From Adrenaline to Ambient: The World Cup Experience from Afar

Covering a World Cup tournament is an intense experience—your heart rate spikes 10-20 beats above normal, according to the author's smartwatch. The atmosphere, the stakes, and the constant action keep every journalist on edge. But watching from afar is a different story entirely. On a drowsy day by Lake Annecy, the author dozed off during the Netherlands vs Japan group stage fixture. The only memory? Virgil van Dijk's powerful header finding the far corner. Waking to a 2-1 scoreline, everyone w...