Random World Cup Facts

And most of the CONMEBOL wins (8 of 14) are against UEFA teams starting with S:

1. Scotland twice
2. Slovakia once
3. Slovenia once
4. Soviet Union once
5. Switzerland three times.



Unfortunately, neither Colombia nor Peru have any "S" UEFA teams in their groups. Maybe they can get one in the knockout rounds.

 

I was wondering if the 4 penalties called against Iran in 1978 (2 versus Holland and 2 versus Peru) are the largest number of penalties conceded by a side in the group stage? None of those penalties against Iran were controversial necessarily, but I am curious if that is a record?

 

UEFA teams that have faced a CONMEBOL non-champion at least once and have never beaten one: Belgium, Bulgaria, Scotland, Croatia, Greece, Slovenia, Slovakia, and East Germany.

CONMEBOL teams that have faced a UEFA non-champions at least once and have never beaten one: just Bolivia.

 

This is a bit skewed because these matches you list, Spain had yet to win the World Cup. In fact, when Argentina and Spain met in '66 neither had won the World Cup. So why should that particular encounter be considered?
For me, listings of games against champions should only take affect the moment after those champions became champions.
i.e., games against Spain pre-2010 should not be considered. Likewise games against France pre-1998.
National teams are looked upon differently once they have won the World Cup.

 

UEFA non-champions that have faced a CONMEBOL non-champion at least once and have never lost to one: Austria, East Germany, Holland, Romania, and Sweden.

 

It's also a bit misleading to exclude Uruguay from these totals, because let's face it, Uruguay isn't really a champion in the modern era. Uruguay last won a championship 68 years ago, in a very different format. In fact, in 1950, Uruguay only needed one win to reach the final four.

Moreover, Uruguay's record against non-champion UEFA teams is actually pretty bad: 6 wins 2 draws, and 11 losses. That is worse than every other South American team, even Bolivia.

 

Your sample size for Belgium are two games against Paraguay, one of which was played in 1934. To off-set that, Belgium also has two victories against CONMEBOL champions, in 1982 and 1990.

 

serbia conceeded 4 in 2 world cups and also 4 in 3 consecutive matches.

2006 2 pens vs ivory coast
2010 1 pen vs ghana
2014 1 pen vs germany

and if i am correct, all 4 penalties were award because of a hand ball inside the penalty area

 

If you count Croatia and Serbia matches, then the former unified Yugoslavia also has a winning record if the WC98 (Croatia) and WC10 (Serbia) matches are included.

 

And your point is?

 

That matches played in 1934 might not have much relevance today?

 

I was actually trying to show the parity that exists between UEFA and CONMEBOL. But for the fun of it, let's see the winning record (Wins-Ties-Losses) of UEFA non-champions against their CONMEBOL counterparts:

• Netherlands: 1-1-0
• Sweden: 1-1-0
• Serbia: 3-1-1
• Belgium: 0-1-1
• Russia: 1-1-1
• Switzerland: 1-0-3
• Poland: 2-0-1
• Austria: 1-1-0
• Bulgaria: 0-1-1
• Scotland: 0-0-2
• Romania: 3-0-0
• Croatia: 0-0-1
• Greece: 0-0-1
• Slovenia: 0-0-1
• East Germany: 0-1-0
• Slovakia: 0-0-1

Number of UEFA teams with a winning record: 6
Number of UEFA teams with a losing record: 8

Let me repeat the CONMEBOL teams' record, as I made a typo (How can I forget Netherlands-Peru in 1978?):

• Paraguay: 4-4-1
• Chile: 4-2-2
• Colombia: 2-1-4
• Peru: 2-1-3
• Ecuador: 2-0-1
• Bolivia: 0-0-2

Number of CONMEBOL teams with a winning record: 3
Number of CONMEBOL teams with a losing record: 3

 

Thanks. But what about 4 penalties in the one tournament in the group stage? I have a sense that is a dubious record Iran holds We conceded 2 penalties against Holland and 2 against Peru in Wc78 - all in the same tournament.

 

It is complicated to classify Uruguay, as we can argue it is the champion with the worst record. But it has a better palmares than 2 of the 5 European champions (5 times in the top four, besides winning twice). So for me it made more sense not to include them.

Besides, even if they are included, I disagree with your statement that its record is worse than the other South American teams because of their number of losses. It can be argued that it is also the best team because it has the more wins. A better measure is that it has won 35% of points in play (20 of 57). That's better than Colombia (33.3%) and Bolivia (0%).

 

Ya, I don't think you can be the best team if you have almost twice as many losses as wins, lol.

And if you're going to aggregate the records (which you did in your initial post on the topic), then Uruguay clearly has the worst effect on the overall record, with five more losses than wins. Bolivia only has two more losses than wins. 5 > 2.

 

Top 10 unbeaten streaks in the first group stage

23 games - Brazil (from 1970 vs Czechoslovakia to 1998 vs Morocco)
16 games - West Germany/Germany (from 1990 vs Yugoslavia to 2010 vs Australia)
15 games - West Germany (from 1954 vs Turkey to 1974 vs East Germany)
13 games - Brazil (from 1930 vs Bolovia to 1966 vs Bulgaria)
13 games - Netherlands (from 1994 vs Morocco to present)
12 games - Brazil (from 2002 vs Turkey to present)
12 games - Italy (from 1978 vs France to 1990 vs Czechoslovakia)
10 games - Argentina (from 2002 vs Sweden to present)
10 games - England (from 1998 vs Colombia to 2010 vs Slovenia)
10 games - Mexico (from 1994 vs Ireland to 2006 vs Angola)
10 games - Soviet Union (from 1958 vs England to 1978 vs El Salvador)

 

Now that is very strange, as Paraguay didn't play for the 1934 WC....


Besides, for 1934 Belgium suposedly only played one match, where it got defeated by Germany.

 

When did Bolivia ever win their first match ?.

Their best result ever, was a scoreless draw vs South Korea in 1994, and all their other 5 matches (of which, 4 were against teams that won the WC at some point) were defeats.

 

Two losses. Zero wins. Two is two more than zero.

 

If a team other than France, Brazil, Spain, or Germany wins in 2018, it will set a record (six) for the most World Cups in a row in which a different country has won the championship. The current stretch (1998 through 2014) is five, which ties it with 1982-1998 for the most.

Other stretches of winners from different countries include four from 1938-1958, and four from 1970-1982.

 

However, Uruguay has a fairly competitive record against UEFA Champions: 5 wins, 6 ties, 5 losses. Bolivia have lost its two matches (Germany, Spain). In fact they only have a competitive record against... the AFC (the tie against South Korea, as said by Rickdog).

I stand by my position not to include Uruguay among the non-champions.

 

There are only 3 participating countries in the 2018 World Cup where football isn't the No.1 sport.

Australia - Australian footballl
Japan - Baseballl
Panama - Baseball