World Cup Outright

I've analysed the last five FIFA World Cups to extract some trends data surrounding the World Rankings of the teams that made the semi-finals and final, and of course the winners. Some good stats in here and once we get to the World Cup I'll be using these trends to provide you with a full write-up.

Winners 

Mean Rating = 7.4 

Median Rating = 7.5 

Range = 2-18 

Finalists 

Mean Rating = 6.6 

Median Rating = 4.5 

Range = 1-18 

Semi-finalists 

Mean Rating = 11.9 

Median Rating = 9.5 

Range = 1-40

Interesting Stats – Finalists 

• No team outside the Top 20 made the final 

• European teams provided 4 of the 5 winners 

• European teams provided 7 of the 10 finalists 

• 4 of the 5 finals had < 2.5 goals in them 

Interesting Stats – Semi-finalists 

• 14 of the 20 semi-finalists were European 

• 17 of the 20 semi-finalists were ranked in the Top 20 

• 7 of the 10 semi-finals had <2.5 goals in them 

• 10 of the 10 semi-finals were won by the better ranked team 

• 4 of the 5 hosts (S.Korea joint hosted with Japan) made the semi-finals


Golden Boot

Analysed the last five winners of the Golden Boot and come up with the following stats: 

Player profile:

• 5/5 at least 29 caps 

• 5/5 scored at least 18 goals 

• 5/5 had a goals to game ratio of 0.42+ gpg 

• 4/5 had a goals to game ratio of 0.58+ gpg 

• Mean gpg ratio of the winner = 0.61 

• Median gpg ratio of the winner = 0.62 

Team profile: 

• 5/5 played for a team raked 19th or higher 

• 5/5 played in Group in which the lowest ranked team was ranked 30+ 

• 5/5 played in a Group with either just one European team or no other European team in it if the winner was European 

• 4/5 played for the top ranked team in their group 

• 4/5 played in a Group which had at least two teams rated 20+ 

• 4/5 played in a Group whose highest ranked other team was ranked 10+ 

• Mean ranking of winner's team = 10.80 • Median ranking of winner's team = 8.00