Juventus manager Igor Tudor has revealed the shocking extent of his players’ suffering during their Club World Cup exit, with double the number of permitted substitutions desperately needed due to extreme heat conditions.
Real Madrid knocked out the Italian giants 1-0 in Miami on Tuesday night, but the story behind Juventus’s defeat tells of a battle against more than just their opponents. The sweltering conditions at Hard Rock Stadium proved almost unbearable for Tudor’s squad.
Tudor admitted after the match, stating:
In the end, 10 players asked to be substituted. The exhaustion was incredible.
Ten Juventus players asked to be substituted during their 1-0 Club World Cup defeat to Real Madrid in Miami due to extreme heat and humidity conditions that left the squad exhausted…
Juventus manager Igor Tudor
With temperatures hitting 30°C and humidity levels reaching a suffocating 70%, the conditions became a major factor in the last-16 clash.
Football rules only allow five substitutions during normal time, meaning Tudor had to choose which half of his outfield players could be rescued from the punishing heat.
The Croatian manager explained:
There’s the tension of this match, which burns your energy. Then there’s this heat, which really gets to you, and the third thing that completes the conditions is playing in this humidity.
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Gonzalo Garcia’s goal proved enough for Real Madrid to progress, but Juventus weren’t the only team struggling with America’s brutal summer conditions during the tournament.
The extreme heat has become a major talking point throughout the Club World Cup, affecting matches across the United States. Borussia Dortmund’s manager Niko Kovac described feeling like he was “sweating like I’ve just come out of a sauna” during his team’s group match in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Temperatures reached a scorching 36°C during Benfica’s victory over Bayern Munich in Charlotte, North Carolina, whilst Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca said it was “impossible” to run normal training sessions during a “code red” heat warning in Philadelphia.
FIFA has implemented mandatory cooling breaks in 33 out of 56 matches when conditions become dangerous, using the wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) system that combines heat and humidity measurements.
Real Madrid v Juventus
However, the global players’ union Fifpro believes the current safety measures don’t go far enough, calling for cooling breaks when WBGT exceeds 28°C and match delays when it surpasses 32°C.
With the United States set to host next year’s World Cup, experts are already suggesting radical solutions, including moving the final to 9am local time if similar extreme conditions persist.
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For Juventus, their American adventure ended in defeat and exhaustion, with Tudor’s revelation highlighting just how challenging playing football in such conditions can be for even elite athletes.
