Random World Cup Facts

not a particular "world cup random fact" but it is somehow related.

Talking about Italy and Portugal. Did you know, they, never match up in a finals tournament? Ok, you might say, Portugal is only a regular since the year 2000 but let's have a closer look.

1966 (WC in England) Italy would have played Portugal in the semi final, if they hadn`t crashed to North Korea
1996 (EC in England) Italy would have played Portugal in the quarter final, if Smicer hadn't score for Czech Rep. vs Russia in the 88th minute.
2000 (EC in Belgium-Holland) Italy would have played Portugal in the final, if France had not given a questionable penalty in extratime with Zidane scoring the golden goal.
2002 (WC in Korea-Japan) Italy would have played Portugal in the Round-of-16, if Portugal hadn't sent two players off and Portugal would have won against the co-hosts.
2006 (WC in Germany) Italy would have played Portugal in the final, if Portugal would have managed to overcome France.
2012 (EC in Poland and Ukraine) Italy would have played Portugal in the final, if Portugal would have been better on penalties then against Spain.

So there were many almost and nears already, but we still wait for a final tournament between these two big football nations.

 

Portugal also could have made the knockout round in 2002 by eating he USA , which they didn’t.

You forgot the Brasil 2014 World Cup, where Portugal lost to Germany and tied the USA in the group stage and didn’t make the knockout round on goal differential.

Not that it mattered, because Italy didn’t get out of group either, losing to Costa Rica and Uruguay by identical 0-1 scores.

 

The US also knocked Colombia out in '94, although not literally, unless one considers the inadvertent US role in the fate of Andres Escobar.

 

Moderator fight!

 

that record is broken since 2018

 

Here’s an interesting one. Every World Cup except for 1970, 1974, and 2018 (18 out of 21 WCs) has featured at least one of the USA or Hungary. Only one, however - 1934 - has featured both.

 

For the first time since the WC went to a 16-team knockout round in 1986, the 2018 tournament in Russia featured four semi-finalists (FRA, BEL, CRO, ENG) who had not advanced to at least the same stage in the previous WC.

A minimum of one semi-finalist from each WC between 1986 to 2014 had reached at least the semi-finals of the previous tournament.

2014: GER, NED
2010: GER
2006: GER
2002: BRA
1998: BRA
1994: ITA
1990: W GER, ARG
1986: W GER, FRA

 

2018 is also the first time since the opening WC in 1930 that neither Brazil nor Germany reached the semi-finals. And the first World Cup ever that neither made it when both took part.

 

Cool, this is really interesting!

 

A Christmas quiz!

Assuming the 2022 World Cup is actually held in Qatar, that country, aside from Uruguay (the hosts of the inaugural World Cup), will be the second host country to never qualify for a World Cup prior to hosting. Can you name the first one?

 

Italy in 1934. They were also the only hosts that had to qualify competitively for their own WC, which they did by beating Greece over two legs IIRC.

 

Well, as you pointed out, Italy did have to qualify prior to their hosting the 1934 World Cup. The host I was thinking of, did not actually qualify for any prior World Cups, including the one they hosted.

 

Ah... you're excluding automatic qualifications. In that case, I believe Brazil qualified (or entered, rather) for 1930 by invite, for 1934 and 1938 due to withdrawals of other teams, and in 1950 obviously as hosts. Therefore, Brazil did not technically qualify competitively for any WC by that point.

IIRC they only first qualified competitively for the 1958 edition (after Argentina returned from its hissy fit that saw it miss the '50 and '54 cups)

EDIT: Brazil in fact did have to qualify for the 1954 edition. South America was effectively given one spot for the tournament excluding the defending champions Uruguay who autoqualified. Brazil beat Chile and Paraguay, while Peru withdrew and Argentina as alluded to earlier refused to enter. Nonetheless as of 1950 Brazil had not qualified competitively for any WC.

 

Correct. Brazil was the country I was thinking of. I was counting on everyone just assuming Brazil must have qualified earlier, having been to every World Cup.

Looking at it further, I realize now that Chile also never had to qualify on the pitch before hosting in 1962.

I think that's it though. Everyone else after Chile (and before Qatar) already succeeded in a qualifying campaign before their turns as hosts. I suppose you could put an asterisk next to Japan's joint hosting in 2002, as they had never qualified for a World Cup at the time they awarded it (in 1996), but between 1996 and 2002 they qualified for the 1998 World Cup.

 

What to wait 2022- first yellow card or red card to the coach.

 

Qatar in 2022 will likely end another World Cup tradition: No host country has ever lost their opening match.

 

Up until 2018, the biggest difference in population between two sides at the World Cup was Costa Rica against China in 2002, with Costa Rica's 1/3rd of 1% of that of China. That record was broken at the 2018 Cup in the match between Nigeria and Iceland, with Iceland's population 1/10th of 1% of that of Nigeria.

Presumably that record will stand until Iceland plays the US or Brazil at the World Cup someday, which may not be for a long time. Iceland's golden generation is just about done.

 

Belgium beat the jinx.

 

World Cup 2022 may be the first World Cup with 6 Asian countries in it, should the 5th Asian country win their inter-continental playoff. Should that be against an OFC team, they might have a decent chance. Bother Conmebol (2014) + CAF (2010) have had World Cups with 6 teams in them.