England head coach Thomas Tuchel said the delay to their World Cup warm-up game with Costa Rica gave them a “little taste of what can happen” – but will that prove to be an understatement?
The match was due to start at 21:00 BST in Orlando, Florida, but heavy rain and thunderstorms pushed it back an hour to 22:00 BST.
Weather delays have been a major talking point in the build-up to this year’s World Cup, with several matches in last year’s Fifa Club World Cup in the United States impacted by thunderstorms.
This was not the first tournament warm-up game to suffer delays caused by storms either – and many fans are concerned it could become a theme throughout the World Cup.
“We were aware of that before – now we experience it,” Tuchel told ITV before the game. “It’s no problem.
“It should not be an excuse to lose our mood or patience or to lose our hunger to play the game.
“No problem at all. We realised it when we were still at the hotel so it was easy. We just said half an hour later in the bus and let’s go.”
Fans who had already arrived at Inter&Co Stadium were told to evacuate from the stands and retreat to a safe position on the concourses to avoid lightning strikes.
Thunderstorms in the US are not uncommon, but when it comes to them impacting matches, Fifa has no power to make its own rules and must adhere to the advice of local authorities.
Recommendations of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are used and they say if any lightning strike is detected within eight miles of a stadium, the game has to be stopped.
A mandatory 30-minute countdown begins and each time there is a lightning strike inside the distance, the countdown clock resets to 30 minutes.
If a full 30 minutes has elapsed, the supporters can go back to their seats and players will have a short warm-up.
