IRVINE, Calif. — Four years ago in Qatar, the U.S. men’s national team, along with every other team at the World Cup, was on a rapid-fire schedule, with games every four days. That had been the norm at a World Cup.
Now, thanks to the expansion from 32 to 48 teams at the competition, the norm has changed. There’s a full week between games during the group stage, and players seem to be in favor.
“I absolutely love it after playing a long season, you know what I mean?” Tyler Adams said. “The last World Cup [being in the winter], it’s not even comparable, because you’re in the middle of your season, you’ve only played 15, 17 games before a World Cup, you’re fully fresh and ready to go. Now I think that the body feels it a bit more coming into the end of a season and into a World Cup where there’s so much more emotion, adrenaline, all these things.”
More recovery time is a particularly relevant benefit for the USMNT at the moment, with Christian Pulisic yet to fully return to training after a left calf injury, but with the club season more demanding than ever, Pulisic isn’t the only one benefiting.
The U.S. didn’t have a full training session for two days after Friday’s match, with regen work Saturday and a full day off Sunday. There’s time to dive into film, to game plan and to hang out with families.
On top of that, the feared downside of a 48-team tournament — a less competitive group stage — hasn’t yet come to pass.
If anything, the 12 teams that earned bids that weren’t available in the past have been largely competitive and even pulled off some upsets.
“I love it, to be honest,” Brenden Aaronson said. “For me, I came off a long season and I know a lot of other guys have too, where you’re playing so many games, so many minutes. So more downtime that you have gives your body time to get ready for the next one, you can do all the little things that you need. It feels like you’re having a week in between games like you are in league and that’s the best thing about it.
“You’re able to actually game plan games, whereas in Qatar, you weren’t really able to do that. You’re able to game plan, train, you don’t have to go really full into it [right away], and I think that’s the biggest part of it. I think that’s gonna help us throughout this tournament.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
