World Cup Final Fours

[SWC75]

I was reading this Wikipedia page about the history of the World Cup:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cup#Results

Naturally I couldn’t resist accessing the historical success of the various nations with a point system. I used one point for finishing 4th, 2 for 3rd, 3 for second and 8 for winning the World Cup, (so there’s a significant difference between winning and finishing second, as there should be). Here’s what I came up with, up-to-date through this afternoon’s, (2014) final:


Germany 53 points

Brazil 52 points

Italy 41 points

Argentina 25 points

Uruguay 19 points

France 16 points

Netherlands 12 points

England and Spain 9 points

Sweden 8 points

Czechoslovakia and Hungary 6 points

Poland 4 points

Austria and Portugal 3 points

United States and Yugoslavia 2 points

Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Croatia,

Turkey, Russia, South Korea 1 point


Comment: Germany with this win, surpasses Brazil for overall-success in the World Cup, even if they are still one short in championships. The thing that jumps out at me is the lack of success of “England”, (the chart doesn’t call the United Kingdom: I guess the Scots and the Irish have their own teams). That’s the birthplace of the game and I’d always thought of England as a big-time soccer power. Judging from the comments of the English experts that were on ESPN this morning, they feel the same way: “We think it’s our birthright to be in the finals". In fact, England won the Cup once in 20 tournaments: when they hosted it, and fourth one other time. Outside of their one cup, they really haven’t done any better than we have. Also, it’s “the world’s most popular sport” but North America has two points, Asia one and Africa none. It’s basically dominated by two continents.

 

[Bortukal]

Amazing work as usual, SWC, although I think you really outdid yourself this time.

England have to be the most overrated team out there. There is a lot of talent in their player pool, but they can never seem to find a manager capable of building a cohesive unit that puts team success over individual achievement. They've consistently underperformed for years now. They simply aren't the power that they're made out to be even though they produce some amazing players, i.e. Rooney, Gerard, Beckham, Lampard, etc. And they somehow can not develop a competent goaltender. It's really odd.

 

[SWC75]

Amazing work as usual, SWC, although I think you really outdid yourself this time.

England have to be the most overrated team out there. There is a lot of talent in their player pool, but they can never seem to find a manager capable of building a cohesive unit that puts team success over individual achievement. They've consistently underperformed for years now. They simply aren't the power that they're made out to be even though they produce some amazing players, i.e. Rooney, Gerard, Beckham, Lampard, etc. And they somehow can not develop a competent goaltender. It's really odd.

I remember joking in 2010 that their goalie had a second job as a leak-plugger for BP.

 

[General20]

I was reading this Wikipedia page about the history of the World Cup:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cup#Results

Naturally I couldn’t resist accessing the historical success of the various nations with a point system. I used one point for finishing 4th, 2 for 3rd, 3 for second and 8 for winning the World Cup, (so there’s a significant difference between winning and finishing second, as there should be). Here’s what I came up with, up-to-date through this afternoon’s, (2014) final:


Germany 53 points

Brazil 52 points

Italy 41 points

Argentina 25 points

Uruguay 19 points

France 16 points

Netherlands 12 points

England and Spain 9 points

Sweden 8 points

Czechoslovakia and Hungary 6 points

Poland 4 points

Austria and Portugal 3 points

United States and Yugoslavia 2 points

Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Croatia,

Turkey, Russia, South Korea 1 point


Comment: Germany with this win, surpasses Brazil for overall-success in the World Cup, even if they are still one short in championships. The thing that jumps out at me is the lack of success of “England”, (the chart doesn’t call the United Kingdom: I guess the Scots and the Irish have their own teams). That’s the birthplace of the game and I’d always thought of England as a big-time soccer power. Judging from the comments of the English experts that were on ESPN this morning, they feel the same way: “We think it’s our birthright to be in the finals". In fact, England won the Cup once in 20 tournaments: when they hosted it, and fourth one other time. Outside of their one cup, they really haven’t done any better than we have. Also, it’s “the world’s most popular sport” but North America has two points, Asia one and Africa none. It’s basically dominated by two continents.

I did the EXACT same thing after this world cup. Except I awarded 10 for a championship, 4 for a runner up, 2 for a 3rd, and 1 for a fourth.

Came up with the same basic rankings though, and the same conclusion that Germany have caught/slightly surpassed Brazil for World Cup dominance.

Germany – 65

Brazil – 64

Italy – 51

Argentina – 32

Uruguay – 23

France – 19

Netherlands - 15

England – 11

Spain – 11