The third day of the World Cup and the first to have a quadruple header is finished, which means eight more teams made their debut in the tournament on Saturday.
As we do every night following the final game, it’s time to rank all the teams that have played at the World Cup.
Remember, the rankings are based solely off what they’ve shown at the tournament, and not based off how well I think they’ll do in the long run.
Here’s how I see things going into Day 4.
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Elite Tier
- United States of America (Group D)
- South Korea (Group A)
- Australia (Group D)
- Morocco (Group C)
- Brazil (Group C)
- Mexico (Group A)
USA’s 4-1 drumming of Paraguay keep them at the top spot, followed by South Korea who always had stylish, enjoyable play against Czechia in their win. Australia might not be the third best team at the tournament, but they deserve massive credit following their 2-0 win over Turkey that was planned to perfection. They played stellar team defense, countered the best of any team thus far this World Cup, and had incredible goalkeeping to go along with it.
Neither Morocco or Brazil were in their peak form on Saturday, but both teams showed why they’re favorites to possibly make a deep run this competition.
Scotland Tier
Scotland gets its own tier for being a team that has won a game but the scoreline didn’t truly reflect their play. They barely hung on against a Haiti team they were expected to handle, and they’ll need to be much better against Morocco and Brazil if they want another point in Group C.
Group B Tier
- 8. Canada (Group B)
- 9. Switzerland (Group B)
- 10. Bosnia & Herzegovina (Group B)
- 11. Qatar (Group B)
Anyone can win this group, including Qatar.
Disappointing Tear
- 12. Czechia (Group A)
- 13. Haiti (Group C)
- 14. Turkey (Group D)
- 15. Paraguay (Group D)
- 16. South Africa (Group A)
Turkey were looked as a legitimate dark horse this World Cup and imploded in their first game against Australia, failing to do anything with over 70% possession and 30 shots. By the end of the game, after getting counterattacked twice that ended in goals, Turkish players were visibly frustrated. The team will need more creative play from someone other than Arda Güler if they still want to challenge for first in Group C.
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