Random World Cup Facts

If they can beat us they can take confidence from the fact that in 3 of our 5 previous world cups we have played and lost to the eventual champions. In 3 of six we've drawn the defending champions so world cup draws aren't kind to us.

 

Tunisia 1-0 France

France v CAF in the World Cup.
3-0 v South Africa (1998)
0-1 v Senegal (2002)
2-0 v Togo (2006)
1-2 v South Africa (2010)
0-1 v Tunisia (2022)

CAF v defending World Cup champions in the World Cup.
1974 : Zaire 0-3 Brazil
1978 : Tunisia 0-0 West Germany
1990 : Cameroon 1-0 Argentina
1998 : Morocco 0-3 Brazil
2002 : Senegal 1-0 France
2006 : Ghana 0-3 Brazil
2022 : Tunisia 1-0 France

Oldest players to appear for France.
37-247 Steve Mandanda (2022 v Tunisia)
37-148 Bernard Lama (2000 v England)

Players to score in the World Cup against the nation of their birth.
Breel Embolo (2022 Switzerland v Cameroon)
Wahbi Khazri (2022 Tunisia v France)
* Xherdan Shaqiri (2018 Switzerland v Serbia) and Alfred Bickel (1938 Switzerland v Germany) are similar cases but not the same.

Players from the French league to score against France in the World Cup.
Andrzej Szarmach (Auxerre), Poland 1982
Papa Bouba Diop (Lens), Senegal 2002
Ángel di María (PSG), Argentina 2018
Wahbi Khazri (Montpellier), Tunisia 2022

Most World Cup participations without ever advancing from the first round group stage.
8 Scotland
6 Iran
6 Tunisia

 

Australia 1-0 Denmark

Denmark v AFC in the World Cup.
1-0 v Saudi Arabia (1998)
1-3 v Japan (2010)
1-1 v Australia (2018)
0-1 v Australia (2022)

Teams that conceded at least 4 goals in their opening group stage match, still advanced out of the group.
Yugoslavia 1990 (1-4 v West Germany, finished second)
Ukraine 2006 (0-4 v Spain, finished second)
Australia 2022 (1-4 v France, finished second)

 

Poland 0-2 Argentina

Poland v Argentina the World Cup
3-2 (1974)
0-2 (1978)
0-2 (2022)

Most World Cup appearances.
25 Lothar Matthäus (1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998)
24 Miroslav Klose (2002, 2006, 2010, 2014)
23 Paolo Maldini (1990, 1994, 1998, 2002)
22 LIonel Messi (2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022)

Players who have missed more than one penalty in World Cup history. (excluding shootouts)
Asamoah Gyan (Ghana : 2006 v Czech Republic, 2010 v Uruguay), converted 2
Lionel Messi (Argentina : 2018 v Iceland, 2022 v Poland), converted 1

Goalkeepers who have saved at least two penalties in World Cup history. (excluding shootouts)
Jan Tomaszewski (Poland : 2 in 1974)
Brad Friedel (United States : 2 in 2002)
Iker Casillas (Spain : (1 in 2002, 1 in 2010)
Wojciech Szczesny (Poland : 2 in 2022)

Number of different players to have scored for a country in World Cup history.
83 Brazil
77 Germany
62 Argentina
60 Italy

Teams that lost their opening World Cup match, finished top of their group. (1998-2022, 3 points for a victory, top two advance)
Spain 2010
Colombia 2018
Argentina 2022

 

Saudi Arabia 1-2 Mexico

Mexico v AFC in the World Cup
1-0 v Iraq (1986)
3-1 v South Korea (1998)
3-1 v Iran (2006)
2-1 v South Korea (2018)
2-1 v Saudi Arabia (2022)

Leading Saudi Arabia goal scorers in World Cup history.
3 Sami Al-Jaber (1994, 1998, 2006)
3 Salem Al-Dawsari (2018 [1], 2022 [2])
2 Fuad Anwar Amin (1994)

Teams that won their opening World Cup match, finished bottom in their group. (1998-2022, 3 points for a victory, top two advance)
2022 Saudi Arabia

 

I need to copyright this!!! You read it first at the BS forum.

 

OK, scratch that. Let's see tomorrow with Ghana v Uruguay...

 

uh oh, does that mean we (USA) aren't going to make it out of the group stage in 2026?

Just kidding, just kidding...

 

Still, you cannot match that Peru has played against the eventual champions in all of our participations.

 

Japan has broken out its "seesaw curse":

1998: Out in the group stage.
2002: Out in the round of 16.
2006: Out in the group stage.
2010: Out in the round of 16.
2014: Out in the group stage.
2018: Out in the round of 16.
2022: The sky is the limit???

 

Croatia 0-0 Belgium

Oldest starting lineup in a World Cup match.
31-118 Australia 2010 v Germany
31-095 Belgium 2022 v Croatia

Croatia advancing to the Round of 16.
1996 (second in group, semifinals)
2018 (first in group, finalist)
2022 (second in group,...)

World Cup tournaments with the most goalless draws.
1982 : 7 (52 matches)
2006 : 7 (64)
2010 : 7 (64)
2014 : 7 (64)
1978 : 6 (38)
2022 : 6 (44)

 

Canada 1-2 Morocco

CAF v CONCACAF in the World Cup.
Tunisia 3-1 Mexico (1978)
Angola 0-0 Mexico (2006)
Ghana 2-1 United States (2006)
South Africa 1-1 Mexico (2010)
Algeria 0-1 United States (2010)
Ghana 2-1aet United States (2010)
Cameroon 0-1 Mexico (2014)
Ghana 1-2 United States (2014)
Tunisia 2-1 Panama (2018)
Morocco 2-1 Canada (2022)

Earliest CAF goals in World Cup history.
68" Asamoah Gyan, Ghana (2006 v Czech Republic)
3'48" Hakim Ziyech, Morocco (2022 v Canada)

Leading Morocco goal scorers in World Cup history.
2 Abderrazak Khairi (1986)
2 Salaheddine Bassir (1998)
2 Abdeljalil Hadda (1998)
2 Youssef En-Nesyri (2018 [1], 2022 [1])

Sevilla players who have scored in a World Cup match.
3 Luis Fabiano (Brazil, 2010)
1 Pablo Bengoechea (Uruguay, 1990)
1 Gerardo Torrado (Mexico, 2002)
1 Javier Saviola (Argentina, 2006)
1 Romaric (Ivory Coast, 2010)
1 Gabriel Mercado (Argentina, 2010)
1 Youssef En-Nesyri En-Nesyr (Morocco, 2022)

Most consecutive defeats to start World Cup appearances.
9 Mexico (1930, 1950, 1954, 1958)
6 El Salvador (1970, 1982), yet to avoid defeat
6 Canada (1986, 2022), yet to avoid defeat

CAF teams that finished first in their first round group.
1986 Morocco
1990 Cameroon
1994 Nigeria
1998 Nigeria
2022 Morocco

 

Japan 2-1 Spain

Most Japan appearances in World Cup history.
14 Yuto Nagatomo (2010, 2014, 2018, 2022)
11 Makoto Hasebe (2010, 2014, 2018)
11 Eiji Kawashima (2010, 2014, 2018)

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

Leading Spain goalscorers in major tournaments (World Cup + Euros).
13 David Villa
9 Fernando Torres
9 Alvaro Morata

Teams that won two matches at a World Cup after being behind at halftime of both matches.
1938 Brazil (HT: 0-1, FT: 2-1 v Czechoslovakia ; HT: 1-2, FT: 4-2 v Sweden)
1970 West Germany (HT: 0-1, FT: 2-1 v Morocco ; HT:0-1, FT: 3-2 aet v England)
2022 Japan (HT: 0-1, FT: 2-1 v Germany , HT: 0-1, FT: 2-1 v Spain)

Spain v AFC in the World Cup.
3-1 v South Korea (1990)
2-2 v South Korea (1994)
0-0aet, 3-5p v South Korea (2002)
1-0 Saudi Arabia (2006)
3-0 v Australia (2014)
1-0 v Iran (2018)
1-2 v Japan (2022)

Spain World Cup defeats after taking the lead.
1-2 v Brazil (1962)
1-2 v West Germany (1966)
2-3 v Nigeria (1998)
1-3 v France (2006)
1-5 v Netherlands (2014)
1-2 v Japan (2022)

 

Costa Rica 2-4 Germany

Germany v CONCACAF in the World Cup.
6-0 v Mexico (1978)
0–0aet, 4–1p v Mexico (1986)
2-0 v United States (1998)
2-1 v Mexico (1998)
1-0 v United States (2002)
4-2 v Costa Rica (2006)
1-0 v United States (2014)
0-1 v Mexico (2018)
4-2 v Costa Rica (2022)

Most Costa Rica appearances in World Cup history.
10 Keylor Navas (2014, 2018, 2022)
10 Celso Borges (2014, 2018, 2022)
9 Christian Bolaños (2006, 2014, 2018)
8 Cristian Gamboa (2014, 2018)
8 Giancarlo González (2014, 2018)
8 Bryan Ruiz (2014, 2018)

Most World Cup appearances by goalkeepers.
19 Manuel Neuer (Germany 2010, 2014,2018, 2022)
18 Sepp Maier (West Germany 1970, 1974, 1978)
18 Claudio Taffarel (Brazil 1990, 1994, 1998)

Germany substitutes to score a brace in a World Cup match.
Andre Schürrle (2014 v Brazil)
Kai Havertz (2022 v Japan)

 

Uhhhh so what happened to that string of USA v Ghana matches in multiple WCs, hmm?

 

I'm sleepy is what happened.
Will correct it.

 

Done

 

In addition to this,
Ruediger ( Germany) is a tenant and pays rent to Navas (Costa Rica keeper) in Madrid to stay in the latters' home.

First instant of a tenant and a landlord playing against each other in a WC?

 

In the 2010 vote, Qatar beat out South Korea, Japan, Australia, and the USA for the right to host this world cup in 2022. Now, all of those countries advanced to the knockout stage except last-place Qatar

 

I'd have to look a bit further back, but I think this is the first world cup with no teams at all going 3-0 in the group stage - IIRC the minimum before has been 2 teams

 

I've checked and it's only the first time in the 32-team era (with 8 groups of 4).

It already happened in 1994 (24 teams, 6 groups of 4), and both 1958 and 1962 (16 teams, 4 groups of 4).