Random World Cup Facts

Brazil 4-1 South Korea

Teams that have the most number of players to score in at least three different World Cup tournaments.
6 Germany (Uwe Seeler, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Rudi Völler, Lothar Matthäus, Jürgen Klinsmann, Miroslav Klose)
4 Spain (Julio Salinas, Fernando Hierro, Raúl, David Villa)
3 Argentina (Diego Maradona, Gabriel Batistuta, Lionel Messi)
3 Brazil (Pelé, Ronaldo, Neymar)
3 México (Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Rafael Márquez, Javier Hernández)

Largest halftime deficit in a World Cup Round of 16 match.
4-0 Hungary v Indonesia (1938)
4-0 Brazil v South Korea (2022)

Teams that have used three goalkeepers in a single World Cup tournament.
1978 France (Jean-Paul Bertrand-Demanes, Dominique Baratelli, Dominique Dropsy)
1982 Belgium (Jean-Marie Pfaff, Theo Custers, Jacky Munaron)
1982 Czechoslovakia (Zdeněk Hruška, Stanislav Seman, Karel Stromšík)
1994 Greece (Antonis Minou, Elias Atmatsidis, Christos Karkamanis)
2014 Netherlands (Jasper Cillessen, Tim Krul, Michel Vorm)
2014 Portugal (Rui Patrício, Beto, Eduardo
2018 Saudi Arabia (Abdullah Al-Mayouf, Mohammed Al-Owais, Yasser Al-Mosailem)
2018 Tunisia (Mouez Hassen, Farouk Ben Mustapha, Aymen Mathlouthi
2022 Brazil (Alisson, Ederson, Weverton)

All-time Brazil leading goal scorers.
77 Pelé (1957-1971)
76 Neymar (2010-2022)
62 Ronaldo (1994-2011)
58 Romario (1987, 2005)
48 Zico (1976-1986)

Brazil reaching the final eight of the World Cup.
1938 (semifinalist)
1950 (runners-up)
1954 (lost in quarterfinals)
1966 (Champions)
1962 (Champions)
1970 (Champions)
1974 (knocked out in second group phase / fourth place)
1978 (knocked out in second group phase / third place)
1982 (knocked out in 12-team second group phase, ranked 6th by FIFA)
1986 (lost in quarterfinals)
1994 (Champions)
1998 (finalist)
2002 (Champions)
2006 (lost in quarterfinals)
2010 (lost in quarterfinals)
2014 (semifinalist)
2018 (lost in quarterfinals)
2022

 

I dunno about 1982. There were no quarter-finals, or an easily identifiable equivalent.

 

FIFA retroactively ranked them 6th for '82, I suppose because they had the sixth best record of the second round teams.
1 win, 1 defeat with a +1 goal differential.
After the four semifinalists, only the Soviet Union had a better record during the second round.
So I see no problem ranking them in the top eight ahead of Spain, Northern Ireland, Belgium and certainly Argentina who they beat.
Then again, they also defeated the Soviets in the first group stage so one could even justify ranking them fifth overall..

 

Top 8 okay, but not final 8, as you entitled the section. There was no final 8 that year.

 

Perišić in 2022 too.

Also, as I see you mention all major tournaments, Perišić is now Croatia's #1 goalscorer with 10 goals, overcoming Davor Šuker's 9 goals (6 WC, 3 EC).

 

Okay here's an interesting one for football geeks. I was just playing Sporacle quizzes the other day, and was doing a series on naming each country's all-time world cup opponents. Pretty much every country on there has played the same country in a world cup at least more than once. There are a few exceptions however. For instance, Qatar and Senegal have never played the same country more than once, but of course both countries have only played a limited number of games. One country that sticks out here is Saudi Arabia who have played 19 games at the World Cup now, but never played the same team more than once. Does anyone know if that's a record? Can anyone think of any country that's played more than 19 games in the World Cup but not played the same country more than once?

 

It's definitely a record that I think was brought up earlier, maybe not in this thread.

This is what I came up with by searching every team's records so it could be a bit off..

Never played an opponent more than once, played in more than one World Cup.
19 Saudi Arabia (6 tournaments)
13 Ecuador (4)
12 Senegal (3)
9 Ivory Coast (3)
7 Egypt (3)

Edit:
Wales also has 7 opponents but they played Hungary twice in '58, both in the group stage (one was a playoff).

 

Ah okay... I didn't see it mentioned in the post about their latest game in this thread so thought I'd found something there.

 

Morocco 0-0 aet, 3-0 pen Spain

Most Morocco appearances in the World Cup.
7 Achraf Hakimi (2018, 2022)
7 Hakim Ziyech (2018, 2022)
6 Mustapha Hadji (1994, 1998)

Most Spain appearances in the World Cup.
17 Iker Casillas (2002, 2006, 2010, 2014)
17 Sergio Ramos (2006, 2010, 2014, 2018)
17 Sergio Busquets (2010, 2014, 2018, 2022)
16 Andoni Zubizarreta (1986, 1990, 1994, 1998)

Teams in most World Cup knockout round matches involving extra time.
11 Germany, Italy
9 Argentina, England
8 Spain

Spain v CAF in the World Cup.
3-0 v Algeria (1986)
2-3 v Nigeria (1998)
3-2 v South Africa (2002)
3-1 v Tunisia (2006)
2-2 v Morocco (2018)
0-0aet, 0-3p v Morocco (2022)

Morocco v Iberia in the World Cup.
3-1 v Portugal (1986)
0-1 v Portugal (2018)
2-2 v Spain (2018)
0-0aet, 3-0p v Spain (2022)

Teams in most World Cup matches going to penalties.
5 Argentina (4-1)
5 Spain (1-4)
4 Germany (4-0)
4 Brazil (3-1)
4 France (2-2)
4 Italy (1-3)
4 England (1-3)

Spain on penalties in major tournaments (World Cup + Euro)
5-4 v Denmark (Euro 1984) 1-1 aet
4-5 v Belgium (1986 World Cup) 1-1 aet
2-4 v England (Euro 1996) 0-0 aet
3-2 v Republic of Ireland (2002 World Cup) 1-1 aet
3-5 v South Korea (2002 World Cup) 0-0 aet
4-2 v Italy (Euro 2008) 0-0 aet
4-2 v Portugal (Euro 2012) 0-0 aet
3-4 v Russia (2018 World Cup) 1-1 aet
3-1 v Switzerland (Euro 2020) 1-1 aet
2-4 v Italy (Euro 2020) 1-1 aet
0-3 v Morocco (2022 World Cup) 0-0 aet

Morocco on penalties in major tournaments (World Cup + AFCON)
3-4 v Algeria (1988 AFCON) 1-1 aet
1-4 v Benin (2019 AFCON) 1-1 aet
3-0 v Spain (2022 World Cup) 0-0 aet

Teams that failed to convert a penalty during a shootout in major tournaments.
China (0-3 v Iran : 1988 Asian Cup, 0-0 aet)
Switzerland (0-3 v Ukraine : 2006 World Cup, 0-0 aet)
South Korea (0-3 v Japan : 2011 Asian Cup, 2-2 aet)
Brazil (0-4 v Paraguay : Copa América, 0-0 aet)
Portugal (0-3 v Chile : 2017 Confederations Cup, 0-0 aet)
Spain (0-3 v Morocco : 2022 World Cup, 0-0 aet)

Unbeaten teams in the 2022 World Cup (qualifying + final phase in Qatar).
England (11 victories, 3 draws)
Morocco (9 victories, 3 draws)

CAF reaching the final eight of the World Cup.
1990 Cameroon (lost in quarterfinals)
2002 Senegal (lost in quarterfinals)
2010 Ghana (lost in quarterfinals)
2022 Morocco

 

Portugal 6-1 Switzerland

Most Switzerland appearances all-time.
118 Heinz Hermann (1978–1991)
112 Alain Geiger (1980–1996)
112 Xherdan Shaqiri (2010–2022)
111 Granit Xhaka (2011–2022)
108 Stephan Lichtsteiner (2006–2019)
104 Ricardo Rodriguez (2011–2022)
103 Stéphane Chapuisat (1989–2004)

Oldest goal scorers in knockout phase of the World Cup.
39-283 Pepe (Portugal, 2022 v Switzerland)
38-034 Roger Milla (Cameroon, 1990 v Russia)
37-236 Gunnar Gren (Sweden, 1958 v West Germany)
36-279 Obdulio Varela (Uruguay, 1954 v England)
36-065 Olivier Giroud (France, 2022 v Poland)

Youngest players to score a hat-trick in the knockout phase of the World Cup.
17-246 Pelé (Brazil, 1958 v France)
19-198 Edmund Conen (Germany, 1934 v Belgium)
21-169 Gonçalo Ramos (Portugal, 2022 v Switzerland)

Players to score a hat-trick in their World Cup debut match.
Guillermo Stábile (Argentina, 1930 v Mexico)
Angelo Schiavio (Italy, 1934 v United States)
Edmund Conen (Germany, 1934 v Belgium)
Ernst Wilimowski (Poland, 1938 v Brazil) - 4 goals
Gustav Wetterström (Sweden, 1938 v Cuba)
Harry Andersson (Sweden, 1938 v Cuba)
Óscar Míguez (Uruguay, 1950 v Bolivia)
Sándor Kocsis (Hungary, 1954 v South Korea)
Theodor Wagner (Austria, 1954 v Switzerland)
Just Fontaine (France, 1954 v Paraguay)
Dušan Bajević (Yugoslavia, 1974 v Zaire)
László Kiss (Hungary, 1982 v El Salvador)
Gabriel Batistuta (Argentina, 1994 v Greece)
Miroslav Klose (Germany, 2002 v Saudi Arabia)
Gonçalo Ramos (Portugal, 2022 v Switzerland) - His first start. Appeared as a sub in two previous matches.

Largest margin Switzerland defeats in World Cup history.
5-0 v West Germany (1966)
6-1 v Portugal (2022)

 

Diid you notice the pattern?

W-L-L-W / L-W-W-L / W-L-L-... W?

 

That's a great point, and a fault of mine since I searched it all myself.
I looked at the wikipedia list of every player that scored a hat-trick, and looked at previous matches to see if scorer had played in any games beforehand... but I did only look at starting lineups.

Note that substitutions were not allowed in the World Cup until the 1970 tournament.
Of the five I listed post-1970:
- Yugoslavia v Zaire was on the second matchday, and Yugoslavia made no subs v Brazil in their opener.
- For Kiss, Batistuta and Klose, it was their team's first match at those World Cups. So no problems with those.
- Only Gonçalo Ramos shouldn't be on the list since he played as a sub in 2 of Portugal's 3 group phase matches.
But the social media trivia 'experts' I follow (including Opta) all listed his hat-trick as being on his World Cup debut, so I went with that.

I've edited that post to reflect his two sub appearances.

 

one stat for the quarter finals that had gone unnoticed so far.

This world cup is the first world cup, where the 4 matches of the quarter finals all had once been a world cup match in a previous tournament. In other words there is no maiden encounter in a QF this time.

Croatia played Brazil in 2006 and 2014
Argentina played Netherlands in 1974, 1978, 2006 and 2014
England played France in 1966 and 1982
Morocco played Portugal in 1986.

 

And in 2018.

 

No team starting from a group F has won the world cup. We have two in semifinals!

Argentina's invincibility in semifinals will be tested once more next tuesday.

 

They mentioned on FOX that France has not lost 12 consecutive matches when scoring the first goal while England is winless in 12 consecutive matches when conceding the first goal.

 

Now that you say this... before the Saudi Arabia game Argentina had last lost a game after scoring first in 2017 (friendly vs Nigeria).

And thinking even harder I can't remember when was the last time Brazil lost one after scoring first.

 

I don't know about friendlys, but I think the last time in a competitive match was the 2010 World Cup quarter-final against Holland.

 

As you may remember, no team has ever won the WC with a foreign-born coach.

Of the 4 semifinalists, only two (Argentina and France) have coaches who were born in their national territory, as Dalic was born in Bosnia, and Regragui in France.

Now that Argentina has beaten Croatia, then:

• If France beats Morocco, the final will guarantee the continuation of the trend.
• If Morocco beats France, then for the trend to continue, Argentina must beat Morocco.

 

Number of non-European/South American teams in the round of 16.

1986 - 2 (Mexico, Morocco)
1990 - 2 (Cameroon, Costa Rica)
1994 - 4 (Mexico, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, USA)
1998 - 2 (Mexico, Nigeria)
2002 - 5 (Japan, Mexico, Senegal, South Korea, USA)
2006 - 3 (Australia, Ghana, Mexico)
2010 - 5 (Ghana, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, USA)
2014 - 5 (Algeria, Costa Rica, Mexico, Nigeria, USA)
2018 - 2 (Japan, Mexico)
2022 - 6 (Australia, Japan, Morocco, Senegal, South Korea, USA)

Non European soil WCs tend to have more non-Euro/S. American teams in the round of 16.

 

I searched this one myself so apologies if I'm missing any players.
This only takes into account players who actually played in the final.

Oldest living players to have played in a World Cup final.
1929-02-04 : Reino Börjesson (Sweden 1958)
1931-08-09 : Mário Zagallo (Brazil 1958, 1962)
1934-11-19 : Kurt Hamrin (Sweden 1958)
1937-10-11 : Bobby Charlton (England 1966)
1938-05-05 : Adolf Scherer (Czechoslovakia 1962)
1938-10-04 : Willi Schulz (West Germany 1966)
1939-03-31 : Karl-Heinz Schnellinger (West Germany 1966)
1939-06-29 : Amarildo (Brazil 1962)
1939-08-09 : Brito (Brazil 1970)
1939-10-22 : George Cohen (England 1966)

 

Teams to win the World Cup after losing their opening match of the tournament.
Spain 2010
Argentina 2022

 

First team to lose to an AFC team and still win the World Cup.