Everybody knows some jinxes of WC games which is stupid but amazingly fulfil the fact. - WC hosted by a European Nation is won by a European Nation, while a South American nation gets the trophy at WC in other continent. (The only exception was 1958 when Brazil won in Sweden.) - The nation whose player have got the Ballon d'or a year before will never get the trophy. (With no exceptions.) ---Brazil won't win accordingly. - The winners are located in the order that is symmetric with respect to the year 1982. (With two exceptions of 1966 and 1998, which both are won by host nations.) ---Brazil will win accordingly. Something else?
The 3rd place team, if from Europe, will fail to qualify for the upcoming European championship. Counting the first use of qualifying groups for Euro 68, so far the list has only had 1 exception: West Germany in 1972. The victims included: 1968 Portugal (edged out by Bulgaria in qualifying round) 1976 Poland (edged out by Holland) 1984 Poland (finished 3rd behind Portugal and USSR) 1988 France (finished 3rd behind USSR and E. Germany) 1992 Italy (edged out by USSR) 1996 Sweden (finished 3rd behind Turkey and Switzerland) 2000 Croatia (finished 3rd behind Yugoslavia and Ireland) 2004 Turkey (finished 2nd behind England, upset by Latvia in playoffs) The 3rd place team in the WC should be one of the best teams in the world. It's really unexplanable why it had so much trouble qualifying for the next Euro. As a comparison, even the 4th place team had a better record: 1968 USSR (finished 2nd in Euro) 1988 Belgium (DNQ) 1992 England (qualified, 1st round exit) 1996 Bulgaria (qualified, 1st round exit) The 4th place teams of 1978 (Italy), 1982 (France) and 1998 (Holland) all qualified as hosts of the upcoming Euro.
Another thing about the "3rd place jinx" is that some teams have problems in the following world cups (or qualifications): WC 1994 3rd place: Sweden -> Failed to qualify for WC 1998 WC 1998 3rd place: Croatia -> Exits in the 1st round in WC 2002 WC 2002 3rd place: Turkey -> Failed to qualify for WC 2006 Part of the explanation for this is that qualifying from Europe can be very hard, depending on the draw. That's why England, Holland, and many other big Euro teams sometimes fail to qualify for the WC & EC.
The qualification of the next world Cup is not that big a jinx. Witness the jinxed 3rd place teams: 1966 Portugal: DNQ in Euro 68, DNQ in WC 70 1974 Poland: DNQ in Euro 76, qualified for WC 78 1982 Poland: DNQ in Euro 84, qualified for WC 86 1986 France: DNQ in Euro 88, DNQ in WC90 1990 Italy: DNQ in Euro 92, qualified for WC 94 1994 Sweden: DNQ in Euro 96, DNQ in WC 98 1998 Croatia: DNQ in Euro 00, qualified for WC 02 2002 Turkey: DNQ in Euro 04, DNQ for WC 06 So, among the 8 jinxed 3rd place teams that did not qualify for the upcoming Euro, 4 of the 8 qualified for the upcoming World Cup. Making the tally of 3rd place teams: 1 out of 9 qualified for the next Euro 4 out of 8 qualified for the next World Cup (W. Germany was to be host of WC 74 so it wasn't counted).
Well there was one jinx that went on for several world cups...the team who scores first in the final loses. Happened in 1934. Then we saw a streak...50, 54, 58, 62, 66. Brazil won in 70 after scoring first...then 74 again. This stat looks more frightening if we look from 1930 to 1974. So, from the 10 cups in that era, in 7 of them, the team who scored first lost. Since then, we havent seen any instances.
That's a pretty good analysis. Esp, Bulgaria had a terrible time after they reach semi in the prev tournamanet. Same goes with Croatia. And same goes with Turkey. Most Semi-finalists choked.
Yeah that happened until 1974. However, it changed. The first who scores, it wins the game. The typical case was 82 86 90 98 and 2002
There is one other jinx. The team that beat the 3rd place team in the semi-final won the final. Happened in 1938, 1954, 1958, 1962, 1966, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1994, 1998, 2002. Exceptions: 1934, 1970, 1986, 1990 Coupled with the first-goal jinx, this is what happened: The team that beat the 4th place team in the semi-final will score first in the final. Happened in 6 consecutive tournaments: 1954 (Puskas), 1958 (Liedholm), 1962 (Masopust), 1966 (Haller), 1970 (Pele), 1974 (Neeskens)