{"id":639734,"date":"2026-06-15T11:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T11:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/639734\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T11:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T11:30:09","slug":"world-cup-2026-hydration-breaks-who-are-the-winners-and-losers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/639734\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: Hydration breaks – who are the winners and losers?"},"content":{"rendered":"

So who are the losers, besides fans who have forked out high prices for tickets to see free-flowing, entertaining football – only for the game to be stopped in each half?<\/p>\n

Well, World Cup debutants Curacao were in dreamland after equalising to make it 1-1 against Germany shortly before a first-half drinks break in Houston on Sunday.<\/p>\n

However, the smallest nation ever to play at the World Cup, by size and population, were not the same when play resumed and lost 7-1<\/a> after the drinks break allowed the Germans to regroup.<\/p>\n

The Czech Republic were on top during the first half against South Korea<\/a>, but the hydration break abruptly ended that spell of pressure, and when play resumed, they lost momentum.<\/p>\n

Despite taking the lead, they ended up losing the game 2-1.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Netherlands led Japan 2-1 going into the second-half hydration break in Arlington, Texas, on Sunday. They failed to hold on and drew 2-2.<\/a><\/p>\n

Hydration breaks are not always the cause of these momentum shifts, of course.<\/p>\n

But the further we go into the tournament, the more it should become clear whether the interruptions are becoming a major factor.<\/p>\n

Former Arsenal and England forward Ian Wright made it clear where he stood on the breaks.<\/p>\n

“I just think it’s another way of getting adverts into it from an American point of view,” he said.<\/p>\n

US broadcaster Fox US overran adverts, external<\/a> during a hydration break in the opening match of the tournament between Mexico and South Africa.<\/p>\n

“They’ve used the fact that it’s for the players, but it’s not for me,” added Wright.<\/p>\n

While the breaks have their detractors, there are others who believe they are a positive introduction.<\/p>\n

“I am always interested in the health of my players. I think it’s the right measure, a pause, freshen up and continue,” said Spain boss Luis de la Fuente before his side’s opening game against debutants Cape Verde on Monday (17:00 BST).<\/p>\n

That match is taking place in Atlanta where the venue has a retractable roof and is temperature controlled.<\/p>\n

“Tomorrow, it’s chilled temperatures in the stadium,” added De la Fuente on Sunday.<\/p>\n

“Throughout the week, we’ve seen huge temperatures. It’s very difficult to be exposed to these temperatures for so long when you’re working.<\/p>\n

“In my opinion, the best thing to do is to drink lots of water. Take a break, let them breathe for a few seconds.<\/p>\n

“It’s not going to be that hot [on Monday] but we need to let them breathe and then one or two minutes to give them a couple of directions.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"So who are the losers, besides fans who have forked out high prices for tickets to see free-flowing,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-639734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}