A lot of people say the 32 team format waters down the field of a tourney that used to be half as big. I guess that's true by definition. But who's bringing up the bottom? Which is the weakest confederation? Here's a list of the teams that have failed to win a point at each World Cup, going back to 1982, when the field was expanded to 24. 2002 32nd place: Saudi Arabia 0 goals for, 12 against 31. China 0/9 30. Slovenia 2/7 1998 32. USA 1/5 31. Japan 1/4 1994 24. Greece 0/10 23. Morrocco 2/5 1990 24. United Arab Emirates 2/11 23. USA 2/8 22. South Korea 1/6 21. Sweden 3/6 1986 24. Canada 0/5 23. Iraq 1/4 1982 24. El Salvador 1/13 23. New Zealand 2/12 22. Chile 3/8 Some observations. There are more Asian teams (six) than from any other confederation. (You could throw New Zealand into that group, since they played in Asian qualifying in 1982: so make it seven). But CONCACAF isn't far behind (four). Only once since 1982 has a South American team failed to win a point at the World Cup (Chile 1982). The same can be said for Africa (Morrocco 1994). Only one team is on the list twice: the USA. Ugh. To my mind, Saudi Arabia 2002 and El Salvador 1982 were the weakest teams of that 20 year span, and both suffered the most humilliating "goleadas." Greece 1994 was pounded by 3 very strong teams--Argentina, Bulgaria and Nigeria--but was still the worst European team in the tourney for many World Cups. Any thoughts?
Given what we see above, the playoff between the fourth placed CONCACAF team (likely Costa Rica and Guatemala) and the fifth placed Asian team (Bahrain, Uzbekistan or Kuwait) will be without a doubt the weakest team going into the tournament.
Seeing that makes me wonder why Asia gets 4 spots. Their 4th place team should play the CONCACAF 4th place team for a spot and give Asia's other spot to Oceana. They can't do any worse than Saudi Arabia did in 02.
Not sure about that...Guatemala can be a promising team, and if Costa Rica is at 2002 form they be good... but assuredly Bahrain or T&T would be pretty weak you also must consider new African contenders, Togo, Angola, should they qualify
Slovenia in 2002 were also pretty bad, considering the easy group they were drawn in. As an American living in the UAE... 1990 was a tournament best forgotten.. actually, it was nice just to see them both there...
conacaf deserves only three teams. asia may one day deserve five, but now probably just three. conacaf is also only stronger because of mexico and the u.s. south america should just get five and australia should have to play against the asians for another spot, or a sixth african team.