Random World Cup Facts

Which is the only team that finished first in their World Cup group play despite a negative goal differential?

This side has another distinction as well.

 

Cameroon 1990, the first African team to make the QFs of the World Cup.

Bizarrely lost 0-4 to the Soviets after beating Argentina and Romania in the first two group games.

 

Right. I was also thinking it was the side with the oldest player to score a World Cup goal at the time, Roger Milla. It's uncertain how old he actually was, but the consensus is he was at least 38. Of course he then broke his own record four years later.

That match against the Soviets is also interesting in that it was the last match ever played by the Soviet Union.

 

Ah, yes, I had forgotten about that little tidbit.

Actually, I believe that the USSR did complete the Euro 92 qualifiers as a unified nation. The breakup of the USSR took place in late 1991 after the conclusion of the qualifiers but before the Euro finals, so they had to be replaced by the CIS in the final tournament.

 

You're probably right, I should have looked it up. I know they were the CIS at the 1992 Euros, but they likely played as the USSR in some of the qualifiers.

 

Wiki has the Soviet flag up for the Euro 92 qualifiers, and the Soviet Union did not formally collapse until late December 1991. So it makes sense that the Euro 92 qualifiers were probably the last games the Soviets played as that particular entity.

The page on USA 94' qualifiers has the name and flag of Russia in the section on group play but the USSR flag/name in the section on seedings. So if it had been similar for '92 I think they would have put the CIS flag. The fact that they didn't (and the surrounding political circumstances) leads me to believe that it was probably the USSR for the duration of the qualifiers.

 

South Korea 2006 got actually 4 points. They drew eventual runners-up France besides of beating Togo.

 

Ah yes, you are right. That game actually ended up being quite consequential because it meant France played Spain in the next round instead of Ukraine.

I had remembered the win against Togo and I knew that they finished third so I had just assumed without checking that they lost to both Switzerland and France.

 

Excluding colonies, territories, and land borders with other countries, which countries that have qualified for the World Cup have either a land connection or a formal World Cup connection with a second continent? For example, the obvious one, Russia, has most of its population in Europe but most of the land in Asia. What are the others?

 

That's an oddly worded question... What are the limits of "either a land connection or a formal World Cup connection with a second continent"? Because how far you're willing to stretch that will affect the answer.

Russia is the obvious example you point out
Turkey is in a similar situation to Russia
Egypt spans Africa and Asia
Australia has qualified as both OFC and AFC
Israel has qualified once when AFC+OFC combined, and has participated in the qualification process for even more confeds
T&T's status as North or South American as a landmass is debatable
Denmark spans Europe and North America (Greenland is a "constituent country" separate from some of the lower-level categorizations you mentioned, I believe similar to how the four home nations make up the UK)

 

Well, it's hard to frame the question without giving away too many of the answers.

Russia, Turkey, Egypt, Australia, Israel and Denmark are all correct for the reasons you provided.

Trinidad and Tobago are in the West Indies, and the consensus is they are part of the Caribbean region and thus North America. I don't know of any geographers who consider them South American, although that is possible.

There are a few others I can think of.

 

Spain, the US and France were three of the other four I was thinking of.

The last one is probably the hardest, and the one that made me even think of this question. I just happened to be looking at a map and saw it . . .

 

There is still one more . . .

 

Good guess, but as I understand it, the various Netherlands Antilles islands are part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, but not the country of the Netherlands itself. The islands are semi-autonomous, and most importantly for our inquiry, are full-fledged members of FIFA, with their own national football teams. So no, the Netherlands is not the country I was thinking of.

In the country I'm thinking of, there is only the one national football team, and the residents that live on the second continent are only eligible to play on that team.

 

The last country is Colombia. If you go to Google maps, you will see that the Coco Province of Colombia sticks out past the South American continent and into the Panamanian isthmus east of Panama. Most geographers think this area is part of Central America, and therefore another continent.

But even if it isn't, the Colombian islands of San Andres and Providencia (fully-fledged parts of Colombia proper, with residents having all citizenship rights, etc.) are far north of South America, almost 500 miles away, east of Nicaragua. Therefore, Colombia is also a country with land connections to two continents.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/C...x9a0d9a04eff2a340!8m2!3d4.570868!4d-74.297333

https://www.google.com/maps/place/P...1b63e1171b2ee2!8m2!3d13.3814247!4d-81.3657428

 

Wiki says Sint-Maarten is a "constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands,". I assume that means it's not part of the Netherlands itself, but a country within the Dutch Kingdom or Commonwealth.

Wiki on Bonaire is confusing:

"Bonaire's announced referendum scheduled for 26 March 2010 was canceled in February 2010. The Governor of the Dutch Antilles, Frits Goedgedrag, decided to cancel it because it probably contravened international law since part of the population was barred from voting. European Dutch nationals were only allowed to vote if they arrived on the island before 1 January 2007.[54][55] The referendum was postponed to September and then October 2010.[56] Eventually the referendum was held on 17 December 2010, with 84% voting in favor of becoming part of the Netherlands. However, as the 35% voter turnout rate was below the required 51%, the results of the referendum were declared invalid."

It doesn't give any further information. Other websites say Bonaire is a "Netherlends public body", but doesn't define what that means.

Maybe one of the Dutch posters can help clarify it for us.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sint_Maarten#Government_and_politics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonaire#Government

https://www.government.nl/topics/caribbean-parts-of-the-kingdom/question-and-answer/what-are-the-different-parts-of-the-kingdom-of-the-netherlands#:~:text=The Kingdom of the Netherlands is made up of 4,Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba.

 

"Other websites say Bonaire is a "Netherlands public body", but doesn't define what that means."

With that is ment a part of the government like municipalities, provinces etc. that excert certain tasks within a geographical or public domain task.
Bonaire is a special municipality within the Netherlands.
So basically it is part of the Netherlands with a special character in it's relation with it. It's not an independant country in any form.
The status to be is still in limbo after the referendum about that relation.

 

Okay, thanks for the info. Is the Dutch national team the only one Bonaire residents are eligible to play for? (Assuming they don't have dual citizenship with some other country).

 

Well, that's the interesting part. Afaik the island isnot a member of FIFA, so they can't take part in qualifying for the WC for themselves. They are however member of CONCACAF.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonaire_national_football_team

 

You're right, interesting. Not really sure where to put them. Thanks for your help.

 

New question: Which country has played the most World Cup matches without ever playing the same team twice, and how many WC matches have they played?