but not egregious to extend in the final. Overall it was a good tournament, a proper "feast of football" as we used to say. Some fine-tuning to do with the VAR but even then there weren't as many egregiously unfair calls as in years past. (Croatia's disallowed goal being a memorable example because it was so rare.) Many, many good games and some memorable moments - Cape Verde! | | |
| ▲ | xxs 12 minutes ago | parent [-] | | > proper "feast of football" as we used to say. besides a significantly more common 4-3-3, I can't think of anything I particularly found entertaining - the waterworks, the extra VARs, the super special offside line. That's no feast. (and I can continue) |
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| ▲ | triceratops 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | The ticket prices and scalping (sorry, authorized re-selling to find the market clearing price) were robbery. | |
| ▲ | orangedog 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Sports people (I was listening to Bill Simmons) rated it pretty highly. There was nothing egregious and it was widely attended. | | |
| ▲ | t0mpr1c3 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | The way that the Iran team was only allowed into the USA on match days was a disgrace. Refusing entry to a Somali referee on the spurious grounds of links to terrorism was a disgrace. The overturning of Falorin Balogun's ban was a disgrace. The ticket prices were a disgrace. The transport to the stadiums was a shambles. I could go on. | | |
| ▲ | rsynnott an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | > The transport to the stadiums was a shambles. This bit was kind of baffling to me. Like, the US has a bunch of large stadiums. Presumably they sometimes get used for stuff. How is it not a constant disaster? There’s a medium sized (50k capacity) stadium near me, and even _with_ a train station with a train each way every ten minutes right beside it, and within easy walking distance of about five high capacity bus routes, it’s always a bit of a shitshow when a big event finishes. I’ve no idea how it could work _at all_ if you’re just depending on buses and cars, which a bunch of the US stadiums seemed to be. | | |
| ▲ | danielvf an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | For local NFL games in a bigger stadium that, most people attending do drive, but do not park at the stadium, rather nearby, then walk the rest of the way. This spreads out the traffic over a much larger set of roads. | |
| ▲ | MandieD an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | Acres upon acres of parking lots. |
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| ▲ | chase_flick 38 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | I attended games in Dallas and was shocked at how well the city / FIFA handled transportation. Especially for a city that usually has none. | | |
| ▲ | dmarcos 8 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Yes. I was there at the france-spain match. Flew in in the morning was directed to the shuttles by super nice volunteers. Reasonable lines that were mostly in the shade and they were handling free water bottles. |
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| ▲ | charlieyu1 an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | The World Cup final is supposed to be a war and the half time show turned it into a clown fest. | | |
| ▲ | triceratops an hour ago | parent [-] | | I can't agree with that. Host countries share their culture through the World Cup. South Africa had vuvuzelas, Qatar put a bisht on the winning captain's shoulders, and the USA had a half-time show. Now if only it had been a good half-time show... |
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| ▲ | NoboruWataya an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | The football itself wasn't bad, it was all the other stuff - prices, unfair treatment for Iran, hydration breaks, the whole Balogun thing, the pre-game and half-time shows at the final, Trump photo-bombing the Spanish celebration, etc. Every WC has its own problems and some of these things will be forgotten about soon, but it definitely seemed more ruthlessly commercialised than ever before. | |
| ▲ | ktallett 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | The fact a ban was overturned as a political favour. | |
| ▲ | t0mpr1c3 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Maybe the way that Infantino nakedly advanced political favors for Trump (the f×××ing peace prize, Folarin f×××ing Balogun) and now wants a fat slice of payback? |
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