Tag: World Cup

IRVINE, Calif. — If you’re new to soccer, this is the sort of thing you should know about as you learn the sport. And even if you’re a veteran of the game, you might not have realized it had happened.

For many years, FIFA’s first standings tiebreaker at World Cups was soccer’s tradition of goal difference: goals scored minus goals conceded. But this time, it has switched to head-to-head result, the format used by the Union of European Football Associations in the Champions League and other continental tournaments.

It didn’t exactly go unnoticed when it was announced, but it wasn’t seen as a big deal. Now, though, it has become a growing controversy.

The issue isn’t so much about determining group winners, though the U.S. has benefited on that front. If goal difference was the first tiebreaker, the Americans wouldn’t have clinched first place yet.

They have because Paraguay beat Turkey a few hours after the U.S. beat Australia. That left the U.S. with six points, Paraguay and Australia with three each, and Turkey with none.

Since the U.S. has beaten Paraguay and Australia, it has the tiebreaker over both. So if Turkey beats the U.S Thursday night (10 p.m., Fox29, Telemundo 62) and there’s a winner in Paraguay-Australia (10 p.m., FS1, Universo), the U.S. will keep first with a tie on six points. With a goal difference tiebreaker, even though the Americans are sitting at a strong plus-5, a big loss plus a big win in the other game could have changed things.

The bigger issue tournament-wide is how head-to-head has eliminated teams after two games — and it’s magnified further by the best eight third-place teams qualifying.

If goal difference was the first tiebreaker, a last-place team could jump to third in the last minute and have a prayer of making the cut. Instead, five of the tournament’s 48 squads were eliminated before playing their finales: Turkey, Haiti, Jordan, Panama, and Tunisia. (Haiti’s elimination came in Philadelphia with the loss to Brazil.)

There has been some outrage among purists about this in Europe, even though they’re more used to the format than they might admit because of the Champions League. But even the talking heads who understand the head-to-head way’s benefits have agreed with something that Americans ought to be able to see, too.

It’s more fun when more teams are alive going into the last round of games. If goal difference was the first decider, there could be a dose of chaos along with the stars, underdogs, and however many goals are scored.

Fortunately, Philadelphia’s last two group games will have drama. On Thursday, Curaçao, one of this tournament’s greatest underdog stories, could snatch one of the top eight third-place finishes if it upsets Ivory Coast (4 p.m., FS1, Universo) and Germany beats Ecuador in the Meadowlands (4 p.m., Fox29, Telemundo 62). On the flip side, if Ecuador wins that game, Ivory Coast will have to win or tie to keep hold of second.

Then on Saturday, Ghana and Croatia will have lots to play for (5 p.m., FS1, Universo). Ghana could steal first place if Panama upsets England in the Meadowlands (5 p.m., Fox29, Telemundo 62), while Croatia needs a win to finish second and avoid playing a group winner in the round of 32.

Wondering what the players think? Alas, you won’t get much out of the U.S. camp. All they care about is winning games. But at least veteran centerback Chris Richards brought some humor.

“On our end, we just want go into the next round with nine points,” he said. “I haven’t really thought too much about the rule change — I feel like the rules are always changing, so I’m kind of confused myself. But as long as we keep winning, that’s the number one thing.”

Pulisic ‘feeling good,’ hopes to play

Christian Pulisic got right to the point when he arrived to meet the media before Wednesday’s practice.

“Can I guess the first question?” he said, knowing full well what it would be. Of course everyone wanted to know how he and his rehabbed calf were feeling.

“I’m feeling good,” he said as he headed into a third straight day of full participation. “I’ve obviously joined with the team in the last few days. So I’m feeling good, positive going into [the game], and hopefully I’ll be able to play a part in it tomorrow.”

The Hershey native reconfirmed that he was kicked in his left calf in practice a few days before the U.S.-Paraguay game (he politely declined to say who did it), then again in the first half of the contest.

“Throughout the first half I felt good, and then I started to notice it a little bit, and I think adrenaline definitely carried me through,” he said. “I think I had a pretty strong contusion, strain, whatever you want to call it.”

It might have hurt more emotionally than physically that he couldn’t play against Australia. He certainly took in as much of that day as he could as a spectator.

“I never really feared the worst, but I obviously didn’t want it to keep me out any longer than it had to,” Pulisic said. “And I was really trying to get ready for the last game — I feel like I could have gone, but it just wasn’t quite there.”

Players with yellow cards won’t play vs. Turkey

In his news conference Wednesday afternoon, U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino confirmed that the four players with yellow cards — Tyler Adams, Folarin Balogun, Richards, and Antonee Robinson — won’t play vs. Turkey so that they don’t pick up another and get suspended for the round of 32.

“I think it isn’t necessary to take a risk and then to take another yellow card, and be not available for the next stage,” Pochettino said. “And I think that is a little bit a normal and easy answer: not to play with them from the beginning.”

He said of Pulisic’s status: “He’s available, and then we need to decide if it’s possible for him to play from the beginning or be on the bench and play in the second half.”

Cristian Roldan is also dealing with a minor quad injury, and has not practiced for the last few days.

“We need to assess tomorrow if he can be available,” Pochettino said. “I think he’s evolving really well. If it’s not for tomorrow, hopefully for next week.”

Everyone knew that there was a risk of thunderstorms in Philadelphia on Monday, and Mother Nature delivered on cue.

But while the players could go to the locker rooms and the fans could go to the concourses, broadcasters calling the action couldn’t just go off air. Even worse, the TV and radio areas are in the upper-deck stands, part of extra media seating FIFA always builds at World Cups. So there was no cover overhead when it was only raining.

While FIFA put plastic covers on the tables, that wasn’t enough to protect all the expensive equipment and the people using it. So the team at France Info, one of the many French radio stations broadcasting the game, had to get creative.

Virginie Lorda, the crew’s technician, found a hardware store a few blocks from their hotel in Center City, and bought a tarpaulin and some ropes to tie it onto the table. Then when the rain started falling, the tarp came out.

Broadcaster Julien Froment documented it all on his social media feeds, adding to the spectacle of a night with a two-hour delay in the game. The next morning, he talked with The Inquirer about it as the crew headed back to France’s base camp in Boston.

“I have to give the credit to Virginie,” Froment said. “She had the idea to set this up, a little bit at the last minute, to protect us. … It was a mix of French and American expertise.”

Summers can get very hot in France — the country recorded its hottest day ever on Tuesday, and highs are expected to top 100 degrees multiple times this week. But the sky doesn’t explode like it does here, even if that feels normal to Americans.

“You all are used to this,” Froment said. “For us Europeans, to have to deal with a thunderstorm, it’s a bit new. This one was a grand premiere.”

It’s worth noting that when Philadelphia hosted the Club World Cup last year, the city got pretty lucky. There were big storms on nongame days, and multiple games in other cities got hit. But no action here got delayed or postponed.

So maybe we were due, and unfortunately it happened during an especially star-studded game. France’s Kylian Mbappé scored two of Les Bleus’ goals in the 3-0 win, including a viral sensation of a hit for the opener, and reigning world player of the year Ousmane Dembélé capped things off with his first World Cup tally.

To the city’s credit, the stands were almost totally full when the game resumed. No one went home even with the long delay, wanting to make the most of a rare chance to see these players in person.

Though it’s unusual for American stadiums to have media seating in the middle of the stands, it’s the norm in Europe and elsewhere. There aren’t broadcast booths the way there are at American football, baseball, and soccer stadiums.

The locations of the “media tribune,” to use the world’s game’s phrase, can vary. At Chelsea’s famed Stamford Bridge in London, you can almost touch the team benches. At Lyon’s modern Groupama Stadium in France, which hosted the 2019 women’s World Cup final, you’re up in the heavens.

But no matter the distance from the field, there’s almost always a roof over the stands in some form.

“We’re in the open air to capture the atmosphere — it’s the tradition,” Froment said. “We’re used to being outside. But the big difference between European and American stadiums is we aren’t protected here. There’s no roof, there’s nothing to protect us from the elements.”

That is especially the case at the stadiums Froment’s crew has been to so far in New England and the Meadowlands. France isn’t playing at the indoor venues in Atlanta, Houston, or Dallas; or in Seattle or Los Angeles, where the stadiums are open-air but the stands are covered.

But Froment has enjoyed the experience overall, marveling at America’s modern stadiums that are palatial compared to European soccer cathedrals with decades of history but fewer amenities.

“Here, you get the feeling that everything is almost at extremes,” he said. “The stadiums are huge, built specifically for the fans. I’m kind of shocked by how many snack bars and concession stands there are. … It really represents a different kind of consumerism — a different sports culture — compared to what we’re used to in Europe.”

They’re also a lot bigger than most stadiums in France. The biggest, the Stade de France in suburban Paris, seats 80,000; the second, Marseille’s Vélodrome, seats just over 67,000; and the venues in Lyon and Lille are the only others nationwide over 50,000.

Asked his opinion of Lincoln Financial Field, Froment called it “the best stadium I’ve been to at this World Cup,” helped by location, architecture, and the vibe of the broader Sports Complex.

“It’s a little different,” he said. “At MetLife Stadium [in North Jersey], it doesn’t have personality. It feels like it could be any stadium in the world. In Philadelphia, you feel like there’s a story there.”

(We couldn’t help responding that he’s far from alone in those opinions.)

He had some time to explore as well. There were a few trips to Reading Terminal Market, and walks to the Liberty Bell and the Rocky Steps — documenting France fans’ night-before pep rally at the latter.

It’s playing the hits, sure. But it’s also a reminder of how warm a welcome Philadelphia has put on for its international guests this summer, and that Center City being easy to walk around is another of its great assets.

There might be a second chance to welcome France, too, if Les Bleus win their group and the round of 32 game afterward.

“I find the city really nice,” Froment said. “It’s less oppressive than New York. You can breathe more easily.”

Mustafa Al-Hasani had flown in from Iowa.

Despite the distance and the costs of his airfare, his weekend stay at a Center City hotel, and his lower-level ticket to the match, there was no way he was going to miss the opportunity to see Iraq, win or lose, take on France in the World Cup on Monday.

So when he got to his seat inside Philadelphia Stadium (Lincoln Financial Field, as it’s known to Philadelphians), after months of planning and waiting, after repeated screen refreshes to remain in a queue to buy a ticket during one of FIFA’s early presales, it still almost felt like serendipity.

And then the rains came.

The torrential downpour that cascaded on and off over the region halted the game for 2 hours, 10 minutes. It also sent poncho-clad fans scattering into the concourses in search of shelter.

And in the aftermath, as it would appear, anything else they could get their hands on.

By the time play resumed a little after 8 p.m., concession stands on the main concourse of the stadium had little to nothing left by way of food and drink.

The popcorn and hot dog concession between Sections 104 and 105? Barren. The Philly Pretzel concession selling twists and nuggets a few sections down? A stadium worker said they sold out in about 30 minutes.

“People just kept coming,” said one worker, who chose to stay anonymous because they weren’t supposed to speak publicly on what their tired eyes just witnessed. “We had this pretty stocked, and that rain delay just cleared everyone out. It’s much the same at every concession stand, if you want to look.”

It’s what Al-Hasani realized as he waited for only a water. Fortunately, the Philly Favorites concession between 104 and 106 was able to oblige.

“I get it,” Al-Hasani said. “There was nothing else to do. You know you’re down here, it’s hot, it’s tight [with people], you can’t go back to your seat because of the rain, so after the singing and the waiting and the singing, people got to do something, so you eat.”

Judging by the small FIFA team store just outside the southwest corner of the stadium, in addition to eating, fans at loose ends shop. By the look of the lines during the rain and the sight of the store after, fans made it a ravenous way to pass the time.

The store, which has capacity of about 15 customers, was giving people just five minutes in-store so they could offer other people an opportunity, according to a worker. By the time the game finished, shelves were empty, odd-sized jerseys remained on display, and the high-priced World Cup collectibles in the glass behind the counter seemed the only thing in abundance for purchase.

“One guy came in, dropped $800 on one sale,” a worker recalled. “It was crazy. We see this kind [of frenzy] for like concert T-shirts here, like I remember people went wild for Taylor Swift stuff when she was here, but this was intense. It felt like people were buying whatever they could get their hands on.”

A request for comment from FIFA regarding the rain and fans went unreturned. Despite many of the concession workers being the same folks you’d see on an Eagles game day — or apparently, a Taylor Swift concert — through its arrangement, FIFA has both naming rights and management of all 16 match venues across the United States, Mexico, and Canada.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Philadelphia was the only city that experienced a rain delay of this magnitude in the World Cup. In the end, it was France that scored twice more after halftime en route to the 3-0 win, advancing to the knockout stage.

“This was incredible, the whole experience is a memory,” Al-Hasani said. “The rain, the people, the game, all of it. You have to take it all in. Everyone was so nice, [at concessions] you got what you needed if they had it, and I think we were just all trying to get through it together. Philly’s great, I’ve been here before, but this is an experience I don’t think I’ll ever forget.”