What makes football World Cups exciting?

I love using numbers to explain the world - and as a football fan, I can clearly tell you where I was for certain goals while some entire tournaments are a blur. Naturally, I pulled out a spreadsheet to see why.

I poked at metrics goals, extra time & penalties, fouls, close group stages etc - all to try and quantify what makes football World Cups feel electric.

What’s the point? Nothing much; just the joy of watching the beautiful game, lightly quantified.