Yeah, I really wasn't expecting less though. Mexico looks good, but that's kind of a tough group. I didn't expect an upset in Group A to come from South Africa. But South Korea is capable of beating them outright. And like they showed, Czechia is capable of hanging around and getting a sneaky win.
Is this really a production choice driven by American design? That's a genuine question; how has it been different historically? How/why have those who run the game been influenced by America? I plan on watching a match or two, so I'm curious what the differences would be less American influence.
Water breaks kill the momemtum of the game and only exist to add 3 minutes of commercials every 20 minutes.
I don't understand how you feel that's uniquely American, though. You mentioned baseball; they've actually taken measures (like a pitch clock) to speed the game up so it's not so traditionally sluggish. Sports nowadays are fluid, and a lot of them are trying different things to improve the flow of the game, respect viewership, and protect the athletes; none of that necessarily sounds "American." What has America done specifically that you feel FIFA has purposefully adopted to the detriment of their sport?
It's easy to identify it as uniquely American because the world cup is being primarily hosted in America and coincidentally for the first time in 96 years hydration breaks are suddenly mandatory. To say it's entirely up to FIFA is a bit disingenuous and wilfully ignores every other world cup where no such thing was implemented.
Ah, I didn’t know any of that. Didn’t know a host country had that much say over the governing body of FIFA, least of all the execution of the World Cup. My apologies from America; I’d say we’ll do better next time, but given we’re at the center of World War III, “next time” might be a postapocalyptic “Fallout” scenario. Can ghouls play soccer? And will they require the hydration breaks?
Not gonna lie, I really fucking hate sports fans. But I do have to wonder if many sports would be this successful if their fans weren't batshit crazy. I love badminton, and it would be rare for badminton fans to even cheer too loudly, but it is also a shrinking sport. I'd like to think sports can still succeed without toxicity. I guess Formula 1 is good example maybe?
I started to post this sentiment in response a couple f days ago. "Sports" fans are not a unique, all-encompassing group by virtue of "sports;" fans of sports, as in pretty much every walk of life, have a subset of mental people who are problematic and not necessarily representative of the larger group. The fans that behave as in this case are most likely people with self-control issues; they probably drink too much, are prone to anger, quick to violence, etc., and those things are probably just as likely to be an issue on a random Tuesday as an NBA Finals game. I don't think the handful of people who stormed the Capitol on January 6th represent EVERYONE who's passionate about politics.
The Spurs fans did not riot though. They accepted their losses gracefully and went on about their lives.
