Assuming no upsets in the last round of (inter-federation tiebreakers), here are the 32 qualified teams for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil and some fun stats to go with that:
EUROPE: Germany, Spain, Italy, England, Netherlands, France, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland, Russia, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia.
SOUTH AMERICA: Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador.
NORTH/CENTRAL AMERICA: Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, USA.
AFRICA: Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Ghana, Algeria.
ASIA: Japan, Iran, South Korea, Australia.
Bosnia-Herzegovina qualify for their first-ever World Cup. Hooray! ALL previous Cup winners have qualified: Uruguay, Italy, Brazil, England, Germany, France, Argentina, and Spain. Surprisingly, this is only the second time in the last six editions that this has happened.
The most notable absences given previous World Cup records are Sweden (one final and two third places) and the Czech Republic (two finals). Burkina Faso barely missed qualification, which would have been their first. They would also have been the country with the lowest GDP to ever qualify for a World Cup.
South America has by far the best qualification record: 6 qualified nations out of 10, followed by Europe (13-53), Africa (5-52), Asia (4-43), and North-Central America (3-35). Oceania qualifies 0 nations out of 11, for the 18th time in 20 World Cups.
The draw for the group stage, host city assignments, and knockout-stage pairings will be held Saturday, December 6 in Costa do Sauipe, Bahia, at 12/noon EST. The World Cup is June 12-July 13.
(Sources: FIFA, UEFA, Goal, Wikipedia).
No comments:
Post a Comment