Another day of good games. I’m really enjoying this, and any worries I had about the 48-team format producing a bunch of duds seem to have been unfounded. I guess there could still be some poor third games in groups that have already been decided.
I think I’m coming to the conclusion though that I don’t like having head-to-head as the first tiebreaker. It doesn’t seem right to me that Algeria could get stomped by Austria and Jordan somehow beat Argentina, and Jordan doesn’t get third place.
In fact you could get a funny scenario with that set of results. It could happen that Algeria gets third but doesn’t qualify with 3 points and poor goal differential, while Jordan gets fourth with 3 points and a goal differential that would qualify as a top-8 third place team, but they’re out as well.
Probably not a big deal in the scheme of things, but I like looking for weird edge cases.
I agree. I’ve seen it used before (Euros? Champions League? Not sure) and it is stupid, not least because it can take jeopardy out of the final round if it’s impossible for a team to qualify even if they can ‘catch’ another on points.
That is an excellent point and really does make a mockery of the rule.
Or even better, FIFA could change the format of the Cup and make every match-up a penalty-kick shoot-out instead of an entire match. Skip all that boring shit and go straight to the good stuff!
ETA: But maybe that’d be too short. Just add commercial breaks after every kick. That’d pad it out to a couple hours.
Doesn’t head-to-head competition come before GD as a tie-breaker?
If I understand the criticism, head-to-head is a tie-breaker for determining the order within a group, but it’s not a tie-breaker (and in fact, couldn’t be) for determining which of third place teams (8 teams out of 12 groups) advance to the knockout rounds, and which do not.
If @borschevsky is correct, Algeria could finish third in their group, and Jordan fourth, but Algeria would not advance to the round-of-32. However, were Jordan to finish third (and keeping the same points, goal differential, etc.) they would advance.
In the hypothetical, by the in-group tie-breakers, Algeria is ahead of Jordan. By the cross-group tie-breakers, Jordan is ahead of Algeria.
I think you’re right. There have been a number of games where a huge underdog has earned a draw with the favorite (Cape Verde/Spain, Portugal/DR Congo), but no underdog has actually won a game.
I did not know that. Apparently neither did the Fox announcers because all you heard until Pederson scored that first goal was how Norway had no chance.
I don’t recall hearing that and would find that odd. Haaland was by far the best player on the field, Norway are dark horses for a deep run. Odegaard is on a team that reached the UCL final, etc
Actually by FIFA rankings (I know, I know) Senegal is higher-ranked. Senegal is #15 and Norway is #31.
Remember Norway had a very rough qualifications, and I believe didn’t even qualify for Euros. Wasting prime Haaland and Odegaard has been seen as a bit of a scandal in Norway, I believe. I know in particular Odegaard has gotten a lot of stick for his performance for the national team - I enjoyed his assist yesterday for that reason.
Meanwhile Senegal “won” AFCON.
ETA: But yes, the touts had Norway as a favorite pre-match.
Norway doesn’t seem to have had a rough qualification? The won every game and had a massive GD and Haaland the top goal scorer for the entire competition. You’re correct about the Euros though, man that’s a letdown.
I am really enjoying this world cup, much more than I expected to. I prefer watching the games on Telemundo, but the later games get hard to follow in Spanish as I get sleepy, so I switch to Fox. Holy crap. About the only redeeming quality Fox Sports has is Zlatan Ibrahimovic. There is no way I can watch USA v Turkiye in English because every time these dumb announcers pronounce it Turkey-yay drives me up the friggin wall. And the religious advertising during the stupid hydration breaks. And Alexei friggin Lalas.
In Spanish, it’s Turquia - which is pronounced almost exactly how it’s pronounced in Turkish. English speakers see an umlaut and lose their minds for some reason.
Turkiye was a heavy favorite over Australia and a moderate favorite over Paraguay. In retrospect, their ranking is suspect, but at the time those were upsets.