On June 4, 2010, the 19th FIFA World Cup commenced in South Africa, where 32 of the world's best soccer countries came together to do battle for the sport's ultimate prize.
Eight groups, containing four nations apiece, shaped the round-robin play. Here, teams have been competing for the past two-and-half weeks in an attempt to survive the group stage and advance to the Round of 16.
With group play officially two-thirds complete, beginning today, clubs will play their final match before the knockout stage begins.
Either that or they will play their final match period.
In a tournament where only half of the participating teams play past their three round-robin games, the pressure has now advanced to do-or-die mode. The next four days will determine who stays and who goes, and unfortunately for some, 16 teams will be gone by week's end.
As we enter into the final third of group play, the question on everyone's mind is, who the heck is actually going to advance in this darn tournament anyway? For the most part, the standings are so tight that it's really quite hard to tell.
And what happens in the event of a tie? Surely, we don't just flip a coin to determine who advances, do we? Well, not exactly. Not right away anyway.
FIFA outlines the World Cup tie-breaking procedure as shown below:
The ranking of each team in each group will be determined as follows:
a) greatest number of points obtained in all group matches; (this one isn't a tie-breaker - we already knew that)
b) goal difference in all group matches;
c) greatest number of goals scored in all group matches.
If two or more teams are equal on the basis of the above three criteria, their rankings will be determined as follows:
d) greatest number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned; (i.e. head-to-head)
e) goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned;
f) greater number of goals scored in all group matches between the teams concerned;
g) drawing of lots by the FIFA Organising Committee.
Did you happen to catch that last one? Drawing of lots? In other words, AT RANDOM! Are you kidding me? If we can't break a tie, FIFA is going to crumple up names, throw them in a hat, close their eyes and decide the fate of a nation?
Wow.
Entire countries wait for four years at a time to compete on this stage, and their fate may actually be in the hands of pure luck. If only I were kidding.
Italy, the defending World Cup champion, may actually find themselves in this exact position. Holding an identical standing to upstart New Zealand, if the Kiwis and the defending champs both earn a draw of matching score in their respective games on Thursday, bring out the hats because a-drawing we will go.
In an effort to help you figure out exactly what is at stake in the next four days of madness - and to help you work out precisely what your team needs to do to survive - the following is a breakdown of each group as they enter into the final matches of round-robin play. I'm confident that it will either help you tremendously, or leave you more confused than you ever were before you began reading this.
Hopefully, it's the former.
Before we begin, there are a couple of things that I can tell you with absolute certainty:
- The Netherlands and Brazil will be appearing in the Round of 16, as both clubs have clinched at least the No. 2 spot in their respective groups
- Cameroon and North Korea will not be appearing in the Round of 16, as both clubs have been officially eliminated
Beyond that, you're on your own. Good luck - you're probably going to need it.
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