2022 FIFA World Cup - Qatar, November 21-December 18

[buritobr]

Except the defeat against Argentina in 1990 (a tragedy we remember until today) and the penalty shoots against Chile in 2014 (if we have lost, the 7 X 1 could have been avoided), the Round of 16 for the Brazilian squad is like the 4th game of the First Round. Since Brazil is always a seeded squad in the draw and is always the first of the group, always plays against a runner up in the Round of 16. Brazil usually plays against a super power in the soccer only in the Round of 8.

The history of Brazilian squad in the Round of 16
1986: Brazil 4 X 0 Poland
1990: Brazil 0 X 1 Argentina
1994: Brazil 1 X 0 USA
1998: Brazil 4 X 1 Chile
2002: Brazil 2 X 0 Belgium
2006: Brazil 3 X 0 Ghana
2010: Brazil 3 X 0 Chile
2014: Brazil 1 X 1 Chile
2018: Brazil 2 X 0 Mexico
2022: Brazil 4 X 1 South Korea

[buritobr]

In the history of the World Cups, Brazil played once against North Korea and once against South Korea

2010
Brazil 2 X 1 North Korea

2022
Brazil 4 X 1 South Korea

Brazil scored twice as much goals in the South Korea as in North Korea

[buritobr]

OK, if we look at the history, we could consider Morocco an underdog because its squad had played the Round of 16 only once before, in 1986.

But Spain isn't a giant in the history of the tournment too. The Spanish squad was in the top 4 only twice: 1950 and 2010.

If we look not at the history, but in how the present squads are playing, before the win againt Costa Rica, Spain 2022 wasn't considered in the group of the top teams. Before the tournment starts, most people talked about Brazil, Argentina, France, England, Portugal

[buritobr]

My forecasts

Brazil 2 X 1 Croatia
Argentina 1(5) X 1(4) Netherlands
Portugal 1 X 0 Morocco
France 2(5) X 2(4) England

[buritobr]

Continent of the countries of the top 8 in the World Cup.
Only one correction: green is South America and not Latin America


Sometimes, the top 8 doesn't tell us about the final. In 1958 and 1994, Brazil was the unique non-European in the top 8 and became the champion. In 2010, there were only 3 Europeans, the lowest number, but these were the 3 that reached the podium: Spain, Netherlands, Germany

[buritobr]

so Croatia is gonna get our curse now?

Since the World Cup has 32 national teams, there is a curse for the national teams which defeated Brazil

France 1998: eliminated in the 1st round in 2002
France 2006: eliminated in the 1st round in 2010
Germany 2014: eliminated in the 1st round in 2018
Belgium 2018: eliminated in the 1st round in 2022

Only Netherlands 2010 escaped this curse.

Would make sense since a lot of the players of the current Croatian team are old.

Until 2018, when Croatia didn't won medal (1998, 2018) this squad was eliminated in the 1st round

[buritobr]

A team which is winning a game and concede a goal in the final minutes after a counter-strike doesn't deserve to win a World Cup

[buritobr]

Tite won't be the coach of the Brazilian squad anymore.

The debate about the possibility of a foreign coach, which started after the defeat in 2010, started again. In the past, Brazil used to be a net exporter of coaches. Now, some Brazilian clubs have already foreign coaches.

[buritobr]

I support a third world final: Morocco vs Argentina

[buritobr]

In only 4 World Cup tournments, a monarchy was champion:
Italy 1934/1938
England 1966
Spain 2010

Now, the remaining monarchy is Morocco

England, Wales, Canada, Australia, Netherlands, Spain, Japan, Denmark, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Qatar are out

[buritobr]

Well, Argentina isn't a 100% white country. And their soccer teams aren't 100% white.

Carlitos Tévez and Di Maria don't look like Danish

[buritobr]

Since Tite is out, media mentioned some possible names to be the new coach of the Brazilian squad: Jorge Jesus, Abel Ferreira, Carlo Ancelotti

There is some discussion related to a possible foreign coach since Dunga's failure in 2010. Many sports fans consider that Brazil still has some very good players, but the sqad fails to defead an European squad in the knock-out stage since 2006 because Brazil does bad in tactics, and our coaches are outdated. A foreign coach could be against our national proud: Brazil used to be known as the land of the soccer, and, in the past, there were many Brazilian coaches of other squads. The two Portuguese teams which reached the semifinals had Brazilian coaches: Otto Gloria in 1966 and Luiz Felipe Scolari in 2006. Now, we are considering the possibility of a non-Brazilian coach for the Brazilian team, who could be a Portuguese. But maybe we need to forget our pride since we are observing that the Brazilian team is falling behind.

A soccer power had already a foreign coach: italian Fabio Capello was already the coach of the English team

[buritobr]

The tournment had new winners in 1930 (of course), 1934, 1954, 1958, 1966, 1978, 1998, 2010.
Possibility of next time, only in 2026

[buritobr]

Squads which reached high popularity in the audience but failed to reach the finals

1990 Cameroon
1994 Romania
1998 Croatia
2002 Turkey
2006 Portugal
2010 Uruguay
2014 Costa Rica
2018 Belgium
2022 Morocco

[buritobr]

Btw there has been so many international finals since 2018 that has gone to extra time and even that wasn’t enough.


2018 Olympics : US vs Canada (US wins in Penalties)
2019 Cricket World Cup : England vs NZ(England wins of tiebreaker as super over is tied)
2019 Wimbledon : Federer vs Djokovic(Wins 5th set in a tiebreaker game )
2021 Euro : England vs Italy (Italy wins in Penalties)
2022 World Cup : Argentina Vs France ( Argentina wins in Penalties)

2022 was the first World Cup I remember in which there was no Wimbledon at the same time

[buritobr]

Congratulations, Argentina

Usually, the large majority of the Brazilians is anti-Argentina. Today, Brazil was divided. Miracle Messi can do.

[buritobr]

Why did England never win a World Cup outside its home?

[buritobr]

I believe traveling abroad in order to watch the national squad is a tradition of European leaders. As Edu said, no Argentine presidents traveled abroad in order to watch the World Cup finals. The same happened to Brazilian presidents. Itamar Franco didn't travel to the USA in 1994, Fernando Henrique Cardoso didn't travel to France in 1998 and to Japan in 2002.

[buritobr]

Updating the list of leaders who saw their national squads winning the FIFA men's World Cup

1930: Juan Campisteguy (center)
1934: Benito Mussolini (far-right)
1938: Benito Mussolini (far-right)
1950: Luis Batlle Berres (center)
1954: Konrad Adenauer (center-right)
1958: Juscelino Kubitschek (center)
1962: president João Goulart (left), prime minister Tancredo Neves (center)
1966: Harold Wilson (center-left)
1970: Emílio Gastarrazu Médici (far-right)
1974: Helmut Schmidt (center-left)
1978: Jorge Rafael Videla (far-right)
1982: Giovanni Spadolini (center-right)
1986: Raúl Alfonsín (center)
1990: Helmut Kohl (center-right)
1994: Itamar Franco (center)
1998: president Jacques Chirac (center-right), prime minister Lionel Jospin (center-left)
2002: Fernando Henrique Cardoso (center)
2006: Romano Prodi (center-left)
2010: José Luis Zapatero (center-left)
2014: Angela Merkel (center-right)
2018: Emmanuel Macron (center)
2022: Alberto Fernández (center-left)

[buritobr]

Until the 1970s, professional players were forbidden. So, most of the countries didn't have their strongest teams. The communist countries used to win because their amateur teams were their most important teams, since professional sport was forbidden under the communist rule.
In the 1980s, the Olympic soccer allowed professionals, but only players who didn't play a World Cup yet. So, the teams had young players.
Since 1992, it's officialy a youth tournment. Maximum 3 players older than 23.

Until 1992, "men's soccer" in the Olympics was only "soccer". Women's soccer started in Olympics in Atlanta 1996. Some social progress is so recent!

[buritobr]

Another interesting fact

The countries who already won were Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Germany, Italy, England, France, Spain. In this group, only Uruguay never had a driver who was Formula 1 champion.

[buritobr]

Another interesting fact

The countries who already won were Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Germany, Italy, England, France, Spain. In this group, only Uruguay never had a driver who was Formula 1 champion.

Uruguay is the only nation which is kind of small compared to the others which are big nations.

If Netherlands did win one of their three finals they would also have fitted your fun fact given Verstappen became Formula 1 champion.

Croatia almost broke this rule in 2018.
There was a Formula 1 world champion who was born in Croatia: Mario Andretti. But he had American nationality. And when he won in 1978, Croatia was not an independent country.