Teams deal with hot weather
With the severe heat covering the entire eastern United States, adapting to the weather has become a major focus for coaches and players.
Borussia Dortmund took an unusual step by letting their substitutes go into the dressing room in the first half of the match against Mamelodi Sundowns in Cincinnati, rather than letting them sit on the bench in the bright sunlight.
Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca cut his team's training session in Philadelphia, when the outside temperature reached 37.2 degrees Celsius.
Meanwhile, Dortmund coach Niko Kovac said that the weather could decide the fate of the tournament.
"I think this tournament will not be decided by the best team, but by the team that can adapt best to this weather," Kovac said.
While taking a break between sets has become a trend throughout the tournament, Dortmund, like the other teams, are taking additional steps to reduce the heat and harsh moisture.
The FIFA Club World Cup 2025 can be considered aaphy before the 2026 World Cup takes place in the US, Canada and Mexico.
A recent study published in the International Journal of Biometrics and Hydrometeorology has warned about the risks of the high temperatures at the tournament for players and audiences, considering climate change as the cause of "extreme high temperature" phenomena, "more frequent and more intense".
The study concluded that 14 out of 16 cities hosting the 2026 World Cup have temperatures that regularly exceed the accepted safety threshold, compared to the wet-water temperature (WBGT) - an index used to assess the level of heat stress.
Research suggests that games should be scheduled outside of the late afternoon, when weather conditions are typically the harshest.
Worry about being hit by lightning
In addition to the harsh hot and humid weather, the teams participating in the Club World Cup also have to face the situation of matches being suspended due to the risk of lightning.
The match between Boca juniors and Auckland City became the 5th match in the tournament that had to be postponed for a long time, due to the use of public safety regulations in the US. Accordingly, the match must stop at any time when there is lightning within a range of 16.1 km (10 miles) from the stadium.
The match between Benfica and Auckland was postponed due to bad weather, causing the match to be suspended for nearly two hours.
Ben Schott, an official with the National Weather Service, a consultant for FIFA and the US World Cup 2023 task force, said that the type of weather affecting the tournament is not unusual and teams and fans should plan accordingly next year.
Although hot weather was a problem when the US hosted the 1994 World Cup finals, none of the tournament's matches were stopped due to a hurricane warning.
Schott said this is due to increasingly sophisticated forecasting technology.
"We are at a time when we can start seeing things nearly a week in advance and predict them quite accurately, compared to 15-20 years ago. The progress in meteorology since we last hosted the World Cup here in 1994 has been remarkable," Schott said.
According to Schott, thunderstorms are a "common" phenomenon in some parts of North America. According to him, this is a typical weather pattern in the US at this time of year, because a lot of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico blows in, causing thunderstorms to appear.
Schott stressed that the same thing could happen at the 2026 World Cup. However, FIFA has not yet spoken out about these issues.
