Tuchel on FIFA Heat Breaks: Fairness vs Flow in World Cup

World Cup Hydration breaks backfire, says England’s Tuchel  

Hydration breaks are mandatory in every World Cup game for uniformity, Tuchel noted, even when temps don’t require it like Tuesday’s 20°C in Boston.

Tuchel says World Cup hydration breaks “break momentum” more than expected...

Hydration breaks added for this World Cup are impacting games more than first expected and disrupt a team’s flow, England manager Thomas Tuchel said Monday.

FIFA brought in three-minute hydration pauses halfway through each half because of the extreme heat in host cities across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, but coaches and players remain divided on them.

Critics argue the pauses effectively turn the match into four quarters and mainly give broadcasters over two minutes for ads. That’s become a sore point for traditionalists in the sport.

“I think that it (hydration break) ⁠interrupts and changes ‌the identity of the football match, much more than I thought,” Tuchel told a press conference ahead of his team's Group L match against Ghana on Tuesday.

“So I had, of course, hydration breaks before, when it was really, really hot and needed, but they were ⁠shorter and they were just in a few matches. So now it breaks the match almost in four quarters, and I think it changes the characteristic of the match more than ‌I thought.”

Not every match is a daytime kickoff, but FIFA still requires hydration breaks in all World Cup games for consistency and fairness, even when the weather doesn’t call for them.

Boston’s forecast for Tuesday shows highs staying below 20 degrees.

“I like it as a coach, of course, to have influence and have my ‌team together, but overall I think I like football more when it's played in one go, in ‌one half, because it builds a momentum,” Tuchel said.

“It's hard to build momentum, and it's hard to keep the momentum... it plays out in a longer period of time and it just adds to ⁠the characteristic of the ⁠beautiful game, and it (hydration ‌break) takes away from it.”