“Why is that so alien to you?”
Where did I say I enjoyed watching basketball at the Olympics? I don’t like a lot of their screwy tournament structures either.
And you are incorrectly conflating the NFL/NBA/MLB S-E-A-S-O-N with the World Cup F-I-N-A-L-S.
The World Cup already had its equivalent of a Season, with all its qualifiers, and that is over and done with. They’re in the ‘playoffs’ now...and the US made it to the 4th round by winning ONE game.
If you have four teams in a group, with two advancing, how would you determine who advances?