Reply to thread

Message

[QUOTE="IthacaMatt, post: 3919963, member: 405"]
A P.S. about the 2022 FIFA calendar.  The Africa Cup of Nations is being played this upcoming winter, a month which throws many of the teams in Europe into disarray as they lose players for so long.

The other thing to note is that because the World Cup is being played in the winter of '22 instead of the summer, that 2 of the usual fall FIFA international windows no longer remain on the schedule.  Only one window for 2 friendlies in September.

Camp starts for Qatar on Nov 15 and the opening game on the 21st.

As I'm looking at this schedule again, it's unclear whether there are 4 more FIFA mandated spots in 2 weeks in May and June.  The Qatar draw will have been determined a month before, so these can't be competitive matches, except maybe for those play-in games between borderline qualifiers from different confederations.

This May/June window and then September are the only 2 windows for the national team between March and the beginning of the World Cup in November.  That's 8 months.

That's a long time for not being together as a group, and then being expected to perform at the top level, during mid-season for most European and South American based players.

I wonder if the USMNT might be allowed to hold a voluntary camp for a week in late June, especially if it was more a teaching and bonding thing, and not a heavy physical workload, with most players' preseasons right around the corner.

I think that the elimination of the 2 international windows this fall is the "give back" financially to the big European leagues for having a winter World Cup interrupt their domestic seasons for a month.

But it's going to harm preparations for national teams heading into the World Cup.
[/QUOTE]

Verification

What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?