Your World Cup Semifinal Rooting Guide

If your country’s out, here’s who you should root for.

The World Cup semifinals are Tuesday and Wednesday, 2 p.m. Eastern Time, the perfect excuse for some mid-December day drinking. (They are usually the perfect excuse for some mid-July day drinking, and they will return to that purpose in perpetuity in 3 1/2 years, don’t you worry.) I am still stricken — if encouraged! — by the United States’ team’s exit from the tournament in the Group of 16, but that doesn’t mean I’m not paying attention to the tournament anymore. It’s too fun, too thrilling, too global to quit once your team is gone. Thus, here is a rooting guide for the unaffiliated, a Rootability Rankings for the four semifinal teams left.

1. Morocco. The biggest underdog to reach the semifinals in years, Morocco was 300-to-1 to win the World Cup heading in but now is two wins away from doing something truly jaw-dropping. They are also, quite famously, the first-ever African team to reach the semifinals, which is a huge deal for the country and obviously throughout the continent. They are also the first country from the Arab World (as indelicate as that term is) to reach the semis. They also have…