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The atmosphere at the games this time around has pretty poor. What has really been missing is a decent atmosphere generated by the host country’s fans. Compared to previous world cups it has been lacking.
The benchmark for atmosphere has to be Argentina in 1978. The spectacle and noise generated by the Argentinian fans has never been matched since.
Don’t mention the vuvuzelas
The ticker tape welcome to the teams coming out was fantastic sight.Quote:
Originally Posted by 79blue
I thought it was pretty good against the US.Quote:
Originally Posted by 79blue
Having pockets of fans spread around the stadiums though does detract from it.
This is what happens when you award it to countries who have no football culture.
The host country have plenty of 'fans' at every game, normally garbed up in the colours of the two teams playing. Nearly always the camera pans to supporters of the team who've just scored and they're just standing there, half not knowing what to do, the other half taking photos. But yes, it's a poor atmosphereQuote:
Originally Posted by 79blue
It's just a bought event. Nothing more.
Played at a stupid time of the year.
In a weird, sinister place.
Three nails hit on heads there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Divine Wright
Does anyone know how many went out there? I was shocked seeing the USA game. I was expecting hundreds, not thousands. I'd guess at about 4,000.
Pretty impressed by the Argentinian fans, apparently more of them there than any other country? Always travel in huge numbers, hell of a long way and it’s hardly a wealthy country…..
I was expecting groups of 40-50 Welsh fans dotted around the stadium, possibly totalling 600 - 1,000.Quote:
Originally Posted by NYCBlue
I was quite impressed by the numbers, almost everyone wearing a red shirt made it look all the more impressive.
I thought we had 3000 tickets allocated for each game. Added on top of that fans who bought tournament tickets, plus people who've gone out on the off chance of getting tickets, I'd say about 4-5000 are out there.
Atmosphere for the Iran game was brilliant. They outnumbered us 10 to 1 and it must have been quite intimidating for the players as whenever they touched the ball they were met with a wall of noise.
USA game was more 50/50 but with it only being 3-4000 for each team and 60% neutrals it plays a part in bringing the noise levels down a bit.
Argentina keeping up their reputation for large noisy support.
Looks like they filled the ground? How do they get so many tickets?Quote:
Originally Posted by 79blue
US fans and Iranian fans comfortably outnumbered the Red Wall.Quote:
Originally Posted by NYCBlue
I was surprised, especially by the US numbers.
The USA is 110x bigger than Wales and the largest populated country in the tournament by quite a ways. I imagine they've got plenty of workers out in the Middle East especially the UAE who made the short trip across.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobby Dandruff
The USA has got a lot of military bases in the region, and at least one near Doha. I saw some coverage at the start of the WC where it said hundreds (maybe thousands) of US personnel (and their families) had match tickets.Quote:
Originally Posted by Canton Kev
Really??!! I never knew…….🙄Quote:
Originally Posted by Canton Kev
There were 4 US fans and 6 Senegal fans on our flight from Dubai, packed with Welsh fans.
No need to be tetchy. You were surprised the largest team in the tournament had more fans than the second smallest.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobby Dandruff
Just thought I’d suggest a possible reason :thumbup:
Good point. I hadn’t even considered the military presence over there. Definitely a fair few people from the US army in the Middle East.Quote:
Originally Posted by jon1959
Agreed. The DWC airport just seemed to be crawling with Wales fans for the first two games. Never saw many England fans at Airport or on Doha until the game against us. Apparently, many booked for last group game and beyond. Obviously confident of getting through. Also noticed many of them not in colours and for most part quiet exccept in the ground. We matched the noise of the Yanks and the Iranians at the stadium in most part. But completely overwhelmed against England. Lots of local people and Indian sub-continent people from Dubai etc were supporting England.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobby Dandruff
Spedger
I think this is more to do with the fact that we qualified so late. Early qualifiers were able to get direct flights to Doha and reasonably priced accommodation there. Latecomers like us were stuck with a choice of a Wonky Sheep package or shuttling back and fore from Dubai. I am glad I took the former as I did 5 other games.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sloop_Jon_Bee
Agree the point about the Qataris not getting the World Cup even though tickets were a fraction of the price for visitors. It was galling to see so many empty seats when no tickets for those matches were available for general sale. Still, being such a compressed area with 31 other nations' fans was unique. Being amongst 30k Tunisian fans and the Mexican hordes on the metro after the Argentina game will live long in the memory.
I went to 9 games last week. Tunisia blew me away - they were amazing. Morocco were decent, and then there were the South and central Americans. 80k Mexicans travelled. They were like cockroach’s- everywhere. Brazil and equador were amazing as well.
Flip side- the European teams. France shocking. Barely any Danes. About a thousand Croatians. Went to Spain v Costa Rica and all of the chants were for mexico!!
Don't think a lot of Europeans - especially the Danes and the Germans - were really up for this tournament. Rightly so.Quote:
Originally Posted by stevebrickman
I saw a News repor on YouTube about the Mexicans, they interviewed a few about Qatar and the issues, one of the Mexicans said " so what, this is the World Cup, im here to enjoy " they didnt let it bother themQuote:
Originally Posted by stevebrickman
The Mexicans and the Argentinians seemed the most numerous to me early doors.
There were lots of Saudis out on the booze after the Win against Argentina.
My Brother went to the Tunisia Denmark game and he said the atmosphere was incredible.
I think that we did well numbers wise, seemed many many more Welsh than English when I was there.
As far as the atmosphere generated by Wales fans was concerned, the huge physical, financial and emotional barriers created by having the WC in Qatar were a drain on the usual raucous goings on at the CCS. For those of us that flew in from Dubai, body-clock wise, kick off was 11pm finishing at 1.00am the next day. People were tired, gave the singing a good go, but the two killer goals put the dampers on it. Plus there was no segregation as such with England fans outnumbering Wales fans significantly all around us. If only we'd scored. Fair dos to other nations' travelling fans. Ecuador in particular. Now that is an away trip.