In partnership with
One day to go.
Happy World Cup Eve, all. Let’s celebrate the occasion with another instalment of SVQ.
In today’s newsletter, we will reveal which competing nations will have the longest and shortest distances to travel between games, and look at why England skipper Harry Kane seems to have recovered from his missed penalty against France at the last World Cup.
Our Ask Opta question for today is about entertainment, and the missing players game only needs you to cast your mind back eight years.
Sound familiar?
Over 4 million people have had the same lightbulb moment.
Morning Brew is a free daily newsletter that breaks down what's happening in business, finance, and tech — clearly, quickly, and with enough personality to make it the best email in your inbox.
No yelling. No filler. Just the news, finally making sense.
✈️ STAT - Which Teams Have the Furthest to Travel?
With a World Cup taking place across three countries, and not exactly small ones, there will be a lot of travel involved over the next few weeks. Neck pillows will be worn out, box sets will be completed, and games of Travel Scrabble will separate the wheat from the chaff (other travel-sized board games are available).
Players will not have much time to see the beautiful sights of the United States, Canada or Mexico, but many will cover some ground across them as they navigate their way through the tournament.
Which competing nation will travel the most and the least during the group stage, though?
It’s important to say these are very much rough numbers, and do not factor in travel between stadiums and a team’s base camp. This is just the distance is between a team’s first, second and third group games.
Some teams play back-to-back games in the same stadium, so the distance for that would obviously be zero, even though there would clearly be some travel involved.