France 98 saw 171 goals, the most of any world cup. the last world cup had only 145, but both of these are a far cry from the high scoring world cups (ratio wise) of old, notably Switzerland 1954 which averaged 5.38 goals per game (vs. 2.67 of france 98)! I've been told that the game has become more attacking the last few years, how many goals do you guys think we'll be seeing in brazil? will this tournament set a new record? YearTeamsMatchesGoalsTop scorerAverage goals 193013187083.89 193416177054.12 193815188474.67 195015228894.00 19541626140115.38 19581635126133.60 196216328942.78 196616328992.78 1970163295102.97 197416389772.55 1978163810262.68 1982245214662.81 1986245213262.54 1990245211562.21 1994245214162.71 1998326417162.67 2002326416182.52 2006326414752.30 2010326414552.27 Most and fewest in bold.
There, a bit more legible. Code: Year Teams Matches Goals Average goals 1930 13 18 70 3.89 1934 16 17 70 4.12 1938 15 18 84 4.67 1950 15 22 88 4.00 1954 16 26 140 5.38 1958 16 35 126 3.60 1962 16 32 89 2.78 1966 16 32 89 2.78 1970 16 32 95 2.97 1974 16 38 97 2.55 1978 16 38 102 2.68 1982 24 52 146 2.81 1986 24 52 132 2.54 1990 24 52 115 2.21 1994 24 52 141 2.71 1998 32 64 171 2.67 2002 32 64 161 2.52 2006 32 64 147 2.30 2010 32 64 145 2.27 Most in Red Fewest in Green (Ignore because the code tool is useless here... )
That 1954 result got me interested. Seems they had a unique format in 1954, relative difference in skills of the teams plus the domination of the Hungarian team throughout the tournament (until the final!) led to the huge amount of goals. Interesting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_FIFA_World_Cup I would really love to see an attacking World Cup, but i'm not sure teams play the same style as France '98 As to your question, picking the number of goals scored in the tournament is one of the tie-breaker questions in my rankings game (the other is at what minute the first goals will be scored), and i think there will be 155
Let's hope the trend (four straight World Cups with declining goal average) ends. I'm guessing 2.4 per game. Personally, I'd prefer 2.7 or 2.8 - that seems to be a good balance of scoring and defense. But I don't think we'll get there this year. 2010 was pretty low-scoring, but that was mostly in the group stages. The tournament really picked up in the knockout rounds.
The problem with the last few editions of the World Cup is that some of the smaller teams don't play to win,they play not to lose...Algeria in 2010 comes to mind...I predict that it's gonna be quite similar to the last World Cup group stage wise....and the problem that comes with that is many ugly/boring matches due to anti-football... My prediction: 150...
154 goals so far, already more than in south africa four years ago (which was 145). Average goals per game is 2.75. No way is this world cup breaking the record for average goals per game (5.38 from 1954) but there is another record up for grabs: Most total goals - 171 (France 1998) Currently we stant at 154, that means 17 goals to be scored over the final 8 games to tie the record. That means just over 2 goals per game, it's doable. Usually we see fewer goals in this stage of the tournament though, there is the 3rd place game which usually provides a bunch of goals, but I think to break the record we are going to need to see some significant numbers in the quarterginals
and suddenly we're at 167 with 3 games to go. Just 5 four goals to break the record of most goals in a world cup