Sunday, June 15, 2014

2014 World Cup Bracket in Excel

I’m a pretty big sports fan but I have to admit I’ve never really followed the World Cup before. I had many readers asking if I’ve ever made a World Cup bracket in Excel so this year I decided to do a little research to learn more about the world’s most popular sporting event. If you're an ignorant American like me you can use this template to learn more about the World Cup format. Here's what the bracket looks like, then I'll explain how it works:


2014 world cup bracket in excel


The FIFA World Cup tournament begins with 32 teams from six continents and takes place once every four years. The teams are initially placed into a group of four. The team groupings are shown below:

2014 fifa world cup team groupings


The host country, Brazil, has won five World Cups and is one of the favorites to win this year. After all group matches are finished, the top two team of each groups will advance to the round of sixteen. Here's the format of the remaining rounds:

world cup format


That's how it works! The spreadsheet also includes the FIFA World Cup schedule, TV stations you can catch the games on, and where each game is going to be played. Few are giving Team USA a chance to advance past that stage, let alone make a run toward the final.

World Cup time means it's time for that weird guy at work to really shine because he knows all the special rules. In the spreadsheet I even included a sheet on World Cup terminology:  it’s not a uniform, it’s a “kit”, they’re not shoes; they’re boots, it’s not soccer, it’s football! Now you won’t be clueless when watching the games in a bar throughout the next month.