2022 World Cup Diary – Part Four (Croatia v Canada, Khalifa Stadium)
What day is it?
Sunday 27th November 2022
I am losing track of what day it is. I had a messaging exchange with a friend and assumed he was working from home – I had no concept it was Sunday. During a World Cup, if you are actually at the tournament, there seems little distinction between days – there are just matches. And of course, Friday is the holy day here anyway – so if there are any shut places – Friday is their Sunday. Qatar actually played kicked off their second match on Friday here during the time when shops are closed for prayers.
And I am actually writing this on a Tuesday afternoon. Having the Mrs with me is not conducive to getting work done, and poor internet connection in the place we are staying (called The Clusters), is not helping, not least because my Macbook refuses to connect to my iPhone which has data. First world problems. And this blog isn’t even work – but it needs to be done or I will simply fall too far behind.
So anyway, a day late, back to Sunday. Croatia v Canada was at the Khalifa Stadium, which is in Doha itself. Now although the stadiums might be close to each other, that doesn’t mean they are actually easy to reach sometimes. The bus that went direct from The Clusters to the stadium dropped us a 20 minute walk from the stadium – and that’s me walking fast. It was a round the houses route, although in all likelihood there was no direct option from the area where buses dropped fans. It is like a military operation. There are plenty of wide roads nearer the stadium – blocked off so that we could walk there, which could have been used for buses and coaches, but in the name of crowd control, they like to thin out queues by making you walk as far as possible. This is a World Cup where you will get fit – you have no choice.
It struck me that this tournament could never have been held in the 40 degree heat of the summer. People would be keeling over from heat exhaustion just walking to wherever they could get a metro, taxi or bus. The stadiums are generally in the middle of nowhere, and although the hosts are laying on buses and have built a Metro system to facilitate the movement, the actual process of getting to and from them is an exercise in crowd control that has p***ed off most everyone. England’s route to the final would see them play at the Al Bayt stadium in their three knockout games up to the final. That is such a pain to get to and from that many would be happy for them to finish second.
Still, back to the Khalifa stadium and it’s very futuristic, with a rotundas that resemble the San Siro, and which fans had to walk up to get to the upper tier. That was all we needed after the walk from the bus drop off point. As for inside… well, I can see why this is the one stadium that will be retained after the finals for its sporting purpose – there is an athletics track around the pitch. I think the top tier – where I was – will be removed. It was a bonus though that my category 2 ticket – normally in the corner, was on the halfway line – normally category 1, but I was a fair way up, one stand being much higher than the others – the reason for the rotunda. I was well happy with my view, and in fairness, that applies to all the games I have seen so far. With seven of the stadiums being newly constructed, sightlines have been a priority. The Khalifa opened in 1976, so was upgraded, and I felt a bit sorry for those behind the goal, with the huge distance to the pitch. I suspect they had a very poor perspective on the game.
And as for that, Canada got things going with an early goal before Croatia took control of matters, quality making this a mismatch with a 4-1 victory to Luka Modric and company at the conclusion. It was a decent enough game. On the way out I got lucky, managing to squeeze into a lift to go down the rotunda, which saved about five minutes’ walking. I was offered a free Qatari coffee on my walk to the bus, which I won’t be drinking again, given how watery it was, but the free mini-Mars bar that was given away with it was welcome. On the coach and back to the Clusters, I arrived after 20 minutes of Spain v Germany had been played and watched the rest on the big screen that was a popular draw for this game. We had the Bein Sports feed, with Richard Keys asking a panel of Andy Gray, Gary Neville, John Terry and Kaka at half time for their opinions. The result earlier in the day with Costa Rica beating Japan meant Germany could even lose this game and still have a chance of going through, so a point sets them up nicely to qualify with a win against Costa Rica in their final group match. There have been some dull games in these finals, but also some shock results and a couple of see-saw matches.
If I were at home I would have watched far more of them than is possible here, but that’s the trade-off for attending the finals in person if you go during the group stage. With the price of tickets rising after the group matches, doing it this way was the only way I could justify the expense given I wanted to see all eight stadiums. Tomorrow, I will relay my experience of Brazil v Switzerland at the 974 stadium.
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