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Opening show at Iran vs. USA: "Every game comes off the shelf"
Photo: Ali Haider/EPA
Before the eleventh game, the question of meaning arises for the first time: Why do I have to watch a match between Tunisia and Australia on a Saturday afternoon?
I narrowly miss the last media shuttle to Al Janoub Stadium, it would be the opportunity to break off the self-experiment.
But then I fight for this game at the other end of town: hasty marches over glowing asphalt, two metro rides, one fan bus.
I'll make it in time.
The series held up.
And it lasted until last Friday night.
Switzerland against Serbia was my last group game of the World Cup.
number 24
Why is Jürgen Klinsmann watching South Korea vs Ghana?
In South Korea-Ghana, game number 15, I happened to be sitting next to Jürgen Klinsmann, the former national coach who works for Fifa's Technical Study Group.
He said dutifully, 'Being able to watch two games a day is an opportunity that will never come again.
In four years we'll just be sitting on a plane.« In 2026 the World Cup will take place in the USA, Canada and Mexico, in three countries, two of which are among the largest in the world.
In 2014 in Brazil I was in seven games, only the German ones, the distances didn't allow for more.
Now the tournament takes place in a single city with fast subways and wide highways, in Doha.
FIFA allowed you to be accredited for two games a day or - if you travel as a fan - to buy tickets.
I wanted to find out: is it possible to pull this off?
Two games in a row on twelve days?
Or does the best and most prominent football player become an overdose?
I saw live how Iran's players kept their lips shut during the national anthem.
I was there when Argentina's superiority against Saudi Arabia crumbled (number 3).
I was in the stands when Spain filleted Costa Rica 7-0 (number 6) and Brazilian Richarlison put the ball on himself for a side kick against the burly Serbs (number 8).
It happened before my eyes that Niklas Füllkrug let the German team live on (number 14).
I saw Cristiano Ronaldo goofing around at Lusail Stadium as if Bruno Fernandes' goal had been his (number 16).
My eyes were on the scene where Lionel Messi let Robert Lewandowski, approaching an apology for a foul, sense: You're not in my league (number 18).
I saw the self-despairing Belgian Romelu Lukaku smash a pane of glass (number 21) and Japan in historic millimeter luck against Spain (number 22).
Big stories.
But they fade quickly because the next one demands your full attention.
In the afternoon, the impressions of Argentina's conqueror Saudi Arabia dominated the emotional world, the sentences of the winning goal scorer, who mentions God in every sentence, reverberate - and a few hours later it's Kylian Mbappé's show at France - Australia (number 4 ).
The story that Yaounde-born Breel Embolo (number 7) enabled Switzerland to win against Cameroon is so powerful that it would have to sit for a day or two – but in the evening it was washed away by Neymar's tears when he has to leave the field with a thick ankle.
Always the same show
From the second week, I wrestle in my mind to reconstruct the first week and my first game.
Only the World Cup calendar brings back the memory: England – Iran, of course, 6:2.
Perhaps forgetting is promoted by the fact that many parts can no longer be distinguished.
This is due to Fifa and Qatar.
The world association wrote a script for all matches.
What happens on the pitch is always embedded in the same show: Volunteers drive an oversized World Cup to the center circle, it's getting dark, there are fireworks, before the game the World Cup hits roar out of the boxes, in the half-time break comes first Coldplay's star song, then DJs perform in front of the fan blocks.
Every game comes off the shelf, which causes pleasant astonishment in the audience, which is articulated in ahs and ohs.
In addition, there is the interchangeability of the stages.
Of the eight, the mighty Lusail Iconic, the Al-Bayt Bedouin tent placed in the desert, the original 974 container construction and the somewhat older Khalifa Stadium, which is also used for athletics, have their own character.
But Al Ahmad, Al Janoub, Al Thumama and Education City are somewhat smaller clones of the Allianz Arena concept, and only the facades offer nuances.
The way to them does not lead through developed housing estates with cafés along the way, but over parking lot landscapes with no one.
A game no longer connects to its environment.
And the weather is always good, there is no downpour over a coach like in 2014 in Recife, Brazil over Joachim Löw.
I can no longer merge the games and stadiums in all cases.
By game 15, I've been to every arena at least once.
How many teams did I see?
For a long time I thought I missed Morocco.
But no, I was with Croatia – Morocco (number 5).
Canada and Mexico are missing, as is the Netherlands.
But I'm going to their round of 16.
I will have seen 30 teams out of 32.
So at the big buffet I only didn't touch two parts.
After a week I felt tired and stuffed, but over the course of the second week I felt lighter again.
Japan vs Spain flooded me with adrenaline.
It works now.
From the round of 16 you are only allowed to play one game a day.
But that's still ten possibilities.
I can play 34 games, more than half of the entire World Cup program, and with the opulent overtime it's more anyway.
Another one that would increase the official number to 35 I gambled away right at the beginning.
I only saw the opening game, which was brought forward by a day, at the Fan Festival.
I forgot the specifics.