Wednesday, August 17, 2022
The World Cup is Coming...
Beginning with France v. Australia on November 22nd, the World Cup is landing at a different point in the calendar this time around. That's driven mainly by weather, since the host, Qatar, is incredibly hot in the summer.
That puts it right in the most interesting part of college football season, unfortunately. Why do all the best sporting events have to happen at the same time, while other times (er, like now) offer nothing more than WNBA playoffs and a baseball regular season running on fumes?
Qatar has built eight new stadiums for the event, some of them with air conditioning that involves mist coming out of the bottom of a seat. I've seen a mist rising from an occupied stadium seat before, but it wasn't good. We'll see how this goes.
Most of the usual suspects (Germany, England, Brazil, etc) are in the tournament, and the US made it this time around. Ecuador is back, and Canada is in for the first time since 1986. Wales qualified for the first time since 1958, Surprisingly out of the competition is Italy, who were denied a spot when they lost to North Macedonia (the nation formerly known as Macedonia).
I can't wait!
