World Cup Week Two: Record Eight Draws, England Opens Wednesday, and International Fans Are Spending Thousands

Since the tournament kicked off, no World Cup in history has produced as many draws through 16 matches as this one. Eight games have ended level, according to BBC Sport. The previous record was seven, set in 1974, 1982, and 1986.

Monday's slate was the most striking: Spain 0-0 Cape Verde, Belgium 1-1 Egypt, Saudi Arabia 1-1 Uruguay, and Iran 2-2 New Zealand. For the first time since June 15, 1958, four World Cup matches on a single day all finished without a winner, per BBC Sport.

Why So Many Draws?

BBC Sport points to the expanded 48-team format as one likely factor. With only 16 of 48 teams eliminated after the group stage, the penalty for drawing your opener is lower than in any previous World Cup. According to data cited by BBC Sport from Football Meets Data, a team with three points and a goal difference of -1 still has an 87.5% chance of advancing. Three draws could be enough.

Heat is also a real variable. Belgium's draw with Egypt in Seattle was played in temperatures above 30°C at a midday kickoff. Belgium coach Rudi Garcia refused to cite conditions as an excuse, but he did note the pitch: "The grass really needed watering. It was very dry and as a result it was slowing the ball down." That's a facilities problem the host nations own.

European teams have been the ones underperforming expectations most visibly. Seven of the 10 European sides that have played through the first 16 matches failed to win. Germany, Scotland, and Sweden are the only three with victories. England, France, Portugal, and Croatia are still to play their openers as of Tuesday, June 16.

England Opens Wednesday, Already Dealing with Injuries

England's match against Croatia in Dallas is scheduled for Wednesday (21:00 BST), six days after the tournament began. Head coach Thomas Tuchel was already managing depth questions at fullback, and those got sharper when Tino Livramento suffered a calf injury in training, according to BBC Sport. Chelsea defender Trevoh Chalobah was called up as a replacement.

Chalobah has exactly one senior England cap, a 3-1 defeat to Senegal a year ago, per BBC Sport. He's a central defender by trade filling a fullback-depth role. The decision has renewed the debate over Tuchel's apparent preference for tall, physical defenders and his continued exclusion of Trent Alexander-Arnold, who was not in the squad. Tuchel chose Chalobah over calling up Alexander-Arnold.

The strongest argument for Tuchel's approach: major tournaments routinely punish experimental lineups, as Gareth Southgate found when he moved Alexander-Arnold into midfield at Euro 2024. Sticking with known defensive shapes is defensible. But Chalobah's thin international record and the fact he's playing out of position make this a genuine gamble, as BBC Sport's chief football writer Phil McNulty noted.

Between 12,000 and 15,000 England supporters are expected at each group stage game, according to the UK Football Policing Unit as reported by BBC Sport. Fans from England have purchased 89,000 tickets across all 104 matches. The official England Supporters' Travel Club allocation of 4,022 tickets sold out quickly. On FIFA's official resale site, the cheapest category-one ticket for the Croatia match was listed at £1,310 as of recent days, down from 984 listed tickets to 293, per BBC Sport.

The Price Is the Story

The cost complaints are legitimate and documented. In Qatar, group stage tickets were priced between £68.50 and £219. For England vs. Croatia, face-value tickets started at £198 and topped out at £523, with FIFA's resale site adding a 15% buyer's fee on top of already-inflated secondary prices, according to BBC Sport.

Thomas Concannon, who leads the Football Supporters' Association's England fans group, told BBC Sport in April that fans had been hoping prices would drop. They have not.

On the fan spending side, BBC spoke with Morten Oftedal, a Norwegian living in Atlanta who spent roughly $4,000 to bring his 82-year-old father to see Norway vs. Iraq in Massachusetts. That covered three match tickets at $380 each, hotel costs above $1,100, and $80 per person in stadium transport, with flights covered by 180,000 frequent flyer points. Cape Verde's 0-0 draw against Spain, a result that shocked a tournament, is now being studied as a tactical template by Scotland ahead of their Friday match against Morocco in Boston, per BBC Sport.

One Thing the Tournament Is Getting Right

Not everything is complaints and draws. NPR reported Tuesday that international visitors are having genuinely warm experiences outside the stadiums, discovering American regional food culture in cities they'd never visited. Tatsuya Takeuchi, a Japanese sports journalist covering the tournament, posted about Nashville's meat-and-three plates and was overwhelmed by local food recommendations. Scottish fan Shaun Alexander told NPR the hospitality he found in Texas defied the headlines about U.S. international tensions: "It's just remarkable the types of warmth that you kind of find and come across in the States."

The unresolved question heading into week two is whether the draw-heavy pattern holds as higher-ranked European teams enter play. England, France, and Portugal have not yet played. If Spain, the defending European champions, can't beat a 67th-ranked debutant, that question matters.