What You Need to Know About The World Cup
By: Ashton Macedonio
The World Cup is a soccer tournament made up of thirty-two nations from around the world. All are competing for the world’s most prestigious trophy. The 2022 World Cup in Qatar officially kicked off on Sunday, November 20, 2022. This year’s World Cup has captured the attention of people throughout the world who normally wouldn’t be interested in soccer.
The first World Cup took place in Uruguay in 1930 with the host nation coming out victorious. Only eight nations have ever won the World Cup. Brazil has been the most successful with five titles. Italy and Germany each have four. France, Uruguay, and Argentina all have two cups. And England and Spain each have one World Cup to their name.
As this season wrapped up in December, a bidding procedure began again to determine the host country of the next tournament in 2026. Teams wishing to compete will play a number of games against each other. Automatic qualification spots will be awarded to those who finish high enough in their respective groups. Those who fall just short, will be put into a playoff where they will go head to head to finish off the World Cup roster. The host nation of the tournament is automatically granted a spot in the World Cup amongst the other thirty-one qualifying nations.
Once the thirty-two teams are determined, the qualifiers break into eight groups of four. Each team will play against the other three nations in their group and will be awarded three points for a win, one point for a draw, and zero points for a loss. The top two teams in each group will advance to the round of sixteen where the competition switches to single game elimination.
Unlike in the group stage, draws are not a possibility in the knockout stage. If a game is level at the end of ninety minutes, the game will then go to extra time where the teams will play two fifteen minute halves. If there is still no winner, the game will then go into a penalty shootout until the winner is decided.
For the 2022 game, the four quarter final matchups were set. Croatia was set to play Brazil who had looked dominant throughout the tournament. The Netherlands coming off of an impressive 3-1 win against the US, faced off against Argentina led by Lionel Messi who is still searching for his first World Cup. If Messi wins, it will complete his nearly perfect resume.
The third quarter final matchup consisted of the Cinderella story of this year’s tournament in Morocco. They defeated Spain in a penalty shootout which came as a surprise to all. Morocco will played Portugal who came off a 6-1 thrashing over Switzerland.
The final quarter final matchup was England who was hungry to get their first win in a major tournament since 1966. They went go toe-to-toe with the defending champions in France who looked just as sharp as they did in 2018 when they won their last cup, and this strength effectively secured their win to play off against Argentina.
But the triumph of the 2022 season was Argentina. A country that was in need of a moral boost since there country has been greatly struggling economically and politically. The win was greatly celebrated.
