In Order to Critically Analyze the National Football Teams You Have to Know About Their World Cup History:
Group A:
South Africa: The South African national football team or as they are known otherwise “Bafana Bafana”; is controlled by the South African Football Association. They are the host of FIFA’s 19th World Cup, making South Africa the first African nation to host the event. Although South Africa has made two appearances in the World Cup, they have not made it past the first round. The South African team was not able to qualify for the World Cup tournaments between 1930-1962, and were banned by FIFA (due to apartheid, a system of legal racial segregation enforced by the National Party government in South Africa between 1948 and 1994). Their first appearance at the World Cup was in France in 1998; six years after they had been readmitted by FIFA to the global football community.
Mexico: The Mexican National Football team have qualified for thirteen World Cups including the inaugural World Cup in 1930 and have qualified consecutively since 1994. Mexico's best run at the World Cup was reaching the quarterfinals in both 1970 and 1986 on home turf in Mexico. Mexico failed to qualify for the 1974 FIFA World Cup but were able to qualify once again for the competition in 1978. The Mexican National team was disqualified from the 1990 FIFA World Cup (and any other international competition) after using players over the age limit that FIFA allowed during a qualifying game for the Olympics in 1988. Mexico went on to win its group on tiebreakers in the 1994 World Cup, emerging from the tournament's "Group of death", composed of Mexico, Italy, Ireland, and Norway. However, Mexico eventually lost in the second round to Bulgaria on penalty kicks.
France: France was one of the four European teams that participated at the inaugural World Cup in 1930 and are one of the seven national teams to have won the competition, which they did with a 3-0 win against Brazil while hosting the World Cup in 1998. In France’s first-ever World Cup match, the French team defeated Mexico 4–1 at the Estadio Pocitos in Montevideo. Lucien Laurent became notable in the match as he scored not only France's first World Cup goal, but the first goal in World Cup history. Later during the tournament, France lost 1-0 to both Argentina and Chile and dropped out of the competition during the group stage. The following year saw the first selection of a black player, Raoul Diagne, who was of Senegalese descent, to France’s national team.
Uruguay: Uruguay have won two FIFA World Cups, including the first ever World Cup in 1930 as hosts, beating Argentina 4-2 in the final. They won their second title in 1950, upsetting hosts Brazil 2-1 in the final match.
Group B:
Korea Republic: The National Football team is also known as South Korea, but is recognized by FIFA as Korea Republic. A noteworthy remark for the South Korean team is that it has participated in seven World Cup tournaments and it became the first and only Asian team to have reached the semi-finals, which it did while co-hosting the 2002 FIFA World Cup with Japan. The team has qualified for its eighth World Cup tournament this year. Between 1930-1950 South Korea did not enter the world cup, the team made it to the first round in 1954 and did not continue onwards. In 1958 the football team’s entry was not accepted by FIFA, and between 1962-1982 South Korea did not qualify for the World Cup. From 1986-1998 they made it to the first rounds, and once again in 2006. At the 2002 World Cup Korea Republic placed in fourth place.
Argentina: The National Argentinean Football team is managed by the AFA (Argentine Football Association). Argentina is known to be one of the world’s most successful national football teams and is currently ranked at #7 in the world rankings by FIFA. Argentina has won the FIFA World Cup twice, once in 1978 and once in 1986. Argentina has qualified for every world cup tournament except for the one in 1970 hosted by Mexico.
Nigeria: The National Football Team of Nigeria is nicknamed the Super Eagles. In FIFA’s world rankings Nigeria is placed at #21, yet the team holds the third highest ranking among African nations. The team did not qualify for the World Cup tournaments in 1962, 1970-1990, and 2006. In 1994 Nigeria finally reached the World Cup for the first time. They were managed by Clemens Westerhof who is considered to be Nigeria’s best coach to date.
Greece: The Greek National Football team has participated in only two FIFA World Cups including this year’s in South Africa. The first time Greece qualified for the World Cup was in 1994 and they weren’t able to make if past their first round. After winning the European Championship back in 2004, Greece was a favorite to enter the World Cup in 2006 but they did not qualify. This year at the tournament in South Africa Greece failed to move on past the first round as well.
Group C:
England: England’s National Football team is one of the oldest national football teams in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872. England won the FIFA World Cup, back in 1966 when they hosted the finals. They defeated West Germany 4–2 in extra time in the final. Since then their best performance at a World Cup was reaching the semifinals in 1990. England did not enter the World Cup between 1930-1938 and did not qualify for the games in 1974, 1978, and 1994. They were 2nd in their group stage at this year’s tournament behind the US National Football Team.
USA: The team is, according to the FIFA World Rankings, ranked 14th in the world. World Cup History for the US team includes placing third in the inaugural World Cup Tournament, not qualifying for the games between 1954 and 1986, and qualifying for every tournament since 1990. At this year's World Cup the US National Football team won it’s group set with a 1-0 win against Algeria. It was the first shutout game ever since 1950, and the first time since 1930 that the US won their group stage. The team was not able to continue onwards after a 2-1 loss in overtime against Ghana, the same team that kicked them out of the previous tournament.
Algeria: Algeria managed to qualify for two consecutive World Cups in 1982 and 1986, but did not enter between 1930 and 1962; they withdrew for the 1966 tournament and did not qualify for the 1970-78, and 1990-2006 World Cup tournaments.
Slovenia: the Football Association of Slovenia runs the team. They played their first match in 1992 after the split of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991. Before that, Slovenian players played for the Yugoslavia national football team.
More to come later!
TTFN
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