{"id":5550,"date":"2026-06-28T18:08:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T18:08:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=5550"},"modified":"2026-06-28T18:08:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T18:08:40","slug":"inside-the-world-cup-knockout-stage-bracket-some-teams-have-an-easier-path-than-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=5550","title":{"rendered":"Inside the World Cup knockout stage bracket: Some teams have an easier path than others"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
Argentina\u2019s Lionel Messi (10) celebrates scoring his side\u2019s 3rd goal during the World Cup Group J soccer match between Jordan and Argentina in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas, Saturday, June 27, 2026. (AP Photo\/Tony Gutierrez)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. \u2014 If the World Cup<\/a> was 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.<\/p>

Read more Angels interim GM John Mozeliak embarks on ambitious agenda to turn perennial losers into winners<\/a><\/p>\n

Lionel Messi and Argentina, on the other hand, probably wouldn\u2019t complain much about their potential path to the World Cup final four.<\/p>\n

The bracket is set for the knockout stage of the World Cup. There was no selection committee; slots were predetermined \u2014 Group A winner on this line, Group D runner-up on this line, etc. \u2014 so it wasn\u2019t exactly like how the NCAA tournaments go. And FIFA doesn\u2019t reseed like some sports, so a couple lower seeds are certain to get into at least the Round of 16.<\/p>\n

So, when taking the 32 qualifiers for the knockout stage and ranking them like it\u2019s an NCAA tournament \u2014 essentially seeding the field 1 to 32 based on the FIFA live rankings entering Sunday \u2014 it\u2019s easy to see why some \u201cregions\u201d might be tougher to navigate than others.<\/p>\n

A breakdown of the World Cup bracket:<\/p>\n

\u2014 Quarterfinal: July 9 at Foxborough, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Round of 32 matchups: No. 12 Germany vs. No. 27 Paraguay, No. 2 France vs. No. 26 Sweden, No. 29 South Africa vs. No. 25 Canada, No. 7 Netherlands vs. No. 6 Morocco.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Outlook: Netherlands vs. Morocco in the Round of 32 means that at least one of the seven highest-ranked teams left in the tournament won\u2019t even get to the Round of 16. France and Germany \u2014 perennial European powers \u2014 could meet in the Round of 16. And the South Africa-Canada winner might have to change time zones twice on its way to the quarterfinals, while Germany, Paraguay, France and Sweden will all be in either Massachusetts, New Jersey or Pennsylvania in the Rounds of 32 and 16.<\/p>\n

\u2014 If the seeds hold: France would play Morocco in the quarterfinal.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Quarterfinal: July 10 at Inglewood, California.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Round of 32 matchups: No. 8 Portugal vs. No. 13 Croatia, No. 3 Spain vs. No. 18 Austria, No. 14 United States vs. No. 30 Bosnia and Herzegovina, No. 10 Belgium vs. No. 17 Senegal.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Outlook: The U.S. gets one of the lowest-ranked teams left in the tournament to open the Round of 32 and would remain in the Pacific time zone until the semifinals. Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal did not get an easy draw at all, with Croatia right off the bat and then potentially Spain in the Round of 16. (Can\u2019t imagine Spain is too thrilled with this, either.) Belgium vs. Senegal is in Seattle, and the winner will stay there to play the U.S. match winner; that\u2019s a big break for weary legs.<\/p>\n

\u2014 If the seeds hold: Spain would play Belgium in the quarterfinal.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Quarterfinal: July 11 at Miami Gardens, Florida.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Round of 32 matchups: No. 5 Brazil vs. No. 16 Japan, No. 24 Ivory Coast vs. No. 19 Norway, No. 9 Mexico vs. No. 20 Ecuador, No. 4 England vs. No. 28 Congo.<\/p>

Read more Uruguay and Man United midfielder Manuel Ugarte sustains knee ligament damage at the World Cup<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Outlook: Mexico and England will be heavily favored in their Round of 32 matches, then would be in line to go head-to-head in the Round of 16 \u2014 in what would be a road game at Mexico City for England. And Mexico is one of only two teams not to surrender a goal in the group stage, with Spain being the other. Brazil gets a bit of an easier path to the quarterfinals, opening with Japan and then \u2014 if it wins \u2014 drawing the Ivory Coast-Norway winner.<\/p>\n

\u2014 If the seeds hold: Brazil would play England in the quarterfinal.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Quarterfinal: July 11 at Kansas City, Missouri.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Round of 32 matchups: No. 1 Argentina vs. No. 31 Cape Verde, No. 22 Australia vs. No. 21 Egypt, No. 15 Switzerland vs. No. 23 Algeria, No. 11 Colombia vs. No. 32 Ghana.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Outlook: Again, there is no \u201cselection committee,\u201d but if there was it would have gotten this one right by putting the best goalscorer in Argentina\u2019s Lionel Messi against the tournament\u2019s best story in Cape Verde in the Round of 32. And Messi gets to be at home in Miami Gardens, a few miles from Inter Miami\u2019s stadium for that matchup. Australia or Egypt awaits the Argentina match winner, Switzerland-Algeria has potential for a lot of goals, and Colombia faces a Ghana team with nothing to lose.<\/p>\n

\u2014 If the seeds hold: Argentina would play Colombia in the quarterfinal.<\/p>\n

News and notes about the Round of 32 matchups:<\/p>\n

\u2014 France, Mexico and Argentina were the only teams to escape group play with 3-0-0 records.<\/p>\n

\u2014 There are four Round of 32 matchups between unbeaten teams: Netherlands (2-0-1) vs. Morocco (2-0-1), Belgium (1-0-2) vs. Senegal (1-0-2), Brazil (2-0-1) vs. Japan (1-0-2) and Argentina (3-0-0) vs. Cape Verde (0-0-3).<\/p>\n

\u2014 Expect some goals in France vs. Sweden (combined 17 goals in the group stage), Netherlands-Morocco (16), Belgium-Senegal (14), Brazil-Japan (14) and U.S.-Bosnia and Herzegovina (13).<\/p>\n

\u2014 On the flip side, the first goal of Mexico-Ecuador might be that match\u2019s decider. Mexico wasn\u2019t scored on in group play and Ecuador surrendered only two goals in those three matches.<\/p>\n

\u2014 The semifinal matchups are the winner of the Foxborough quarterfinal against the winner of the Inglewood quarterfinal (at Arlington, Texas on July 14) and the winner of the Miami Gardens quarterfinal against the winner of the Kansas City quarterfinal (at Atlanta on July 15). The final is at East Rutherford, New Jersey on July 19.<\/p>

Read more Guardians activate Chase DeLauter off the injured list<\/a><\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See more of AP\u2019s World Cup coverage here.<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The World Cup knockout stage is set, and some teams might feel like they\u2019ve drawn the short straw<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nInside the World Cup knockout stage bracket: Some teams have an easier path than others - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=5550\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Inside the World Cup knockout stage bracket: Some teams have an easier path than others - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The World Cup knockout stage is set, and some teams might feel like they\u2019ve drawn the short straw\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=5550\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-28T18:08:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/7eb7e2c92696af63176c03b9621a1ae9-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=5550#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=5550\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"Inside the World Cup knockout stage bracket: Some teams have an easier path than others\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-28T18:08:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=5550\"},\"wordCount\":968,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=5550#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/a671d23e065b6856a08197065680164f-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=5550#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=5550\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=5550\",\"name\":\"Inside the World Cup knockout stage bracket: Some teams have an easier path than others - Moving Insider USA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=5550#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=5550#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/a671d23e065b6856a08197065680164f-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-28T18:08:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=5550#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=5550\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=5550#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/a671d23e065b6856a08197065680164f-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/a671d23e065b6856a08197065680164f-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"Argentina's Lionel Messi (10) celebrates scoring his side's 3rd goal during the World Cup Group J soccer match between Jordan and Argentina in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas, Saturday, June 27, 2026. 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