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With the Socceroos back in Vitoria and Mark Bresciano declaring himself fit and ready for 90 minutes against Chile, the Socceroos are now odds-on favourites to win the Group of Death and thus avoid a probable Round 2 clash with Brazil.
Okay, settle down, and I will too. But it’s all getting close and given we have to wait four years for the ultimate football feast, you’ve got to dare to dream.
And maybe study up on the potted history of the World Cup, which throws up some startling statistics.
They don’t like ‘sockah’ in the USA?
Really? Well, would it surprise you that the USA’s best World Cup result was… semi-finalists?
True story, the USA finished third in the very first World Cup in 1930, losing their semi final to Argentina.
While that might not confirm that the sport is a powerhouse in the US, the most attended World Cup in history was USA 1994. Over 3,587,000 fans went to the games at an average of 68,991 per match.
European teams don’t travel well
The 19 World Cup winners have come from Europe and South America, with Europe holding a slender 10-9 advantage. But only once has a European country won the World Cup outside of Europe, when Spain became champions in South Africa in 2010.
By comparison, South American nations have been victorious outside of their own continent five times: Brazil have won four times on the road, in Sweden (1958), Mexico (1970), USA (1994), and Japan/South Korea (2002). Argentina won in 1986 in Mexico, which is in Central, not South, America.
Of course this is a long-winded way of pointing out that a Euro team have never won in South America, which blows my Germany versus Belgium final pick right out of the water.
They don’t like us antipodeans
Australia and New Zealand have qualified for six World Cup finals between them. Each time, they have been grouped with a former or reigning champion.
The Socceroos’ bad luck with the draw goes like this: West Germany (1974), Brazil (holders, 2006), Germany (2010), and Spain (holders 2014). The All Whites drew Brazil in 1982 and holders Italy in 2010.
Through all this, it is the Kiwis who have posted the only success against a former champion, with a 1-1 draw in 2010 against the Italians.
Welcoming the newbies
One quarter of the 1974 finalists were playing in the World Cup finals for the first time – the highest percentage outside of the first tournament.
East Germany, Australia, Zaire and Haiti were all present at the tournament in West Germany. East Germany and Australia were even drawn in the same group.
A record clean sheet run with an unlikely ending
It’s no the defensively famed Italians set a record for World Cup clean sheets (including qualifiers). Legendary keeper Dino Zoff stood between the sticks for every one of the 1,142 minutes that the Italians kept the opposition at bay. That’s 12 games and 62 minutes if you’re not great at maths.
Amazingly, the nation to breach the famed defence was Haiti, who socred against the Italians in their 1974 group game – in fact they took the lead.
The biggest shock in World Cup history didn’t happen though – the Italians rallied to win 3-1.
Who really is the most important player?
If you’re looking for a handle on who to back for the World Cup, a look at the playing and scoring awards over the years might prove instructive.
While strikers get the glory and the insane celebrations, the top scorer in all of the World Cup tournaments has only come from the winning nation on four occasions. Conversely, the man judged best goalkeeper of the tournament has come from the winning country nine times.
The player of the tournament, winner of the Golden Ball award, has come from the winning nation 10 times, but not since 1994 has the tournament’s best player been of the world champions.
Going a long way on very little
Ireland made the quarter finals of the 1990 World Cup without winning a game, scoring only two goals in the five games they played.
Even more remarkably, Ireland’s group contained England, Netherlands and Egypt and produced only one win for a team – England’s 1-0 triumph over Egypt.
Getting it all done at once
Of all the Golden Boot winners, Oleg Salenko is surely the most remarkable. His six goals in the 1994 tournament for Russia came in just two games, including a five-goal rampage against Cameroon.
Despite his efforts, the Russians failed to advance past the group stage, making Salenko the only player to have won the award without playing in any of the knockout rounds.
FFA have got with the program
Ange Postecoglou’s appointment as Socceroos coach has been almost universally welcomed – a home-grown coach to take us into the World Cup finals pressure cooker. Someone within FFA has done their homework.
In this era of the game operating as a shrinking global village, it might surprise you to know that no nation has ever won the World Cup with a foreign-born coach.
Our Aussie scoring hero
If Tim Cahill gets on the scoresheet it’ll put him in some pretty heady company as a player to score in three different World Cups. Not even Diego Maradona has managed to achieve this feat.
However, Super Tim wasn’t really the first Aussie to score at the World Cup finals. Answer that ultimate trivia question in the comments – it’s not that hard!
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