MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — If the World Cup were the NCAA basketball tournament, then teams like Morocco and the Netherlands would have some serious anger toward the selection and seeding committee right now. England, Mexico, Portugal and Spain might not be all that happy, either.
Lionel Messi and Argentina, on the other hand, probably wouldn’t complain much about their potential path to the World Cup final four.
The bracket is set for the knockout stage of the World Cup. There was no selection committee; slots were predetermined — Group A winner on this line, Group D runner-up on this line, etc. — so it wasn’t exactly like how the NCAA tournaments go. And FIFA doesn’t reseed like some sports, so a couple lower seeds are certain to get into at least the Round of 16.
So, when taking the 32 qualifiers for the knockout stage and ranking them like it’s an NCAA tournament — essentially seeding the field 1 to 32 based on the FIFA live rankings entering Sunday — it’s easy to see why some “regions” might be tougher to navigate than others.