By: Eros ViDemantay
If anything, the 2022 World Cup has provided people with something interesting. On a Thursday, Japan defeats Spain. Germany fails to make it to the round of 16. Then on a Friday, South Korea does the improbable and defeats Portugal to also make it to the Kickoffs. One event after another, the World Cup continues to churn out headlines. It started even before most teams set foot in Al Bayt Stadium for the opening ceremonies; FIFA’s controversial decision to place the World Cup in Qatar - a country with anti-LGBT laws and terrible labor laws - gained massive criticism. Then, the World Cup was moved to the winter months of November and December in order to avoid the intense heat that sweeps over the Middle East during the summer months. Let’s not forget the endless amount of thirst for soccer players such as Cho Gue-Sung (who went from 20k followers to 2.1 million followers in 48 hours) and Kevin Alvarez, who have become heartthrobs for endless social media uses - and in some cases, the subject of marriage proposals! With the World Cup, there is always something to talk about.
By now we have entered the Round of 16, after several days of rochambeau with Group teams. There have been several surprises: several countries that were expected to make it to the bracket stages have been eliminated. Germany, a well-respected soccer team actually won the match against Costa Rica on Thursday, December 1st. But the upset of Spain’s loss to Japan meant that Germany no longer had enough points to advance. Ghana found themselves in a similar situation; after defeating South Korea on November 28th, it seemed likely for them to advance to the Round of 16. But then everything changed; Portugal’s defeat to South Korea meant that Uruguay - playing against Ghana - had to score another goal if they wanted to win. And when that didn’t happen, social media went into a frenzy.
From here, the scorekeeping gets much simpler; the Round of 16 is a simple bracket win-or-lose system. As we loom closer to Sunday, December 18th when the final match will be played, which teams are you hoping to win?
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