History and Background
Football hasn’t always been a major sport in Australia. Although the national team was formed in 1922, the country didn’t participate in the first seven World Cups. When they did decide to start participating, they failed to qualify in their first two tries — losing to North Korea in the playoffs for 1966 and Israel in ’70.
History and Background
Like Gary Lineker once said, “Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win.” It’s no surprise that Die Mannschaft are by far the most historically successful team at this tournament, having won four World Cups and three European Championships.
Chile were the better side from the kick-off today in Moscow as Cameroon quickly found themselves setting up camp in their own half. Chile were eventually rewarded with a 2-0 victory, but not without the Video Assistant Referee system playing a role.
Portugal will lament giving up a 91st minute equalizer to Mexico in their opening Confederations Cup match, but it’s a result that doesn’t greatly harm the aspirations of the two sides favored to advance from Group A. Ricardo Quaresma gave Portugal the lead in the 34th minute, only for Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez to equalize three minutes before halftime for Mexico.
History and Background
Chile started playing football very early, with their football federation founded all the way back in 1885 — the second oldest in South America. However, they struggled to produce to a dangerous side for a long time. La Roja participated in the first World Cup held in 1930, but failed to advance past the group stage. Their best ever record in the tournament came in 1962 when they hosted it, coming in third.
History and Background
Portugal won their first ever elusive international title last summer, which came at a very unexpected time given their squad was one of the weakest since the golden generation emerged in 2000. Especially defeating the hosts France in the final without Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal really punched above their weight to write a true underdog story.
History and Background
Cameroon may be the giants of Africa, with up to five African Cup of Nations titles — the second most successful nation in the tournament — and seven appearances in the World Cup — the most from an African team. However, they have failed to replicate that success on the world stage.
Their second ever appearance at the World Cup was a magical one, as they narrowly fell to England in the quarterfinals of the 1990 edition. But apart from that, they have failed to even get out of the group stage in their other six appearances.
On Sunday, we’ll be treated to only the fourth-ever meeting between Mexico and Portugal and the second-ever competitive fixture between the two nations. The match is also extremely rare where personal records are concerned — it’s not everyday that you see two all-time top goal scorers for their country go toe to toe.
With 47 goals from 92 appearances, Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez is El Tri’s record holder, averaging 0.51 goals per game. For Portugal, Cristiano Ronaldo has found the back of the net a record 73 times in 139 caps, good for 0.53 goals per game.
History and Background
Since the Confederations Cup began in 1992, Mexico have only missed out on three occasions — making them joint leaders in participation alongside Brazil with seven appearances. They hosted the tournament in 1999 and ended up winning it, beating their arch-rivals the United States in the semifinals and then Brazil in the final.
On Sunday, England won the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup, sparking snarky Brits to declare the nation had finally ended its 51-year cycle of hurt, dating back to last winning the World Cup in 1966.
Despite being home to arguably the world’s most entertaining league, England has consistently failed to flatter at the international level. A stellar crop of English players (including David Beckham, Frank Lampard and Michael Owen) in the 2000s were dubbed the Golden Generation. Their play at the highest level didn’t exactly live up to the lofty moniker.