I don't follow this game at all, but I did see the other day that the last game that USA played ended in a draw. That is just freaking ridiculous, play till someone wins or don't even bother.
The first part of the world cup has groups of four teams using the 'round robin' system, where you play every other team in your group, you get 3 points for winning a match and if there's a draw each team gets one point. The two teams that get the most number of points go through to the next round, although whether you come first or second determines who your next opponant might be, so there's still good reason to want to be best in the group.
The next round is a straight knock-out competition. From that point onwards, if they are tied at the end of the game they get given an extra half hour of play. If they're still tied it's a penalty shoot-out until someone wins.
Why use a group system for the first part of the tournament? Because it guarantees that each team will play at least three games (even if they lose them all), which means there's more opportunities to watch your national team on TV and the fans who travelled there wouldn't have to see their team get knocked out on the first day and they've spent all that money coming to Brazil for nothing.
Here in the UK we have the FA Cup competition, which is a straight knock-out contest, and leagues which use the 'round robin' system (although they play each team twice, once at home and once away). This second competition has ended up being waaaay more popular with supporters, in part because you end up with a situation where on the last day of the competition you have no idea which teams will be kicked out to a lower league until all the matches have finished, and two or three different teams could win depending on how well they do. It's considered much more dramatic.
Yes, although their latest match has not been
without controversy. Suarez's gonna get so much hate from the British press when he returns to his club here.
