Just out of curiosity!

[Uppercut]

Still reckon football is more prone to upsets as well as it is a shorter game (other reasons too but lets not turn it into a cricket vs. football debate) but what is the 'worst' team to ever win the football world cup?

Italy in 2006.

Awful, horrible, workmanlike, defensive, nasty, smelly team.*

But you're right; the thing that makes football most susceptible to shocks is the uniquely high premium it puts on scoring. A team snaffles a goal early doors and their keeper has a blinder/the oppo have a shooting mare and suddenly you get yerself an upset.

*EDIT: forgot cynical and diving.

Yeah that's true. One-day cricket is pretty upset-friendly too, though. The thing about football is that the tactics involved in beating a team much better than you are so advanced. There are some fairly simple things you can do to give yourself a good shot at an upset- pressing as a team, fitness, working on set-pieces- Greece covered them all pretty much perfectly in 2004.

The relative tactics in ODIs aren't yet at the same level. Ireland are currently trying to follow the template originally set out by New Zealand- working hard on fielding, batting deep, having as many options with the ball as possible and excelling in conditions where a lot of our opponents struggle. A World Cup in early-season India really doesn't suit our agenda, but it'll be interesting to see how they go about trying to pull something off tactically. I reckon having a few capable sloggers in the lower order is the way to maximise your chances of an upset in India, but that's not one of our strengths, so hopefully we'll have put some work in on it by the time the WC rolls around.

 

[Howe_zat]

Great post Uppercut.

Makes you wonder what Bangladesh could be capable of if they sorted out their fielding. It's such an underrated asset to have in modern one day cricket. Arguably England's biggest strength in their World T20 win was that they were the top fielding side there, and it's the biggest factor holding India back from being runaway favourites for the WC.

Edit: I don't watch football but I believe that Germany 1990 were an awful WC winning side.

 

[G.I.Joe]

Yeah that's true. One-day cricket is pretty upset-friendly too, though. The thing about football is that the tactics involved in beating a team much better than you are so advanced. There are some fairly simple things you can do to give yourself a good shot at an upset- pressing as a team, fitness, working on set-pieces- Greece covered them all pretty much perfectly in 2004.

The relative tactics in ODIs aren't yet at the same level. Ireland are currently trying to follow the template originally set out by New Zealand- working hard on fielding, batting deep, having as many options with the ball as possible and excelling in conditions where a lot of our opponents struggle. A World Cup in early-season India really doesn't suit our agenda, but it'll be interesting to see how they go about trying to pull something off tactically. I reckon having a few capable sloggers in the lower order is the way to maximise your chances of an upset in India, but that's not one of our strengths, so hopefully we'll have put some work in on it by the time the WC rolls around.

*late-season

 

[Uppercut]

Ah.

That's actually a little better for us. But still dire.

 

[Uppercut]

Great post Uppercut.

Makes you wonder what Bangladesh could be capable of if they sorted out their fielding. It's such an underrated asset to have in modern one day cricket. Arguably England's biggest strength in their World T20 win was that they were the top fielding side there, and it's the biggest factor holding India back from being runaway favourites for the WC.

TBF, Bangladesh's fielding has improved a ton. They were absolutely dreadful for years but when Jamie Siddons took over it improved drastically. And it has quite clearly made a difference to their performance in ODIs.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Edit: I don't watch football but I believe that Germany 1990 were an awful WC winning side.

Nooo. Well drilled and efficient in their teutonic way, but they played quite a bit of football. Destroyed a very good Yugoslav team in the group stages. Much more than Brazil did in 94, certainly.

 

[Uppercut]

Surely not. Even the least attractive of the successful Brazilian sides was prettier than the most attractive of successful German sides.

YouTube - Netherlands 2 -- 3 Brazil Quarter-finals 1994 FIFA World Cup

 

[Furball]

Yeah that's true. One-day cricket is pretty upset-friendly too, though. The thing about football is that the tactics involved in beating a team much better than you are so advanced. There are some fairly simple things you can do to give yourself a good shot at an upset- pressing as a team, fitness, working on set-pieces- Greece covered them all pretty much perfectly in 2004.

What Greece did so effectively was to resurrect a defensive tactic that had fallen out of fashion to the extent that people had forgotten how to combat it.

 

[salman85]

My curiosity made me create this thread but pls I need genuine & serious answers n discussion - Wat IF an associate nation (Ireland/Kenya/Netherlands/Canada) manages to win this World Cup? Before someone starts making fun of this thread - I knw that it is 100% not possible but the term is IF. So pls throw in ur opinions. How do u think it will change the face of Cricket?

Depending on who the associate nation beats in the knockout matches,cricket will be hit by match fixing allegations of the worst kind.

Italy in 2006.

Awful, horrible, workmanlike, defensive, nasty, smelly team.*

But you're right; the thing that makes football most susceptible to shocks is the uniquely high premium it puts on scoring. A team snaffles a goal early doors and their keeper has a blinder/the oppo have a shooting mare and suddenly you get yerself an upset.

*EDIT: forgot cynical and diving.

Cheapshot at the 2nd most successful football nation in history.No?

Going by all football world cups so far,i'd say that England in 1966 probably had the weakest team to win a world cup,compared to all other winners.And i mean that very respectfully.They've had better teams after that.The fact that they've not achieved anything with those teams is another issue.

 

[Uppercut]

What Greece did so effectively was to resurrect a defensive tactic that had fallen out of fashion to the extent that people had forgotten how to combat it.

I wish I believed that, because if it were true it would make Rehhagel even more obscenely genius.

 

[Cevno]

And in spite of all that "progress" no African side has even made the semi finals in world cups yet.

Tbf, Ghana almost did had it not been for a missed Penalty plus Suarez playing goalkeeper.

 

[vcs]

South Korea making the semis in 2002 was farcical as well. They were the beneficiaries of some of the most obviously biased, and dare-I-say, corrupt officiating I've ever seen.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Cheapshot at the 2nd most successful football nation in history.No?

Going by all football world cups so far,i'd say that England in 1966 probably had the weakest team to win a world cup,compared to all other winners.And i mean that very respectfully.They've had better teams after that.The fact that they've not achieved anything with those teams is another issue.

Not at all. The question ask was which was the weakest team, not nation. Italy in 2006 were, by absolute streets, the weakest team to ever win the world cup.

Check out their route to the final. Their only noteworthy result was the semi win over Germany and that was reliant on two goals after 119 minutes of dogturd defensive football.

 

[Uppercut]

Would probably agree but let's not rewrite history, that was 119 epic minutes of awesome football.

 

[salman85]

Not at all. The question ask was which was the weakest team, not nation. Italy in 2006 were, by absolute streets, the weakest team to ever win the world cup.

Check out their route to the final. Their only noteworthy result was the semi win over Germany and that was reliant on two goals after 119 minutes of dogturd defensive football.

As Uppercut mentioned,that was a fantastic match.The score doesn't do justice to the quality of the match.

They may have been boring to watch,but that Italian team had one of the best defenses in WC history.And i'm not going by stats.I'm going by their quality during those 7 matches,which stats alone do not show.The team definitely wasn't weak.Buffon,Cannavaro at this peak,Del Piero,Totti?Boring maybe,but not weak.

 

[BoyBrumby]

As Uppercut mentioned,that was a fantastic match.The score doesn't do justice to the quality of the match.

They may have been boring to watch,but that Italian team had one of the best defenses in WC history.And i'm not going by stats.I'm going by their quality during those 7 matches,which stats alone do not show.The team definitely wasn't weak.Buffon,Cannavaro at this peak,Del Piero,Totti?Boring maybe,but not weak.

Worst team to win a world cup. Doesn't mean they were a bad side (they actually weren't a very good one tho), but they're a long way below any other team to do it.

They got lucky; it happens. The German team who made the final in 2002 was even worse, the only difference being France had obligingly knocked Brazil out in 2006.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Back to cricket, and I think over 50 overs, the scope for an upset is much reduced. I could quite conceivably imagine an Associate winning the 20:20 world cup. However, were they to do so, the impact would be minimal at best. If an Associate one the 50 over world cup, I'd think the impact would be significant.

 

[marc71178]

To be fair, if England can win the World T20 there's hope for anyone.

 

[Turbinator]

To be fair, if England can win the World T20 there's hope for anyone.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Back to cricket, and I think over 50 overs, the scope for an upset is much reduced. I could quite conceivably imagine an Associate winning the 20:20 world cup. However, were they to do so, the impact would be minimal at best. If an Associate one the 50 over world cup, I'd think the impact would be significant.

Ha, Ireland made it to the second round last time and we couldn't move for people whinging "Oh they've ruined it. How dare they beat other teams? Won't somebody please think of the format?". CW's server would crash if an associate won it.