The Secret to winning a World Cup… and why its England's time.

Vuvuzela sounds better than it actually sounds. No doubt the players are stuffing their ears with cotton during the matches.Its deafening.

This is part of the African strategy to win the Cup this time. The opposition seems to hear nothing of the coach shouting to glory on the sidelines.

Can strategies win World Cups. Surely they do..

Combine strategies with Stats and the World Cup is yours.

So I went mining. Deep into the statistical Jungle. And whoa what have I got. The formula to win a World Cup. Mogambo Khush hua.

Move over Dunga, Capello and all….

The pearls of Wisdom are here.










First is to Qualify...Of course.
Even my mom would have deduced that.

Host.Host and Host.

The Mehmaan is Bhagwaan goes out of the window here.
Of the 18 World Cups so far 6 have been won by the host nation. That’s 1/3rd. That’s a fair reward for spending millions to host the event. If you count the Final appearances it jumps to 44.4%.
With 4 more host teams making the semis its 66%. That’s 2/3. Boy that’s why we have countries falling over each other to host the Cup. Spain are you listening?? Pull out the dollars.
This doesn’t stop here folks. Of the 14 countries to have hosted the event 11 have put up their best show on home soil. 78%. Bradmanesque or shall I say Pelesque in soccer terms. Sounds good for Africa this time. Brazil is one of the exceptions. They hosted once but finished runners-up.

Keep away the goal scoring machines.

Messi, Torres, Rooney, Ronaldo thanks for being here. But please don’t score too many. You harm your teams chances more than others mate. Not me… the stats say so. Of the 24 Top scorers so far only 6 have lifted the Trophy. So much for scoring too much. Sad very sad.

Here’s a real gem I got. Stay away from 1st day matches.

Of the 35 matches played on day 1 of the event only 3 teams have finished winning the last match of the same tournament. That’s a mere 8.5 %. That looks better only when compared to Glenn McGrath’s batting average. So the later you start the better is the chance to be the last on stage. This puts France out of contention for this Cup. Sad they didn’t see such an overwhelming stat.

Score Less

Make sure that your team scores at a lesser rate than the tournament average. That is if you are not Brazil. Only Brazil have managed to score more than the Cup average and win the Cup. Hire some statisticians who will calculate how many you need to score every match.

So coaches rein in your strikers and rule the world.

Now here come my favorite stats.

Two convincing reasons why England will win this year.

Ever since Italy became the 1st team to win two world cups in ’38, a team has won its 2nd World Cup every 12 years. Exception being France in ’98 when they won their 1st World Cup. Now only 2 teams can win their 2nd world Cup this year. France and England.
France already being out of contention this year it leaves with only 1 option. ENGLAND.

ENGLAND won their only cup in 1966 when North Korea Qualified. And guess what.. they have qualified again this year.

ENGLAND I proclaim the Cup is yours. All you need to do is Turn up !!!

Football Fever

Its football fever Alright. I love this game (...on TV).

So its time to go back...roll back the years.

I remember the 1st World Cup I followed. ITALIA'90.

Goa being a football mad state the fever was truly ON. Didn't watch most of the matches though. Doordarshan showed very few of them :(

Cable TV was only at the neighbourhood.

What I remember most are the players cards I collected.

There was a bubble gum names WORLD CUP which had a card free with it.

Dunno how many pink bubble gums I chewed for them :)

The shopkeeper uncle got tired of us asking for different cards every time.It was real fun.

Some cards I still remember.. Carlos Valderrama the Colombiam white haired Midfielder, Walter Zenga Italian Goalie, Claudio Canniggia of Argentina, Roger Milla of Cameroon and of course the great Maradona.

Don't have too many memories of the telecast though. Some still live on. Milla's Dance, David Platt's great goal for England. Dont remember much of the final though.

The cards came again.. This time for Olympics. Barcelona'92. Again a chewing gum and cards with some of the greatest Atletes and thier feats. I remember seeing only One Indian card among them though. No Guesses for this one...Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha. Ha Ha.. had to mug it for English class :)

There were some cricket chewing gums too. I remember collecting a Javed Miandad card and not knowing how to pronounce his name ... sic.

My love for sports (following more than playing) started with these cards. It later increased with every issue of SPORTSTAR.

As time moves on we forget the small things which gave us more joy than what bigger things give us today.

Nice Memories..

I'm sure there are many who'll be remembering their cards this World Cup.