zuvuyeay said: this is the real list to look at though in my opinion of world cup matches played,click here if you want to see past 25 Rnk Team MP W D L GF GA Pts Av. pts Apps. 1 Brazil 92 64 14 14 201 85 206 2.24 18 2 Germany 92 55 19 18 190 114 184 2.00 16 3 Italy 77 44 19 14 122 73 151 1.96 16 4 Argentina 65 33 13 19 113 73 112 1.72 14 5 England 55 25 17 13 74 47 92 1.67 12 6 France 51 25 10 16 95 66 85 1.67 12 7 Spain 49 22 12 15 80 55 78 1.59 12 8 Sweden 46 16 13 17 74 71 61 1.33 11 9 Netherlands 36 16 10 10 59 36 58 1.61 8 10 Russia 37 17 6 14 64 44 57 1.54 9 11 Serbia 40 16 8 16 62 54 56 1.40 10 12 Uruguay 40 15 10 15 65 56 55 1.38 10 13 Poland 31 15 5 11 44 40 50 1.61 7 14 Hungary 32 15 3 14 87 58 48 1.50 9 15 Mexico 45 11 12 22 48 82 45 1.00 13 16 Czech Republic 33 12 5 16 47 48 41 1.24 9 17 Austria 29 12 4 13 43 49 40 1.38 7 18 Belgium 36 10 9 17 46 64 39 1.08 11 19 Slovakia 30 11 5 14 44 44 38 1.27 8 20 Portugal 19 11 1 7 32 22 34 1.79 4 21 Romania 21 8 5 8 30 32 29 1.38 7 22 Switzerland 26 8 5 13 37 50 29 1.12 8 23 Chile 25 7 6 12 31 40 27 1.08 7 24 Paraguay 22 6 7 9 27 36 25 1.14 7 25 Denmark 13 7 2 4 24 18 23 1.77 3

much better indicator than the other useless ranking

I am not claiming UEFA teams are over-rated. I am saying the conference as a whole. Take Slimebeats comment as the exacts of what I was talking about. Too often I hear how anything not European is crap. Hell when I was in Germany people repeatedly claimed that the Eurocup was more competitive than the World Cup! Honestly I am pretty sure we agree on the subject based on what you are saying. UEFA has some of the best teams, but there are plenty of other countries that could compete.

I'd say the Elo ranking are the best indicator of over-all quality. Belgium is on the list, but what have they done lately? Historical records are good for historical strength, but not current. That is probably one of the worst things about the current FIFA rankings. They weight games from too far back too highly.

Well it's partly true. For example, it's harder to qualify to the 2nd round in the Euro Cup than it is in the World Cup.

Greece has won the Euro cup once. That alone puts a shadow of doubt in the quality of the Euro cup  

For me, everytime I mentally prepare for the World Cup, when I'm going through potential finalists, my list always ends up something like this:

Brazil
Italy
France
Argentina
Germany
Spain
Holland
Portugal
England

These are the big nations. 2 from South America, 7 from Europe.

@barozi

yes that is the world cup list to look at

@ gnizmo

i'm only talking about competetive world cup matches really,i think you're including everything

everything outside a world cup is pretty meaningless really like usa beating spain in the confederations,a good win but doesn't matter,mexico and the usa do well in world cups,but you're qualifying is easy,obviously youy'd get better qualifying from europe or south america but then you'd be in less world cups overall

in the end that list i put up shows the power houses of world cups,

obviously when someone out of the top 6 wins it,we'll all sit up and take notice

maybe spain will win this time

Yes it does actually.

How can it be more competitive if 2 of the best teams are excluded? I don't but it for even a second. You get a lot of teams in it that would get curb stomped by most of the teams that qualify for the World Cup.

As for your second post, well I can't full disagree although I wouldn't list as many countries. England and Portugal, for example, I wouldn't really say are ones I expect to make it. Given how they have performed so far I think I can hardly be blamed either =p. They have the highest density of top talent, but that doesn't make their B teams better than A teams else where. Having the best top-end doesn't make the entire league automagically better as Japan just proved.

6 years later it still hurts man, still hurts.....