WC OT: Results by Confederation
Now that the group phase is done, looking at the results by confederation (continent), here is what jumps out:
- CONMEBOL (South America) utterly killed this tournament. Unforatunately for them, 4 of their 5 teams in the knockout rounds play each other in the first round - -and the winners play in the second round -- so of the 4, only 1 can make the semi-finals. On the other hand, CONMEBOL is guaranteed a semifinalist. Argentina is the outlier from that group, and on the other side of the bracket. Potential Brazil/Argentina final.
- CONCACAF (North America / Central America) did just about as well as EUFA (Europe), winning about half the available points. Although that's with 4 teams versus 13 teams. Interestingly, all 3 CONCACAF teams in R16 take on EUFA teams: MEX and USA take on NED and BEL, respectively (arch rivals taking on arch rivals) and CRC takes on GRE.
- Asia utterly stunk (no wins) and Africa wasn't far behind. Africa did get 2 of its 5 teams into the R16.
The data (record are W-D-L):
CONMEBOL: 6 teams, 13-2-3, 41 pts (out of 54 pts available, took 76% of pts available)
(*) EUFA: 13 teams, 13-7-9, 46 pts (of 87 pts, 53%)
CONCACAF: 4 teams, 5-3-4, 18 pts (of 36 pts, 50%)
AFRICA: 5 teams, 3-3-9, 12 pts (of 45 pts, 27%)
ASIA: 4 taems, 0-3-9, 3 pts (of 36 pts, 8%) - NO WINS
OCEANIA: No teams; NZL eliminated by MEX in play-in round.
(*) I adjusted the EUFA record by removing the 5 games played between European teams in the group phase. The record here is only EUFA teams versus teams from other confederations.
I remember when people said CONCACAF sucked and that all the US wins in the Gold Cup meant nothing.
* US keeps dominating CONCACAF*
"It's against nobodies. Juergen sucks. He hasn't played anyone."
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for doing this for all of us that wondered -- but would not have taken the time to do the analysis! USA is getting there in this world wide super sport!
UEFA.
Very interesting! One nitpick: it's UEFA, not EUFA.
They switched a couple World Cups ago. More bids available in Asia, though based on their performance perhaps an adjustment as an order. New Zealand at least was competitive last time they were in.
Also, they weren't getting much competition in Oceania. It was basically the Australia-New Zeland derby for a WC bid.
Really, it's easier to qualify through the Asian process than it is to rely on the 0.5 bids Oceania had, which is to say, pinning their entire hopes on two matches against usually a South American team. Getting one of Asia's four guaranteed bids is easier.
^this
Actually I think the last couple of times, the Oceania leader got to play the fourth place CONCACAF country. Unfortunately this year Mexico's machinations led them to a fourth place -- actually a lucky fourth place finish -- so New Zealand got to play a much better team than one might expect. For example, I suspect New Zealand would have had an easier time with Honduras -- or Panama (who would have finished fourth if the US hadn't rallied to beat them in the final game of qualifying).
I highly dispute the notion that Africa stunk. Getting 2 of 5 teams into the knockout round is very similar to Europe's 6 of 13, and it's the first time ever that Africa has had more than one. And they were about 30 seconds from having three teams in, plus a very strong Ghana team was stuck in the Group of Death. Despite the 27% of points available thing, Africa really had an excellent showing.
Ivory Coast choked...again.
Cameroon was right at the bottom with Honduras.
Nigeria surpassed expectations.
Algeria survived the group of life
I think Ghana would have advanced in about 5 other groups. To offset that I think Nigeria would NOT have advanced in about 5 other groups. So we can call it a wash and say those ping pong balls determined a lot. Ghana rightfully should have beat U.S., and tied Germany - I did not watch today's game but it appears their internal strife finally caught up to them with the money not paid etc - seems to be a reoccuring themes for some African countries.
Cameroon stunk, along with Honduras from our side.
Ivory Coast was ...wellIvory Coast.
Algeria? See Nigeria. That group ended up being very mediocre. Which is good for Germany and to a lesser degree us in the next round. Belgium hung around 3 pretty mediocre teams despite their bevy of talent.
It is difficult to draw any conclusions from such a small sample size (12 games for CONCAF!).
It is also important to remember that the group draw process is not neutral and favors certian regions.
Are the Freaky Deeky Dutch and the Belgians really arch rivals?