The World Cup: Difference between revisions
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Full name being the FIFA World Cup (''Fédération Internationale de Football Association''- the governing body of [[The Beautiful Game]]),
It is also much more prestigious than almost any other sporting event - about the only other event that comes close is the Olympic Games, and even then many nations would gladly swap a fistful of Olympic Golds for a World Cup win. Apart from anything else, many Olympic Gold medals are awarded every two years, but there's only one World Cup winner every four.
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{{examples}}
* [[Absurdly High Stakes Game]]: A surprising amount of one-upsmanship in side bets on the 2010 World Cup. First, Diego Maradona <s>promised</s> [[Fan Disservice|threatened]] to run naked through Buenos Aires if Argentina won the World Cup. Responding to this, a Paraguyan lingerie model offered to run naked through Asuncion if her country won.<ref>
* [[Any Torment You Can Walk Away From]]: Losses at the group stage by eventual World Cup winners (West Germany in '54 to Hungary and '74 to East Germany, Argentina in '78 to Italy, Spain in 2010 to Switzerland), qualifying with three draws (Italy in '82), the 8-3 group stage battering (West Germany in '54) will not be the topics of conversation they once were.
** The 2011 Women's World Cup had its first champion with a spotless record, as Japan lost a game in the group stage.
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** Don't forget 2010, in which England was eliminated by Germany, in a game which included a ball kicked by England across the goal line but not counted by the ref. (Ironically, England's 1966 win included a goal many Germans believe to have not crossed the line.)
** In 2002, England also lasted two rounds fewer than Germany, having been eliminated in the quarterfinals while Germany made it to the finals. It it's any consolation, England were eliminated by the same team (Brazil) that defeated the Germans during the finals.
* [[And the Adventure Continues...]]: Congratulations, you won the World Cup! Now what? Come back again to the next competition 4 years later to defend your title. But first you must go through a qualifying process which took roughly
** Until 2002, the defending champion did not need to go through qualifiers. Apparently, FIFA changed the rule because of France's horrible performance in that year's World Cup (in which they, defending the 1998 title, were flushed out in group stage ''without even scoring a goal!'') The host team remained the only one exempt from the need to go through qualifiers.
*** FIFA was proven right when Italy repeated France's performance in 2010, dropping out of the competition without winning a single game. Likewise France, the previous runners-up, also dropped out after much drama and no victories.
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* [[Didn't See that Coming]]: Expecting only modest gains, many Turks were genuinely surprised by Turkey's performance in 2002. Practically the whole country went from a "That was lucky" mood to a "Holy crap we may actually pull this off" within days.
** Fewer people, however, were surprised when Turkey lost against Brazil.
*** South Korea itself also qualifies in 2002; honestly, before the tournament began, who in the world would have expected them to beat ''Portugal, Italy, and Spain'' in the tournament?<ref>
*** A very similar thing happened with Ghana in 2006, where most people, who had been pleased just to qualify for the first time ever, started thinking "Holy crap, we might actually do this!" after beating the Czechs and the USA. Then Brazil showed up and the rest is history.
*** An example from the 2010 Qualification. Republic of Ireland are in a group with (then) World Champions Italy, and Bulgaria. Italy and Bulgaria are expected to ease through. Ireland decided to throw a green spanner in the work by drawing with Italy and beating Bulgaria to ensure a play-off spot. In said play-off, Ireland are beaten by France in Dublin, and are expected to be curb-stomped in Paris. Instead, Ireland defy the odds again, and nearly pull off a miracle by running circles around the French. Then Henry cheated.
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** Mexico has never made it past the round of 16 since Mexico 1986.
*** Though Mexico only reached the quarters playing home. And their streak of five second rounds isn't too shabby (specially because A)Norway, Belgium and Croatia <ref>[[Snub By Omission|and a terrible French team]]</ref> were eliminated to reach them and B)the regularity earned them a seed in 2006).
** Egypt has to be the most shocking example. It is widely considered the best team in Africa, having won the African Cup of Nations 7 times (including the last 3 editions) and advancing to the semifinals 4 times more, it's usually among the 30 best teams in the FIFA ranking and has beaten its own record of consecutive matches without being defeated in 2010. Furthermore, its two best
** In the women's side there's Brazil, with a team as strong as the male one (among other players there's Marta, chosen as the world's best player ''five years in a row'') but not as victorious - runner-ups in 2007, 3rd place in 1999, two quarterfinals and two group stages.
*** To be fair to Brazil, their women's team literally makes do with nothing. Women's soccer was banned until only recently in Brazil, and unlike every other Women's Soccer/Football power, Brazil has no professional women's league. The women are forced to wear old mens' uniforms, they don't get paid at all (and if they do, it's months late), and the women's team is understaffed (As in while the US traveled with a number of chefs to keep the players happy with familiar foods, Brazil has 0 cooks. They eat what they can get). They are a world power despite being little more a ragtag bunch compared to much more well-funded teams like the United States.
** The Czech Republic. Their Cold-War era united Czechoslovak team won EURO 76, but their 2006 counterpart, despite being ranked in the top 5 of most soccer rankings, fizzled out in a group containing the USA, Ghana, and Italy.
* [[Exposition Diagram]]: You don't understand what a 4-4-2 formation is? Wait for some graphics to come up at the start of the match to show you!
* [[Fan Nickname]]: Pretty much every team has one. It's usually referent to the team's
* [[Far East]]: Korea and Japan tend to get lumped in stereotypically together - even by FIFA!
* [[Fascist Italy]]: Got ''very'' involved in the 1934 World Cup in Italy, down to a Copa del [[Benito Mussolini|Duce]] which was awarded with great fanfare while the official trophy was given to the winners as well. A telegraph from Mussolini allegedly saying "Win or Die" allegedly caused Hungary to throw the 1938 final, although this has never been proven.
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* [[Glorious Mother Russia]]: Brazil in 1958 feared playing the USSR because of their "scientific" football. They needn't have been, what with Garrincha dribbling three markers at different moments of the match.
* [[Glory Seeker]]: Pick your own example of a player who ends a promising move from his team by having a shot from no-chance range instead of passing to a team-mate in a better position.
* [[Heel Race Turn]]: [[Turncoat
** An interesting case in 2010 had two half-brothers playing for different national teams: Jérôme Boateng playing for Germany and Kevin-Prince Boateng playing for Ghana.
* [[Hello Boys]]: Interesting ambush marketing campaign by a Dutch brewer (Bavaria) had several girls in mini-dresses designed to catch the attention of the cameraman during the Netherlands vs Denmark game, with the dresses well known to the Dutch public as associated to the brewer. FIFA, who is sponsored by another brewer (Budweiser) were not too happy.
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* [[Pyrrhic Victory]]: In South Africa 2010 Luis Suarez committed an intentional (and blatant) handball on the goal line in the dying moments of extra-time against Ghana to prevent them winning the match. It worked despite the penalty awarded, but the red card he received kept him out of his dream encounter with the Netherlands and his absence was likely a factor in Uruguay's subsequent loss.
* [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]]: The same US team that defeated England 1-0 in 1950 qualify as this (with the goal scored by a Haitian dishwasher no less! No, really.)
* [[Royal Brat]]: The Kuwaiti sheikh Fahid Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, president of his country's FA, who interrupted their game with France in 1982 to contest a decision! (see [[
** [[Can't Get Away with Nuthin']]: FIFA fined him $10,000 for the disruption. Plus, Kuwait took in another goal soon after.
* [[Rule of Sean Connery]]: A World Cup official film seems good enough. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiXl5rt5e7Q One narrated] by [[Sean Connery]] (and scored by [[Yes|Rick Wakeman]])? Pure awesome!
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* [[Wounded Gazelle Gambit]]: Sadly, seen way too often in the World Cup.
* [[Xanatos Gambit]]: West Germany lost 8-3 to Hungary in 1954, which put them in the [[Idiot Ball|"group runners-up" half of the draw]], allowing them an easier route to the final than the Hungarians who had to fight past Brazil (literally, in the "Battle of Bern") and then defeat Uruguay. Furthermore, German coach Sepp Herberger had predicted that if his team made the finals, their most likely opponents would be Hungary. Therefore, he played his reserves in the aforementioned 8-3 loss, withholding from the Hungarians firsthand knowledge of his strongest team. Armed with more rested bodies and better knowledge of the opposition, the Germans defeated them in the final.
** Under the controversial and [[Calvin Ball|decidedly oddball rules]] of the 1954 World Cup cumulative goal differences were not taken into account, in the event of the second and third of a group being equal on points, a deciding game for second place became necessary. West Germany was equal on points with Turkey, so Herberger sensibly decided to rest some of his best players for the additional game with Turkey rather than seriously attempt to defeat the Mighty Magyars (in the event of a defeat his best players might not have been able to defeat the Turks in the decider). Also because of the rules of the competition, it was hard to foresee who each team would come up against, because in the event of two teams being equal on points for first and second place, lots were cast. It was unforeseeable bad luck of the draw that determined that Hungary would come up against Brazil (2nd in Group 1 even though it had a better goal difference than Yugoslavia) and Uruguay (2nd in Group 3 even though it had a better goal difference than Austria)
Not each team of every group was scheduled to play each other. Each team played only two matches (the estimated favorites were not to play each other) - so the Hungarians and the Turks never met. If the final games would have been played, most probably West Germany would have come out on top of Turkey after beating them 4-1 in their regular match, Turkey not having played Hungary and West Germany not having played whipping boys South Korea. Actually this was made to prevent favorites from being eliminated, but Turkey was only placed as a favorite since the seeding took place before the qualifications were finished and Turkey replaced more fancied Spain, whom they eliminated in the qualifiers. Oddball indeed.
** Some consider the defeat listed under [[Cold War]] to also qualify: the defeat made West Germany avoid Netherlands in Round 2, eventually leading them to face the Clockwork Orange in the finals.
* [[Yamato Nadeshiko]]: The ladies from the Japanese Team in the 2011 Women's Cup were nicknamed "Nadeshiko Japan". [[Plucky Girl|And they actually]] [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|won the Cup.]]
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