Random World Cup Facts

You know what I mean, AFC countries. Like it or not, Australia is AFC now.

 

What would the verdict be if Australia fails to qualify... but Israel does qualify?

 

Qatar has said that Israel and Israeli fans will be allowed to attend. I have my doubts. The security issues would be enormous. My bet is that if Israel qualifies, the Israeli group matches would be played in Europe somewhere, with the Qataris desperately counting on Israel getting eliminated before the knockout rounds.

 

Well, although I didn’t quote the post before my reply I was jokingly referring to the number of “Asian countries” that would qualify. [emoji846]

But your point is well taken and something that honestly had not crossed my mind.
However, readjusting where matches are played at such short notice due to a particular country qualifying seems very extreme. I understand the situation surrounding Israel and the Middle East as a whole but I just don’t see that happening. I would think that extraordinary protection would be given to the Israeli team in Qatar because the hosts would have much to lose should anything tragic happen to any of the competing nations.

 

What is all 5 AFC countries qualify + Qatar + say... Kazakhstan? Then 7 countries from a non-UEFA continent for the first time ever! Yay!

 

After coming close to qualifying for World Cup 2006 and Euro 2008, Israel has gotten worse. I want them to qualify, but I would be shocked if they did. They're 39th in UEFA in the FIFA Rankings, which is triple the amount of UEFA teams who qualify. In 2013, Israel got two draws with Portugal, and the second one on Matchday 9 of 10 gave Russia the group and made Portugal to go a playoff. With one game left, Russia led by 3 points and 7 goal differential. Russia got a draw at Azerbaijan, but a close loss would have been sufficient because Portugal won 3-0.

 

It must be very frustrating to be an Israeli fan. I think the most annoying thing with the Israeli team is its persistent ability to lose (or draw) games that it should win. Almost every campaign since 2008 (except maybe 2012 ECQ) has had at least one such really unnecessary result - a home loss to Latvia in 2010 WCQ (1 point earned away), two draws against Azerbaijan in 2014 WCQ, a home loss to Cyprus for 2016, home loss to North Macedonia (and arguably even the Albania home game, although Albania is a more respectable side than the others here - how do you lose 3-0 at home to the same team you beat 3-0 away?) for 2018, and then a home draw against North Macedonia again in 2020.

Do Israelis watch other sports in large numbers? I've always wondered given how little cause their football team must give them to celebrate on a regular basis.

 

Here's a funny fact. 16 players born in Paris are currently either world, European, African or Asian champions:

• World champions (with France ) born in Paris: Presnel Kimpembe, Paul Pogba, Kylian Mbappé, N'Golo Kanté, Steven Nzonzi, Benjamin Mendy and Alphonse Areola.
• African champions (with Algeria ) born in Paris: Riyad Mahrez, Mehdi Tahrat, Mohamed Fares, Sofiane Feghouli, Yacine Brahimi, Mehdi Abeid and Raïs M'Bohli.
• Asian champion (with Qatar ) born in Paris: Karim Boudiaf.
• European champion (with Portugal ) born in Paris: Raphaël Guerreiro.

 

The Jerusalem Post website shows that they have a clear top two team sports in soccer and basketball. I'm guessing that even if soccer is the most popular, it isn't the most popular by as wide a margin as in many other countries.

 

Interesting... Karim Boudiaf is the Qatar national team player that doesn't speak Arabic. Well at least he does all his interviews here in French and English....

 

In 1974 they introduced for World Cups that the defending champ was taking part in the opening match. From 2006 on, the host country was there playing instead of the last champ. (I prefer the champ-version)

Since 1974, there were 12 Opening matches. Only in 2 of these matches both teams already took part in the world cup before.

1978 both Poland and Germany played in 1974, too
2006 both Germany and Costa Rica played in 2002, too.
In all other cases, one of the 2 contender have been either a newcomer or a comebacker.

 

I like the host country in the opening match. The hosts should get center stage and hopefully do well for at least one day.*

Besides, you can't 100% assume the defending champion will even be there, since the champ no longer gets an automatic qualification.

* Qatar is a special case. I hope they get crushed 10-0.

 

1982 was the first World Cup I followed and I remember all the talk going on before the opening match Argentina-Belgium was whether a goal would be scored. The previous five World Cup inaugural matches had all ended 0-0.

 

0-0 should have been the result that year as well. The Belgian goal was almost certainly offside.

 

Sorry for the pedantry, but I must inform you, sir, that in fact only the previous FOUR inaugural WC matches had ended 0-0!

The opening match in 1962 was in fact between the hosts Chile and Switzerland, and finished 3-1 to the hosts.

 

I stand corrected. No inaugural goals SINCE 1962.
I just remember everyone seemed to make it some sort of curse about goals not being scored in consecutive inaugurals.

 

Skimming through this article https://www.espn.com/soccer/mexico-...ico-changed-the-face-of-global-soccer-forever I thought about this thread.

I think it belongs here with some good random facts.

 

Ah yes, back when 100% active members of a confederation were invited to play a World Cup.

Thank heavens for WC qualifiers.

 

Yugoslavia/Serbia-Montenegro/Serbia have an astonishing record when it comes to world cup qualifications. Since 1986 they only qualified for a world cup when seeded in pot 3 or below.

1986 - pot 2 - failed to qualify (4th)
1990 - pot 3 - qualified (1st)
1994 - pot 2 - failed to qualify (suspended)
1998 - pot 4 - qualified (2nd)
2002 - pot 1 - failed to qualify (3rd)
2006 - pot 3 - qualified (1st)
2010 - pot 3 - qualified (1st)
2014 - pot 2 - failed to qualify (3rd)
2018 - pot 3 - qualified (1st)

so additionally they always finished 1st when seeded in pot 3.

for 2022 qualifiers draw, they are expected to be in pot 2.

 

That's very interesting. How did you get the information about in which pot they were seeded? I guess especially for the tournaments that are long time ago it's not easy to find.

Yeah, Serbia will be in pot 2 this time. I think they could shine in EURO 2020 but I don't expect them to make it to Qatar. They tend to not qualify for back to back World Cups. (with 06+10 beeing an exception)

 

well they don't qualify as they are often seeded better for the next cycle which in a way proves my odd.

you can find seedlists in online newspaper archives of the day of the draw or one of the days before.

apart from that, i have almost every wc and wc qualifier draw on video since the mid 80es.

 

I don’t know where @Gibraldo found his information, but Wikipedia has the seedings for qualifiers for WC 82 and every major tourney afterwards.

 

Here's one I just remembered. I thought it would be more fun if someone tried to guess the answer, so here it goes:

What is the only team in the world that has always topped its World Cup qualification group since the expansion to 32 teams took place (i.e. from 1998 onwards)? For clarification, I am only including final round groups, so teams topping groups in earlier rounds like they have in confeds other than UEFA and CONMEBOL don't count, only teams that have always topped in the final round.
CAF is weird because they had a playoff round as the final round in 2014, but it's immaterial to this question.