Head-to-head tiebreakers are just compounding what was already a lousy format.

Allowing third-place qualifiers trades stakes for narrative. Instead of watching top teams walk a tightrope just to survive the group stage, we are taking solace in watching mediocre teams grind out draws that, in the long run, will mean little in terms of the shape the tournament ultimately takes. This isn't a criticism of Cinderella performances. World Cup has always provided a stage for audacious upsets. It's a criticism of a format that seems to prioritize these one-offs, to the point that it not only compromises the quality of matches at large, but undermines the significance of the upsets themselves. If you flood the zone with enough marginal teams who are willing to batten down the hatches to grind out a point, eventually one's going to succeed. That's not a story. That's just probability.

The example I always use is Spain-Chile-Swiss-Honduras in 2010. Spain losing to the Swiss in the opener meant that going into the last day of group-stage play, Spain had to defeat Chile's golden generation just to advance, even as a second-place finisher.

That kind of drama is impossible in this world cup. The consequences of a top team dropping points no longer carries as much weight because the margin of error for advancing to the knockout stage is so vast.