Donald Trump and the entire American administration surely have their minds elsewhere at the moment. Not sure that the straw-haired man was interested in the friendly match between Brazil and France, won by the Blues (1-2) Thursday at Gillette Stadium, in Foxborough, in the suburbs of Boston. A meeting which served as a bit of a dress rehearsal a little less than three months before the start of the World Cup.
What’s good about dress rehearsals is that it often allows you to see what’s wrong and improve to be ready for the big day. And, there are quite a few little things to improve after attending this meeting. If the Americans and FIFA want to see these few adjustments.
Refreshment breaks, really?
A few days ago, Boston and its suburbs were covered in a pretty white coat. By Thursday afternoon (local time), the snow had disappeared and the temperature was quite pleasant (around 15°C) at Gillette Stadium. However, this did not prevent the referee from stopping the match twice in the middle of the first and second half, for a “cooling break” which we will see again in all matches this summer.
Indeed, at the beginning of December, Fifa indicated that these hydration breaks would be instituted after 22 minutes each period, without conditions. Three-minute breaks to, officially, protect the health of the players. While temperatures might not exceed 20°C or 25°C in Mexico or Canada, these cooling stops are above all a great invention to put even more advertising on TV.
But why a twenty-minute half-time?
Didier Deschamps who is pacing the field and looking at the sky, Kylian Mbappé who is typing, chats and laughs with the referee of the match Guido Gonzales Junior, Adrien Rabiot and Mike Maignan who make some adjustments, others who do a little warm-up… For many minutes, the Blues waited for the Brazilians to return to the Gillette Stadium pitch after the lemons.
Between the moment Didier Deschamps’ teammates returned to the field and the start of the second half, almost five minutes passed. “It’s good for the broadcasters to have the advertising page, but it changes football to have these three minutes,” commented Didier Deschamps on TF1. We waited for them to return from the locker room. We came out of a first period which was good, very good, the restart was a little more difficult. »
Indeed, after a more than timid first period, the Brazilians came back in the second half with good intentions, like Luiz Henrique, who came on in place of Raphinha. The Blues completely missed their start and saw Dayot Upamecano get sent off. Without consequence.
A horrible realization
Most World Cup matches being held in the United States will take place in NFL franchise stadiums, with cameras specially installed for American football where play is often stopped. Except that, for “real” dynamic football, this is not ideal. During Brazil-France, broadcast on TF1, the wide shot was atrocious, as if we had gone back thirty years, filming an amateur match or playing the old “Pro Evolution Soccer”.
A central camera which therefore scans the entire field, few close shots, a dropped director who preferred to show slow motion rather than hot action, no image of a potential offside of the Brazilian at the moment when Dayot Upamecano is sent off… There were a lot of failures during this “dress rehearsal”. But this should not happen again during the World Cup according to Sacha Nokovitch, journalist from The Team media specialist.
“It is a friendly match not managed by Fifa,” he explained on » We hope so in any case.
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