As we near the end of the group stage, writers from our newly expanded US soccer team Alexander Abnos, Pablo Maurer and Jeff Rueter are now online answering your World Cup questions
Aintmuch asks: Do you have statistics on how many injuries were treated in 2022 and how many this WC until now?
It seems the new “one minute rule” works wonders against overacting.
Pablo: I don’t have any actual data, but I agree with your suspicion.
That rule, which was created and trialed in Major League Soccer (and MLS Next Pro, its developmental league,) was an instant success in the league, drastically reducing time-wasting via simulation.
Another new World Cup rule - the timed substitution rule - was a similar success, and nearly entirely eliminated the issue of players lolligagging off the field when being substituted.
Americans don’t always get it right when they mess with the game, but every now and again, one of our dumb ideas sticks!
Alex: I’d just add a possible side effect of this, which again I’m pointing out with no data whatsoever: It really seems like the officials are letting a lot go in this tournament.
Multiple times a game I’m seeing teams caught out expecting a tactical foul call that never comes, or teams livid that what seems like pretty heavy contact in the attacking half is going unpunished.
Prime example would be Messi’s first goal against Austria – There was a coming together in midfield just beforehand that I think in past tournaments would have been called, but this time it wasn’t.
I wonder if the higher bar on simulation has anything to do with that.
Jeff: You’re asking for the right reasons.
So long as the Netherlands and England remain atop Groups F and L, respectively, they wouldn’t be able to meet until a potential final, at which point your mum is already in dreamland.
If either team drops to second while the other wins the group, they could face each other in a quarter-final.
This is also the kind of family-peace reconnaissance our Bracketology project was designed to enable, still fit and firing out all the scenarios in stunning technicolor
Continue reading...Sources: The Guardian
