The World Cup draw is Friday in Qatar, although your entire subject isn’t but full. Whereas we don’t know all of the groups, we do know fairly a bit about how issues will play out. Right here’s a primer on the world’s best sporting spectacle.
When is the World Cup?
The opening match is Nov. 21 (three days earlier than Thanksgiving in the US). Over the month that follows, all of the video games will happen in a tight circle of eight stadiums in and round Qatar’s capital, Doha, making it probably the most compact World Cup in historical past.
The ultimate is Dec. 18 — per week earlier than Christmas, which implies the Doha airport on the morning of Dec. 19 goes to seem like the doorway to a Walmart on Black Friday.
Wait, don’t they play the World Cup in July?
They at all times had, till Qatar acquired it.
Qatar, like the opposite bidders, initially proposed holding the event in its regular summer time window, and brushed apart any suggestion it couldn’t accomplish that with the assistance of cooling know-how that didn’t, on the time, exist. As The Occasions wrote on the day of the vote in 2010:
“Qatar’s bid overcame considerations about warmth that may attain 120 levels there in the summertime. Officers say they may construct air-conditioned stadiums, spending $4 billion to improve three arenas and construct 9 new ones in a compact space linked by a subway system.”
It took greater than 4 years, however in 2015 FIFA, soccer’s world governing physique, finally concluded {that a} summer time World Cup in 120-degree temperatures would possibly convey unneeded issues (like, say, followers and gamers dying) and agreed to maneuver the event to the comparatively cooler months of November and December.
What in regards to the league video games that usually happen then?
Oh, the leagues grumbled. So much. However they misplaced.
The change to winter will disrupt not solely league competitions in Europe and elsewhere, but in addition the profitable UEFA Champions League, and it’ll require beginning seasons earlier or ending them later, or each.
A winter World Cup additionally would go away these professionals who don’t go to Qatar — lower than 800 of the world’s gamers participate — with a midseason break that might prolong to 2 months, as soon as pretournament camps and friendlies and post-Cup relaxation is factored in.
Fox Sports activities, which paid a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars} for the US broadcast rights, should wedge in a month of soccer video games round one other fall sport that tends to demand consideration that point of yr. Perhaps you’ve heard of the N.F.L.?
What number of groups get in?
A complete of 32. They’ll be cut up into eight teams of 4. The highest two finishers in every group advance to the spherical of 16. After that, the World Cup is a straight knockout event.
Which international locations have certified?
Qatar certified routinely because the host, and 28 different groups to this point have joined it. These embody many of the largest groups from Europe and South America: England and Germany, Brazil and Argentina, France and Spain.
Canada is in. America and Mexico joined the sphere on Wednesday evening.
Ukraine might still go. Russia won’t.
Three locations stay unclaimed. One will come from Europe, the place Ukraine’s playoff in opposition to Scotland was postponed by warfare. These groups will meet in June, with the winner to face Wales for Europe’s ultimate place.
The opposite two entries will come from two intercontinental playoffs that month: Costa Rica will face New Zealand, the Oceania survivor, in a single sport, and Peru, the fifth-place workforce from South America, will face an Asian workforce, both Australia or the United Arab Emirates.
Are Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo going?
Argentina, and Messi, certified in November. However Portugal, and Ronaldo, wanted to sweat out a European playoff after botching its assured path to the finals within the group stage.
Who gained’t be there?
Erling Haaland, for one. (Norway didn’t qualify.) Mohamed Salah. (Egypt misplaced to Senegal on penalty kicks for the second time in a month.)
Oh, and Italy. However then that’s not new for them. The Italians missed the 2018 event, too. Whoops.
When will the video games happen?
Qatar is in the identical time zone as Moscow. So no matter technique you used to get up early (or keep up late) for the video games in 2018 will work this time, too. However it’ll imply kickoffs as early as 4 a.m. Japanese, and no later than 2 p.m. Japanese.
How can I discover out who my workforce is enjoying?
The World Cup draw is Friday in Qatar. In it, all 29 groups which have certified and the three nonetheless to be decided can be positioned in teams. So by the tip of the day, you’ll know which three groups your workforce will face within the group stage, and have a good suggestion of who would possibly await within the knockout rounds.
Who’re the favorites?
The standard suspects certified early, so lots of them, actually, that our soccer columnist, Rory Smith, wrote in November that “the chances are high that the winner is already there.”
Fairly what the event, riddled with scandal and concern from the day Qatar was introduced because the host, can be like can’t but be identified. The identities of the groups who will contest it, although, are — for probably the most half — extraordinarily acquainted.
Most, if not fairly all, of the standard contenders are already there: a 10-country-strong European contingent led by France, the defending champion, and Belgium, officially the world’s finest workforce, in addition to the likes of Spain and England and Germany. They’ve been joined by the 2 nice powerhouses of South America, Brazil and Argentina.
Greater than a dozen extra groups have joined the social gathering since these sentences have been written final yr. Which is to say that, in March, it’s nonetheless vast open.
