‘It didn’t help’: World Cup participants talk hydration breaks
Written by The Canadian Press on June 17, 2026
TORONTO — Glenn Nyberg put the referee’s whistle to his lips and halted play.
Ghana and Panama were going toe-to-toe in a rambunctious opening game to kick off the countries’ World Cup adventure.
Around the 22-minute mark — as has been the case midway through the first and second halves of every match at the global showcase — proceedings were halted for the mandated, much-maligned hydration break.
This one felt especially unnecessary.
Boos cascaded down from Toronto Stadium’s four grandstands splashed with yellow and red jerseys Wednesday night. The temperature sat at 19 C with light rain and a breeze on the shores of Lake Ontario.
Many fans in the crowd sported ponchos. Some reporters in the press tribune wore coats and sipped warm beverages. Still, the teams trudged to the sidelines for water and a chat with coaches.
The breaks were introduced to combat heat and humidity for the tournament being held in the United States, Canada and Mexico with an eye toward player safety. They have also drawn the ire of fans and pundits for disrupting flow and allowing tactical changes that would normally take place at halftime.
Panama head coach Thomas Christiansen said Ghana, which picked up a dramatic 1-0 victory with late winner, tweaked its approach during the first hydration back after his team came out with a different look in midfield.
“It didn’t help,” Christiansen said of the hydration stoppage. “They changed the system in that moment. We saw it. If you do a break, it’s to make corrections and also the weather, (but) it was not hot.”
And while the welfare of players is a legitimate concern when temperatures hit 32 C — the usual FIFA threshold for water breaks — there’s a feeling the move is about advertising dollars.
Daniel Keir, an associate professor in the Western University’s school of kinesiology, said warmer global temperatures make the stoppages a good idea, but only under specific parameters.
“It disrupts momentum, especially for the team that’s doing well,” Keir, who played the sport during his undergraduate studies, said in a phone interview. “If you’re carrying the play and you’re really bringing it to the other team, any break will cause a break in that momentum and could shift the game towards a different outcome. I find that it’s unnecessary, particularly if the conditions are not warranting a hydration break.
“Maybe it is a ploy by the federation to get some more advertising revenue.”
A number of broadcasters, including TSN in Canada, have been cutting to commercial during the breaks, a move that makes the viewing experience a lot more like a North American football game than matches at previous World Cup tournaments.
A percussion group entertained fans during both of Wednesday’s hydration breaks, the rain bouncing off their instruments.
Canadian defender Alistair Johnston’s team tied its opener against Croatia about 10 minutes after the second-half break Friday when temperatures were around 25 C.
“It’s probably making some more money for FIFA,” Johnston said this week in Vancouver ahead of Canada’s match indoors against Qatar on Thursday. “Hydration break turned into a commercial break. “
Advanced statistics also show teams have been consistently losing or gaining momentum after the stoppages.
“It is very different,” Johnstone said. “Usually, the only time to really break momentum is whether someone goes down with an injury or at halftime. But now it’s suddenly split into quarters, and each 20-minute, 22-minute block is very different than the next.
“If things aren’t going your way, you’re able to regroup, talk to the coaching staff.”
FIFA ruled the breaks would occur regardless of the weather, venue or location to “ensure equal conditions for all teams, in all matches.”
“It’s nice to get a water break, I guess, partway through a match,” Johnston added. “But if you’re playing in Vancouver and the roof’s closed, it seems a little counterintuitive.
“But that’s football. And we’ll see how long that stays for.”
Ghana head coach Carlos Queiroz, who is at his fifth World Cup, said now is not the time for debate.
“If the players play in extremely humid environments and heated environments, they needed the water,” he said. “In other games, I have some doubts … at the end of the World Cup, we need an integrity report about what happened.
“Make a conclusion if this decision was made by marketing reasons or really to protect the health of the players.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 17, 2026.
-With files from Gemma Karstens-Smith in Vancouver.
Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press