The competition runs from June 11- July 19, with games on 35 of those 39 days, as many as six on some. It is the biggest ever version of the competition featuring 48 teams, which is too many IMO. I just feel that playing 72 group stage games to whittle down 48 teams to 32 is fairly pointless and needless. However, this particular version of the World Cup has additional interest and quite a lot of it, given all the travel/ weather/ timing/ altitude/ long European seasons players and staff will have to deal with and we saw at last summer's Club World Cup what a mess some teams made of the organisational side of things and I suspect not all nations will be as well prepared as others and some will get the short straw in terms of when and where they will have to play and be based.

 

The 48 teams are made up of 16 from UEFA (Europe), 10 CAF (Africa), 9 AFC (Asia and Australia?) , 6 CONMEBOL ( South America), 6 CONCACAF (North/Central America and Caribbean) and 1 from OFC ( Oceania).

 

At the time of writing, the nations had a FIFA ranking of between 1-85 and only two of the top 25 were absent (Italy #12 and Denmark #20).

 

Curacao (82), Haiti ( 83) and New Zealand (85) are the lowest ranked , they have a combined 5 players plying their trade in one of the big five European leagues, four from Haiti and Kiwi Chris Woods of Nottingham Forest.

 

Cape Verde, Curacao, Jordan and Uzbekistan are all WC debutantes and you will not hear any of the quartet complaining about the extended format!

 

First thing I want to say is that players who have just finished a long European season, especially in the toughest of leagues (EPL) are not all going to be at their best and I do feel that we saw Chelsea hit a wall this season after those Club World Cup heroics and short off season and bodies are not up to 50-60+ high intensity games without a proper break. As tough as that might be to hear from some people who work a 35-40 hour manual job, 48 weeks a year for low pay, as opposed to "kicking a ball around"!

 

Nations who are well prepared, have better rested players, used to playing in hot/humid weather and at this time of year, will have an advantage and possibly a very significant one. 

 

There are 16 host cities (again, too many) across three time zones  .....

 

 

That is Toronto and Vancouver in Canada.

 

Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Kansas City, Houston, Los Angeles, New Jersey. Philadelphia , Miami, Bay Area and Seattle in the US.

 

Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey in yes, you guessed it, Mexico!

 

Weather should be fine, pleasant even in Vancouver, Bay Area, Seattle, Guadalajara and Mexico City. Toronto too probably, but I have been there in July when it has been baking! Anyway, in terms of heat, those venues are the long straws! Los Angeles will be hot, but is a dry heat without the humidity.

 

Atlanta, Boston. KC, NY/NJ, Philadelphia, Miami and Monterrey are likely to be hot to very hot and humid.

 

Dallas and Houston will be brutal! Welcome to Texas in July!

 

The three venues in Mexico also throw up altitude issues to varying degrees, Monterrey is at 540m, Guadalajara 1,600m and Mexico City 2,240m. Obviously Monterrey is less of a problem altitude wise but it could be very hot and humid, when you reach Mexico City, you will need a few days to adjust and at that height above sea level,  players will suffer shortness of breath, headaches, insomnia and dehydration and it is not easy to take on enough liquids. 

 

The stadiums in Atlanta/Dallas/Houston/Vancouver are air conditioned, which, of course, helps massively on game day, otherwise Germany-Curacao at midday in Houston would not be possible, but players will still have to live and train in tough conditions and constant air condition living has its own set of problems.

 

As I have just touched upon a kick off time, they are also of interest, and some games are starting at 20:00/21:00 even at 22:00 local time. What are players going to do all day for maybe 10-12 hours before kick off on a game day? You cannot train, or do any more than a light workout, you cannot play even 5-6 holes of golf in sweltering conditions, how do you keep 26 finely tuned athletes occupied and focussed for that length of time?

 

Sweden for example, I only picked them as many clubgowi readers are Swedish BTW. They do not have the toughest schedule ,but start with a 20:00 kick off in Monterrey ( which is 04:00 in Stockholm!) , then play midday in Houston and finish with an 18:00 kick off in Dallas. They are based in Frisco, Dallas, which is not a bad choice by any means given their group stage fixtures, but the FC Dallas stadium where they will train is open air and it is expected to be 35-38 degrees and humid during their tenure and could get hotter!. You can train in the evening, but not when you have a midday kick off, it all becomes a logistical nightmare, or "fun" if you are a problem solver! Sweden are also a net -45 in terms of ranking places against their three opponents.

 

 

Good luck!