Hydration breaks at World Cup affect game more than I initially thought, says England’s Tuchel

England head coach Thomas Tuchel gestures at the bench prior to the World Cup Group L soccer match between England and Croatia in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

FOXBOROUGH, Massachusetts - Hydration breaks introduced at this World Cup are affecting matches more than initially thought and break the momentum of a game, England coach Thomas Tuchel said on Monday.

FIFA introduced three-minute hydration breaks midway through each half due to sweltering temperatures in host cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico but they have split opinions.

Critics say the breaks, which essentially cut the game down into four quarters, simply allow broadcasters to benefit from commercial breaks for over two minutes and it has been a bone of contention among the sport’s purists.

“I think that it (hydration break) interrupts and changes the identity of the football match, much more than I thought,” Tuchel told a press conference ahead of his team’s Group L match against Ghana on Tuesday.

“So I had, of course, hydration breaks before, when it was really, really hot and needed, but they were shorter and they were just in a few matches. So now it breaks the match almost in four quarters, and I think it changes the characteristic of the match more than I thought.”

Although not all fixtures are played during the day, hydration breaks have been mandated in each game at the World Cup in the interest of fairness and uniformity, even if weather conditions do not really require them.

Temperatures in Boston on Tuesday are not expected to exceed 20 degrees Celsius.

“I like it as a coach, of course, to have influence and have my team together, but overall I think I like football more when it’s played in one go, in one half, because it builds a momentum,” Tuchel said.

“It’s hard to build momentum, and it’s hard to keep the momentum... it plays out in a longer period of time and it just adds to the characteristic of the beautiful game, and it (hydration break) takes away from it.”