Watch enough major soccer tournaments, and you recognize the feeling. It starts settling after the energy of the host’s first game; after the newness of the tournament’s narratives begins to wear off. Come the fourth, fifth days of a competition, there’s a groove – a routine that carries you while the group stage’s patterns hold.
Two, three games a day. Early wake-ups. Sneaking peeks from work. Maybe the games are being recorded, so you’re staying off social media. Or maybe you’re on social, and the jokes are getting old. By the time everybody has seen their team’s debut, the tension that fueled hopes, fears, predictions and nightmares gives way to something else.