MrH's World Cup Facts!

[Panda]

#1:

Angola only qualified for the group stage in Africa after beating Chad on away goals in the preliminary round. They lost the first leg 3-1.

[Panda]

#2:

Of FIFA's 207 members, 198 entered the World Cup.

Djibouti, Brunei, Bhutan, Cambodia, Phillipines and Puerto Rico did not enter. Burma were banned from taking part for withdrawing from the last World Cup. East Timor and Comoros couldn't enter as they joined FIFA after qualifying had already started.

[Panda]

#3:

The biggest win in the qualifying tournament for 2006 was Bermuda's 13-0 win over Montserrat. They won 20-0 on aggregate. They lost in the next round to El Salvador.

Maybe they should get some sort of prize, like when they have one for the highest break in snooker tournaments.

[Admin]

misterhamster said:

#1:

Angola only qualified for the group stage in Africa after beating Chad on away goals in the preliminary round. They lost the first leg 3-1.

They beat Chad, well that's not fair is it, he's only one person and he sits on a chuffing wall all the time!

Great facts, please continue

[frag]

admin said:

misterhamster said:

#1:

Angola only qualified for the group stage in Africa after beating Chad on away goals in the preliminary round. They lost the first leg 3-1.

They beat Chad, well that's not fair is it, he's only one person and he sits on a chuffing wall all the time!

yeah, but they still managed to lose to them in the first leg

Continue with the facts, very good so far

[Panda]

#4:

10 teams went through the qualifying stages without losing a game:

Morocco (still didn't qualify)
Saudi Arabia
Holland
Portugal
France
Israel (didn't qualify)
Serbia & Montenegro
Spain
Croatia
Cuba (lost on away goals)

[Panda]

#5:

If the system introduced for the 1986 World Cup, with 16 teams going through to the second round, had been in place in 1982, Scotland would have qualified from their group as one of the best 3rd place teams, on goals scored.

[marcus]

Scotand were also the only unbeaten team in 1974 wern't they?.

[Panda]

marcus said:

Scotand were also the only unbeaten team in 1974 wern't they?.

Correct, though that's partly because there were 2 group stages. Also, the Scots only actually won 1 game.

[Panda]

#6:

Mexico have lost more finals games than any other country, having been defeated in 20 of their 42 matches.

[Panda]

#7:

Brazil had never lost a World Cup qualifying match until 1993, when they lost to Bolivia.

[frag]

Can I post one? ;D

[Panda]

Go on then.

[frag]

#8:

Ecuador went 35 years without winning a single away match, from 1965 to 2000. (This is probably a record for a world cup team, I'd imagine)

[Panda]

#9:

There have been 17 occasions where a team has won all 3 of its first round group games.


Teams winning all 3 group games:

1930: Argentina
1950: Spain
1966: Portugal, USSR
1970: Brazil, West Germany
1974: Poland
1982: England, Brazil
1986: Brazil, Denmark
1990: Italy, Brazil
1998: France, Argentina
2002: Spain, Brazil

Holland and West Germany won all 3 second round group games in 1974.

[frag]

So that makes Brazil the only team to get 100% in the group stages more than twice?

[Panda]

#10:

No team has ever won the World Cup after losing its opening game in the finals.

West Germany (1982), Argentina (1990) and Italy (1994) have all reached the final after losing their opening game.

[Panda]

#11:

Ireland reached the quarter-finals of the 1990 World Cup without winning a game.

R1: England D 1-1
R1: Egypt D 0-0
R1: Holland D 1-1
R2: Romania D 0-0 (won on penalties)

[frag]

Did they also exit without losing?

[Panda]

fragolata said:

Did they also exit without losing?

They lost 1-0 to Italy in the quarter-finals, though they did go out without losing in 2002.