Tuesday, August 10, 2010

The all-time world cup table

When I had my old website I would have all statistics on the World Cup from a big Excell table that I have been updating since I learned to use Excell in the mid-1990s... I have now updated it again, below with the all-time World Cup list.
It is notable that there have been some changes at the top, something that does not happen often: The top five remains unchanged, but Spain, the world champions, overtook France to become the number six all-time nation in World Cup history, while the Netherlands moved up one spot, and little Uruguay returned to the top ten.
It is usual that the major movements happen in the lower positions: South Corea moved up again, steadily working their way up, but Japan moved up 12 spots and Australia 9, all meaning big movements for Asia.
Undefeated New Zealand, in their only second world cup ever, also moved up 12 spots.
Two smaller European nations, Greece and Slovenia, also moved up mostly due to the fact that differently from last time they participated, they actually won matches (in the case of Greece, they even scored goals...).
But the big mover came from Africa: Ghana moved up 14 spots on its second World Cup. It overtook Nigeria (on goal difference), and are now only one World Cup and five points from overtaking the highest placed African country, Cameroun.
Must be said that South Africa, in spite of being the first host ever to be eliminated in the first round, nevertheless also moved up 12 spots.
Anyway, there is a link to all the tables here.

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