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📖 Football & Prediction Glossary

Every term you will hear during the World Cup, explained in plain English.

Football comes with its own vocabulary, and prediction games add a layer of their own on top. If you have ever nodded along to "they need a result to top the group on goal difference" without being totally sure what it meant, this page is for you. Below are the terms you will hear most often during the 2026 World Cup, grouped into tournament structure, scoring and match terms, and prediction terms, each with a short, plain explanation rather than a one-word stub. Keep it open in a tab during the matches.

Tournament structure

Group stage
The opening phase of the tournament, where the 48 teams are split into 12 groups of 4 and each team plays the other three in its group once. It decides who advances to the knockout rounds.
Knockout stage
The second phase, where losing a single match eliminates you. It runs from the Round of 32 through the Round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals, and the final.
Round of 32
A brand-new knockout round introduced for 2026. The 32 qualifying teams (the top two from each group plus the 8 best third-placed teams) meet here in the first elimination round.
Round of 16
The knockout round of the last 16 teams, reached by winning a Round of 32 match. In older 32-team World Cups this was the first knockout round.
Quarter-final
The round of the last 8 teams. Win here and you reach the semi-finals; lose and your tournament is over.
Semi-final
The round of the last 4 teams. The two winners go to the final; the two losers play a third-place match.
Best third-placed teams
The 8 highest-ranked teams that finished third in their groups. Because 2026 needs 32 knockout teams, these 8 join the 24 group winners and runners-up to fill the Round of 32.
Fixture
A scheduled match between two specific teams at a set date, time, and venue.

Scoring & match terms

Goal difference (GD)
Goals scored minus goals conceded across a team's matches. It is a key tiebreaker when teams are level on points, and in prediction games it is the margin you are often really trying to call.
Clean sheet
When a team concedes no goals in a match. Keeping a clean sheet is a sign of strong defending and often points to a low-scoring result.
Draw
A match that ends level, with both teams on the same score. In the group stage a draw earns each team one point; in the knockout stage a draw after 90 minutes goes to extra time.
Extra time
Two added periods of 15 minutes each, played in knockout matches that are level after 90 minutes. If still level after extra time, the match goes to a penalty shootout.
Penalty shootout
The tie-breaker used when a knockout match is level after extra time. Teams take turns shooting from the penalty spot until one side wins. It decides who advances when nothing else has.
Stoppage time
Extra minutes added by the referee at the end of each half to make up for time lost to injuries, substitutions, and other stoppages. Also called added time or injury time.
Tiebreaker
The rules used to rank teams that finish level on points, applied in order: goal difference first, then goals scored, then head-to-head results, and so on.

Prediction terms

Shotcall
To call your shot, that is, to commit to a prediction out loud before the match happens. It is also the name of this game: you call the score, then live with the result.
Exact score
Predicting the precise final scoreline, such as 2-1. It is the hardest prediction to land and the most rewarding, worth the most points in Shotcall's default scoring.
Champion pick
A long-range prediction of which team will win the whole tournament. The earlier you correctly lock it in, the more it is worth, since the answer becomes more obvious as the rounds go by.
Lockout
The deadline after which a prediction can no longer be changed. In Shotcall, predictions for a match lock at kickoff, so nobody can react to the action.
Leaderboard
The ranking of players in a group by total points earned. Climbing it is the whole point of friendly competition, even when no money is involved.
Prediction pool
A group of people who all make predictions and compare results, usually among friends, family, or coworkers. Shotcall is a digital, automated version of the classic office pool.
Underdog and upset
An underdog is the team expected to lose; an upset is when that team wins anyway. Spotting potential upsets is one of the best ways to gain ground in a prediction game.

Want to see these terms in action? The format guide shows how the group stage and knockouts fit together, and the prediction tips page turns this vocabulary into a strategy for calling results.

Now you speak the language

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