I was just looking at the Women's World Cup bracket. Does anyone know why FIFA doesn't arrange it so that teams from the same group are on the same side of the bracket (so they'd meet in the semifinals) instead of on opposite sides (so they'd meet in the finals)? For example, look at the Netherlands, the US, Sweden, and South Africa, all of whom finished first and second in Groups E and G, respectively. The US plays Sweden on Sunday and the Netherlands plays South Africa. Suppose, for discussion purposes, that both teams from either group win their games (either the Netherlands and the US both advance or Sweden and South Africa both advance) and then also win their quarterfinal games on August 11. They would then play each other in the semifinals in Auckland on August 15.
Why don't they put one of the first-place teams and one of the second-place teams on the other side of the bracket (say, swap the US–Sweden game for the Jamaica–TBD game and make corresponding adjustments with the other groups) so as to avoid rematches of group-stage games unless and until both teams from a given group advance to the finals? I recognize that was impossible in the days of a smaller World Cup when you could have three teams advancing from a particular group, which meant at least two teams from a group that advanced three had to be on the same side of the bracket, so perhaps they shrugged it off at that time and now "it's just the way they do it." But my gut tells me there's probably something else given that the Europeans have lots of strange rules.
