Random World Cup Facts

Germany's opposition at WC 2002 was probably weaker on the whole than at EC 2000 and 2004 to be fair, but nonetheless I agree they still played much better at that WC (or at least got the results) compared to at either of the Euros before or after.

 

Klose, Ballack, Schneider and Kahn had a great tourney in 2002.

 

Here’s a strange one: France has only topped its WC group on four occasions! In 1958, 1998, 2014, and 2018.

For comparison, Mexico has topped its group on three occasions - 1986, 1994, and 2002.

 

The strange format meant one group winner and 2 runners up in one group and two winners in another.

France faced the winners of group 5 which was expected to be the hosts. They were beaten by Northern Ireland in Valencia on a night that was probably their finest hour.

The less said about Gijon and how Austria and West Germany ended up where they did the better.

 

Lol I was going to write the same thing in a more long-winded, Wikipedia-esque way, but you beat me to it.

 

Not sure if someone has already pointed this out...

As many of you know, Peru has qualified for 5 World Cups, and in each one they played against the eventual champions.

There is one other team that has qualified for more than one World Cup, and each time they played against the eventual champions. Furthermore, in each of those World Cups, they played (and lost) to the eventual champions twice. ¿Which team is it?

 

Turkey in 1954 and 2002.

 

How many countries with at least 10 or more World Cup appearances played each other at a World Cup for the first time at WC 2018, and who were they?

 

That they qualified for and played at 10 or more separate World Cups, e.g. 2018, 2014, 2010, etc.

 

1970 QF: Uruguay 1 USSR 0

Also 1962: USSR 2 Uruguay 1

 

Sweden-South Korea, Sweden-Switzerland, and Spain-Russia/USSR, I believe.

 

Very good. Personally, I would not include Spain/Russia, as Russia by itself hasn't played in 10 World Cups, but I understand that some choose to make them the inheritor of the USSR's record.

 

That is true. Ultimately it is quite subjective, so I tend to defer to the official FIFA rules. FIFA seems to have generally given the records of former states to the core country. They also gave Yugoslavia's record to Serbia, for example. Some cases like Germany getting West Germany's record I think are less controversial to most reasonable people.

In the case of the Soviets, though, it is more of a technicality considering many of their finest players were not in fact Russian. Their fine WC 86/EC 88 team was almost entirely Ukrainian, for example.

It would probably be fairest to just consider the USSR a separate entity altogether from all the successor states. That way everybody who contributed gets credit without conflating the USSR team with any particular existing nation. I don't think it would make much sense to transfer the records to every former republic (I don't think Kyrgyzstan should be able to claim they made a WC semifinal lol), but I understand it isn't really accurate to call it the Russian team either.

 

I think it actually is South Korea at 9. The US qualified for 7 between 1990 and 2014, while Mexico tied the US streak with their qualification for the 2018 edition. They would probably be tied with South Korea at 9 if not for the overage players scandal that kept them out of Italia ‘90.

 

I agree that Russia should not get sole credit for the USSR's record (or Serbia sole credit for Yugoslavia's record), while Germany should get full credit for West Germany's record, as the USSR contracted, while Germany expanded. West Germany contained no territory that is not in the present Germany, unlike the Russian and Serbian cases.

More of a head-scratcher for me is what to with EAST Germany's record. Granted they were only at one World Cup, but they did beat West Germany and advance to the final 8 in 1974. Should that accomplishment just disappear into the ether? If we are to be consistent, I guess we have to say that modern Germany should get credit for East Germany's record as well, so that Germany has made it to 20 World Cups, and not 19. Still behind Brazil, though.

 

South Korea is the correct answer.

Speaking of the Koreans, it is interesting how common it is even for aficionados such as us to forget they made it to the World Cup in 1954. Perhaps it is understandable however, as there was no Asian team before them that made it, and it was not for another 28 years that Asia would get a regular WC berth.

 

AFC and OFC together got one berth from 1970 onwards. With the expansion of the tournament in 1982, they were given a second berth. 1986 seems to be the first time AFC and OFC were actually separated. AFC used a strange qualifying format on that occasion with a West Zone and an East Zone where teams from the two zones didn't play teams from the other zone at all, with essentially meant Southwest Asia got one spot and East, South, and Southeast Asia got one spot.

A further oddity of that cycle was the inclusion of Israel in the OFC qualifiers, which was also the case in 1990 when they actually got the playoff berth from OFC and lost 1-0 on aggregate to Colombia. While Israel seems to have stopped participating in the Asian Cup after 1968, it appears they were still able to partake in the AFC qualifiers up through the 1978 cycle. In 1982 they were placed in UEFA, then OFC for 1986 and 1990, before finally being placed permanently in UEFA from 1994 onwards.

 

There was 1 Asian team at the 1938 WC: the then-Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). India could have been the second in 1950 but withdrew. Although frankly we probably wouldn't have much better then South Korea 1954 and probably didn't belong in the WC anyway. A lot of people don't know this, and I don't blame them considering how dreadful we are now, but India was actually one of the better teams in Asia back in the 50s and 60s. We beat South Korea at the 1964 Asian Cup and finished runners-up to Israel.

Edit: I had a brainfart originally and thought SK didn't play Hungary. It was Germany that they didn't play. So that part is irrelevant. Enjoy the rest of the post .

 

Ah, fair play. That's right. Forgive me, it's been a while. It was the Germans that they didn't play. SK played GER and TUR, GER played HUN and TUR, HUN played GER and SK, and TUR played SK and GER. And then another playoff between TUR and GER.

 

Lol never mind me, mixed it up again.