Australia, the World Cup’s Unluckiest Country
We simulated tens of thousands of possible draws using the FIFA rules and compared how good or bad the actual draw for each country is.
A good draw means that a team starts in a group with teams that are equally strong or weaker. Repectively, a bad draw is one where a team starts in a group with much stronger teams.
As it turned out, Mexico was the luckiest country in the 2014 World Cup, and Australia was the unluckiest.
In collaboration with David Leonhardt.
Appeared on The New York Times