OT: The 2026 World Cup Thread

[Gumby]

Ai generated (and checked by me)
FIFA’s "Connected Ball Technology" relies on a suspended 14-gram sensor core containing accelerometers and gyroscopes. These boards capture linear acceleration and rotation up to 500 times per second. This creates exact timestamps for player touches, enabling Video Assistant Referees (VAR) and semi-automated offside decisions in milliseconds. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
To ensure these boards, batteries, and sensors can survive the extreme impacts of professional football, FIFA and Adidas rely on an extensive, multi-phase testing and certification protocol:

Robotic Impact Testing
Before approval for tournament play, balls are subjected to rigorous robotic testing facilities. Adidas uses specialized robotic legs to kick and strike the balls against hard surfaces thousands of times. This process ensures the 500 Hz motion sensors can continuously handle the forces a human player generates without failing or misaligning.

Sensor Suspension System
The sensor board cannot simply be glued to the inside of the ball, as this would affect the ball's weight distribution and balance. During the research and development phases, FIFA tested various suspension systems. Modern accelerometer boards are suspended perfectly in the center of the ball on specialized tethers. This design protects the micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) from heavy impacts while ensuring the ball's center of gravity remains perfectly balanced. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Calibration & Broadcast Integration Testing
Before every major FIFA competition, the FIFA Innovation team performs stadium tests. During these trials, the accelerometer data is calibrated against multiple stadium tracking cameras. This ensures that the linear acceleration "spike" generated when a player's boot hits the ball is perfectly synchronized with the optical camera feeds and semi-automated offside AI. [1, 2, 3]

Durability & Environmental Stress Testing
Because the sensor units now house wireless inductive charging receivers and internal batteries, FIFA subjects the electronic boards to extreme environmental testing. Testing phases include subjecting the boards to extreme heat, cold, and humidity to ensure the lithium-ion power sources remain stable and pose no risk during gameplay. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Very nice. As stated before, I could quote all of Blue Origins promotional material for you, just like you quoting Adidas, … it doesnt change the fact that the rocket blew up on the pad.

 

[Triumph]

Nope, he deserved a yellow card, which is what he got. Unfortunately for him, he already had a yellow from earlier in the game, so he got tossed.

I cut to the chase in lieu of taking that long way home. The 2nd yellow is the same as a red.

BTW, for those of us who hate flopping, that's exactly what he did: he pretended the Argentina player tripped him and went flying and then rolling around the pitch in fake pain. He got what he deserved.

The flopping and theatrics occur in every single WC soccer game.

 

[wynpalmer]

If Flopping is not part of soccer than why is FIFA trying to weed it out with VAR?

Because the flopping and antics have been permitted for a very long time and now its to the juncture where its just ridiculous. 50 flops by halftime would be easy money. Its such a joke that I dont even watch what happens to the player who went down anymore. Embolo knew that 2 yellow cards = a red card and he flopped anyway. No fear of repercussions.

I am fine with zero tolerance for flopping. Just call them on both teams from the beginning of the game.

Flopping is not an intrinsic part of soccer. It came about, in my opinion, as a result of the end of the "bite yer legs" era, when the kind of physical contact that was once normal was prohibited. This is similar to the evolution that occurred in Hockey.
Players realized that they could gain advantage by "flopping" - that the sympathetic ref who was instructed to take the violence and as a consequence, some of the injuries, out of the sport would tend to view their apparent distress favorably and award penalties to them.
The pendulum swung too far. VAR is recentering it. Simulations that are invisible in real time are now obvious on video review.
Most soccer supporters detest the flopping, and those who are informed welcome VAR, while decrying when the arbitration doesn't go their way- a normal human response.

 

[wynpalmer]

Very nice. As stated before, I could quote all of Blue Origins promotional material for you, just like you quoting Adidas, … it doesnt change the fact that the rocket blew up on the pad.

What has Blue Origins got to do with anything? Find some objective evidence that the accelerometer metric is flawed or has a significant rate of errors (or any at all as far as I can determine) and I will agree with you.
Subjective calls by those who are invested in creating intrigue do not count.

 

[wynpalmer]

I cut to the chase in lieu of taking that long way home. The 2nd yellow is the same as a red.

The flopping and theatrics occur in every single WC soccer game.

I again refer to the inexact NFL analogy.

 

[wynpalmer]

Even if it hit the wire, which wasn’t noticeable in real time, you play till the whistle stops. After the ball came down is there any excuse for Norway to let Bellingham go free through their team? In every sport there are bad calls or things that happen, and the refs don’t always get it right, but Norway defended horribly on that goal.

Bellingham also played the opportunity very well, again. World class players sometimes make others look ordinary. Tuchel is using him in a way that best suits his talents- just like Real Madrid did when he first joined them and then abandoned when a new tactical scheme was introduced. You could argue that Vinicius jr. suffered a similar fate due to Mbappe joining them.

 

[wynpalmer]

I don't watch much soccer but I've been watching some of the WC. Flopping is one thing that turns me off. The first time I remember seeing a lot of flopping was the Philthadelphia Flyers in hockey. The NHL seems to have that under control now.

One good thing that I noticed over the years in my limited viewing is the level of ability of the players. They're all better now than in the past.

I agree with mostly all. The talent pool has grown, the tactics, training and nutrition have all improved. Still, old time legends like Pele, Best, Maradona, Ronaldinho, the original Ronaldo, Eusebio etc. would still, in my opinion easily stand out above the crowd, just as they did in their eras. Each time has its deserved heroes, even if some of them have feet of clay.

 

[XLIX]

Even if it hit the wire, which wasn’t noticeable in real time,

You are entitled to your own opinions. You are not entitled to your own facts.

The Norwegian players (and coaches) on the field absolutely noticed it in real time. Yes they kept playing since there was no stoppage, but they absolutely noticed it in real time when it happened and without the benefit of a review. They did their protesting at the very first stoppage of play (which was the goal) so they clearly saw it when it happened.

This forum - especially yourself - would have a conniption if the Patriots lost a game in similar fashion.

 

[upstater1]

Really interesting post, thanks for sharing it. Football (soccer) is so integrated into the culture of some countries. Just take England for example, where 25% of the population actively plays football, and over 40% of the under 40s.

The amount of grassroots amateur teams is huge. The population of England between the ages of 5 and 40 years old is 25m people. Recent studies suggest 11-15m people in England regularly play football. There are 20,000 clubs, which will often have not only mens teams but multiple age group teams and womans teams. When add all these together there are 120,000 teams in 1200 leagues. And this doesn't include jumpers for goalposts kids kick around at recess and after school, and the huge 5 aside and the weekday evening astroturf pitch culture amongst adults. A huge percentage of the population plays organised football, not for vocation or pay, just for fun with their friends; kids, youth and adults at minimal cost

England also has a massive professional and semi-professional framework. There are 92 fully professional teams in the top 4 leagues. The are another 100 very good semi-professional clubs in national leagues, and another 1200 semi-professional clubs in regional leagues that actually pay players at least something to play. All those top 92 would have elite to good academies, and even the lower ones would have good youth systems.

There is a massive coaching network. There are 115,000 active FA qualified coaches in England. And 1500 with top qualification, an UEFA A licence. Plus every youth team not only has a coach, but parents who play or have played the game extensively.

Of the current England squad, 20 of the 26 have had to play in the lower leagues of the professional game. 2 players in the current squad played in the semi-professional game, and were recognised and eventually played for England.

What I'm trying to say it pretty much every child in England has the opportunity to play football regularly. If thry are good or keen they will be part of a team and get coaching. If they are really good they will get recognised and go into a local professional teams youth system and have better coaching. Most won't make it but they have the opportunity. It happens with kids who are talented from a young age, but even players who are later bloomers will get picked up as well. Adults in England nowhere near good enough to make it can still play in very competitive leagues and get paid. And a large proportion of the rest of male adults (especially under 30s) will still play competitively or with their friends or workmates just for fun.

On average there is a team and coach for every 200 people in the population. If someone is good they will get recognised and given the opportunity to progress no matter who they are and where they come from. And England has only won a single world cup 60 years ago.

Yep, this shows how extensive things are in the UK. In the USA, the culture pales in comparison, but again, even in my region of less than a million people, there are dozens of club at each age group and for each gender who will travel 5+ play for games (that speaks more to the size of the US). I take this as a proxy for commitment. Believe it or not, we import our youth coaches! And perhaps this is a problem, but it's true that most of our youth coaches are from England. The longest tenure of a coach for one of my kids was a former GK in Eredivisie. Anyway, the US academies are not as rigorous.

They used to be self-sustaining and subsidized, so that players paid relatively little, and that structure also meant that the players did the same exact drills as other USSF clubs around the country on the exact same day of the week When I compared my kid's practices to those after leaving the club, there was no comparison at all. The USSF practices were like Army drills, precise, grueling, meant to emphasize speed of play, and little technique details they never learned in prior years of club ball (ex. what foot to receive a pass so that you could quickly pass it with the other, 1-2). Basic soccer, that is never otherwise taught here.