***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***
- Thread starter ISU3PtLand
- Start date
Just an observation, but why does the World Cup schedule one knock out game on Sunday...during the day, while scheduling three games Monday, two of which are during the day and one game that doesn't start until 9 PM Eastern Time? It will not impact attendance at the games, but certainly could impact eyeballs on screens...doesn't seem like FIFA did their advertising homework.
Best guess is that they try to have a rotation of game times to meet the demands of their global television contracts. Yesterdays game was primetime for western Europe and Africa. According to Gemini, Europe's TV contracts with FIFA for this World Cup cycle total $1.4B. North America $1B, Asia $700m, SA $360m, Africa and Middle East $200m. The late games provide Asia with games at waking hours.
They also know that when the game involves a country like Brazil, they can put the game in the middle of the day and know that Brazil will stop what they are doing and tune in anyway.
This is true. The country of Brazil pretty much shutdown today at noon for their 2pm (Brazil time) kick off.
Both sides have had some pretty rough challenges so far. I think Japan just dodged a bullet by not having that foul called just before the hydration break
We have a Brazilian sales guy and he was not wearing his jersey on the morning meeting - he was nervous about this game.
On Japan's goal, I love the commentator using the word shenanigans to describe Brazil's defensive play. Pretty perfect, actually.
I appreciate how Japan players tend to pop right back up after contact instead of flailing on the ground like they were just stabbed.
And they haven't given up on scoring again, a lot of teams would just be turtling up trying to get it to PK's. Makes them easy to root for.
