Not much really to do with soccer this, but initially I found Steve Fainaru's befuddlement over the World Baseball Classic's group stage tiebreaker... befuddling. When three teams are tied in a four team group, the teams that progress into the knockout stage are the ones that allow the least runs per inning against the other tied teams. What's so bewildering about that?
But it's worth remembering that each sport has different mathematical discourses. Soccer fans are thoroughly comfortable with sorting out ties based on scores, but those who aren't baseball fans probably find baseball's spreadsheet-like scoreboards and emphasis on percentages extremely impenetrable. Something as simple as the clock counting up instead of down throws a lot of new soccer watchers (hence MLS's initial decision to have a countdown.)
Incidentally, as a patriotic non-baseball fan, I found Canada's 8-6 victory over the US pretty damn funny.
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The consolation, as Steve Colbert notes, is that Americans can always rest assured that they will win the World Series! So this loss doesn't matter, right?
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