2022 WORLD CUP
floating cruise ship hotels, at vacation homes, in prefab dorms and airconditioned tents and campgrounds.
The winter schedule means professional leagues in Europe and other parts of the world will have to break midseason for about six weeks. Major League Soccer will not have its season interrupted because the MLS Cup final will be held a few weeks before the start of the World Cup. The MLS season was moved up three weeks, with a Feb. 26 start to ensure there would be no conflict.
“I am incredibly curious how it will play out because this is unchartered territory for everybody,” Lalas said. “There is no precedent for any these players, teams or leagues. The EPL came out with their adjusted schedule; and they have some of the best players in the world that theoretically could be playing in a World Cup final and then a week later the league starts right back up.
“It’s going to challenge players to do things differently and adjust, and look, if anything the last couple of years has taught us is you have to be flexible and be able to adapt and adjust.”
Because of the time difference, group stage matches will kick off at 5 a.m. (Eastern time), 8 a.m., 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Although the World Cup will be held during the NFL and college football seasons for the first time, Lalas expects large viewership in the United States.
“It will be Breakfast at Doha, like Wimbledon and the EPL,” Lalas said. “The World Cup tends to surprise people. Coming up against the juggernauts that are college football and the NFL, it will be really telling as to how far soccer has come from a viewership standpoint and how popular it is in the United States.”
Of course, the audience will be much larger if the U.S. national team qualifies – a safe assumption considering the team is in second place in CONCACAF qualifying with six games to go, ahead of Mexico and behind Canada.
The top three earn berths, and the fourthplace team, currently Panama, enters an interconfederation playoff.
“We are still a growing soccer nation, and we need to bring new people into the tent because so many people taste-test soccer during a World Cup, and to not have a U.S. team four years ago, that was a wasted opportunity,” Lalas said.
This Sunday, FOX NFL Kickoff will mark the oneyear-out occasion during the broadcast and promotional images will take over New York’s Times
Where/when:
Qatar, Nov. 21-Dec. 18, 2022.
TV:
Fox Sports
Number of teams: Other Key Dates:
32
Already qualified (13):
host Qatar, defending champion France, Germany, Denmark, Brazil, Belgium, Croatia, Spain, Serbia, England, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Argentina.
Remaining USA qualifying matches:
vs. El Salvador Jan. 27, vs. Canada Jan. 30, vs Honduras Feb. 2, vs. Mexico March 24, vs. Panama March 27, vs Costa Rica March 30.
Tournament draw: April 1; Opening match: Nov. 21; Championship match: Dec. 18
Square “Godzilla Board.”
Thus far, 13 of the 32 teams have qualified – host Qatar, defending champion France, Germany, Denmark, Brazil, Belgium, Croatia, Spain,
Serbia, England, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Argentina. Italy and Portugal did not qualify through the European group stage, so they must survive a 12-team playoff round in March. Three of the 12 advance.
Team USA has perhaps its most talented roster ever, with a perfect mix of Europe-based players and MLS players.
“This is not your parents’ U.S. team,” Lalas said. “Nowadays when the 25-man roster is announced, the level of debate, consternation and angst out there is unprecedented. I look at that as wonderful. [Coach] Gregg Berhalter has tens of thousands of coaches out there telling him what to do.”
Time will tell how the Qatar World Cup will be remembered.
“They understand people are going to be going there with a critical eye,” Lalas said. “That will be part of the story, and how they respond to that is going to go a long way in how we ultimately feel when this is all said and done and that circus leaves town.”