The World Cup’s timing robbed national teams of the usual prep time and disjointed play is going to come with the territory.
DOHA, Qatar — This was the World Cup we had feared. Nobody quite knew whether the November-December scheduling of this tournament would mean players could just pick up from their league season, unhindered by the physical and emotional fatigue of the end of the season, or whether the lack of preparation time would mean teams came into the tournament undercooked, lacking the sort of cohesion and mutual understanding that brings fluency and comes only from weeks of training together.