Yes, this is going to make people who already don't like soccer like it even less. But it's actually possible that whether the U.S. advances on to the knockout round at the World Cup will depend on a coin flip.The easiest thing to do is just win, baby, against Algeria and the United States moves along. Losing that game means they don't advance, which, they wouldn't deserve to. However, ties are where it gets complicated.
As pointed out on Deadspin on Friday, here's the deal...
If the US ties Algeria AND Slovenia and England tie, it comes down to tiebreakers. Slovenia would win the group with 5 points, and England and America would be tied with 3 points.
The first tiebreaker is goal differential. The US and England would have tied all three matches. No winner.
Second tiebreaker is goals scored. As of now, the US has scored 3, while England has scored 1. So this is in the United States' favor, but let's assume somehow they wind up tied in goals...
Third tiebreaker is points obtained in head-to-head matches. The US and England tied.
Fourth tiebreaker is goal differential in head-to-head matches. Once again, the US and England tied.
Fifth tiebreaker is goals scored head-to-head. This is getting silly... but since the US and England tied, then obviously their goals scored head-to-head are the same. Well done so far, FIFA.
If the US and England are still tied after all the aforementioned tiebreakers, FIFA flips a coin to decide who moves on.
Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
6 comments:
I don't care. One of the last NFL tiebreakers is a coin flip so what does it matter? If the US plays like men other than mos of the rest of the World Cup teams we'll be fine.
A friend of mine that is very much into the World Cup likened the US soccer team to the Jamaican bobsled team. It is nice that they make it, but we don't really expect much from them.
What are you, a communist? Didn't you see Friday Night Lights? The most American sport in the world (West Texas high school football) came down to a coin toss.
I'm not from Indiana, but I'm just waiting for someone to do the research, show you a scenario where Indiana high school b-ball comes down to a coin toss, and watch your whole worldview crumble.
Repost from previous comment so everyone can keep track.
If England beats Slovenia and we beat Algeria, we advance.
If Slovenia beats England and we beat or tie Algeria, we advance.
If Slovenia and England tie and we beat Algeria, we advance.
If Slovenia and England tie and we tie Algeria, we advance only if we end up having scored more goals than England. Right now England has 1 and we have 3.
If England beats Slovenia and we tie Algeria, we're out.
If we lose, we're out.
I think FIFA has head-to-head goals in case there is a three-way tie. (We won't have one, but Group B could, if South Korea beat Nigeria and Greece beat Argentina.)
We can even win our group if we beat Algeria and:
a) England and Slovenia draw and we beat Algeria by more than one goal;
b) England and Slovenia draw, we beat Algeria by one goal, and in doing so, we score at least one more goal than Slovenia does against England (if we score the same, then you get into that drawing-of-lots thing);
c) England beats Slovenia, and their margin of victory is less than ours; or
d) England beats Slovenia by the same margin as ours over Algeria and they score no more than one more goal in their match than we do in ours (again, that drawing-of-lots thing returns if our margins are equal and England scores two more goals than we do).
Basically, if we outscore everyone else in Group C on Wednesday, good things will happen.
So what you're saying is if you score more points, you win.
Man, soccer is really hard to understand.
LOL!
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