A Simple Guide to Group Standings & 3rd Place Qualification (And why you shouldn't overanalyze it)

Since the World Cup expanded to its massive new format, I’ve seen a lot of confusion around how the standings work. Some of our new friends from North America love to overanalyze every single mathematical scenario, but this system isn't actually new. The World Cup used the exact same "best 3rd-placed teams" rule back in 1994 (ironically, when the US last hosted it), the only difference being that there were fewer groups back then (6 groups instead of the current format). So, let’s break do...