Facts about football that shouldn't be true - but are

chomsky89 said:
Nigeria has won the under-17 World Cup 5 times and finished second three times as well in only 12 attempts. By far the most successful nation in that tournament. Brazil is number two, with their 17 attempts resulting in 4wins/6finals.

If they ever brought along anyone too old or not I don't know, but it is a bit suspect to me that they reach the final more often than not in a sample size of 12.
Yes, I know they have got very many to choose from but still, they are not a football powerhouse.
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I mean, you say Nigeria aren't a football powerhouse, but football is their national sport. And more importantly it's the sport that the kids play growing up.

List of countries by population and their national sports (or "the sports the kids play")

1. China - Various (Table Tennis, Badminton, etc)
2. India - Cricket
3. USA - Various.
4. Indonesia - Badminton
5. Pakistan - Cricket, Hockey , Soccer
6. Nigeria - Soccer

I can kind of believe that Indonesia can field very strong teams at U17 level.

Plus like you said maybe they're a bit older sometimes
 
Zlatan has more career assists than Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Iniesta and Ronaldinho.

And if we take away the 4 seasons in Ligue 1 + MLS stats, he still has more assists than Zidane.
 
chomsky89 said:
Zlatan has more career assists than Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Iniesta and Ronaldinho.

And if we take away the 4 seasons in Ligue 1 + MLS stats, he still has more assists than Zidane.
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Is that really surprising?

When you play closer to the goal, the chance of your pass resulting in a shot from the receiver is bigger. Zlatan was especially technical for a CF(much more than Lampard or Gerrard), so that is even less surprising. Also, he probably has more than twice as many game minutes as Ronaldinho.
 
devaneios said:
Is that really surprising?

When you play closer to the goal, the chance of your pass resulting in a shot from the receiver is bigger. Zlatan was especially technical for a CF(much more than Lampard or Gerrard), so that is even less surprising. Also, he probably has more than twice as many game minutes as Ronaldinho.
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It shows that he played less selfish than his egomaniac personality would suggest, so in that way it is surprising.
 
devaneios said:
Is that really surprising?

When you play closer to the goal, the chance of your pass resulting in a shot from the receiver is bigger.
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The average assist comes from outside of the box and strikers are 8/10 times not among the top two assist providers after a season. 8 players had more assists than the highest assisting striker last season.
Demba Ba played 100 PL games and had fewer PL assists than David Seaman and another goalkeeper.
 
chomsky89 said:
The average assist comes from outside of the box and strikers are 8/10 times not among the top two assist providers after a season. 8 players had more assists than the highest assisting striker last season.
Demba Ba played 100 PL games and had fewer PL assists than David Seaman and another goalkeeper.
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Yeah, but even strikers are out of the box most of the time and, if you're not a poacher in the mold of Inzaghi, you'll have the ball in the edge of the box many times. Despite the stats(I won't check it out, but I'm sure you got them right), conceptually is not that insane to conceive a technical striker who gets the ball more than your average CF, like Ibrahimovic, Henry, Bergkamp, Suárez etc, having more assists than technical midfielders.
 
devaneios said:
conceptually is not that insane to conceive a technical striker who gets the ball more than your average CF, like Ibrahimovic, Henry, Bergkamp, Suárez etc, having more assists than technical midfielders.
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Maybe not, but I'm guessing very few would have guessed that assist kings like Lampard(3 times most assists in a PL season) have fewer career assists than Ibra.

Especially considering how little Ibra played for a career that lasted that long. Although Lampard had many injuries he still played a lot more than Ibra did in their recorded careers. 72150 minutes vs 63791 minutes.
 
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chomsky89 said:
Maybe not, but I'm guessing very few would have guessed that assist kings like Lampard(3 times most assists in a PL season) have fewer career assists than Ibra.
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I was a bit of a prick tbh. I have to get rid of this habit asap.
 
Ajax is currently without a shred of doubt the worst run and organized club in Europe..
 
rcoobc said:
I mean, you say Nigeria aren't a football powerhouse, but football is their national sport. And more importantly it's the sport that the kids play growing up.
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my take would be that they prize winning thise competitions so call up players based on physical development rather than footballing talent. This often results in a man vs boys scenario which would explain their success and why they never come close to it at more senior levels. Happened a lot in Italy with the academy of Inter in particular being especially guilty of this
stefan92 said:
It shows that he played less selfish than his egomaniac personality would suggest, so in that way it is surprising.
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Did you ever watch him play? He was always a playmaker. He had to learn to become a goalscorer, and only really started to score consistently in his mid-20s. Playmaking is what came naturally to him
 
Mark Hughes played 2 games in 1 day in November1987. The 1st a midday kick off for Wales v Czechoslovakia. Then a quick flight to Munich where he was used as a 2nd half sub for Bayern
 
Roy Hodgson managed his first game in the same season that Carlo Ancelotti made his debut as a player.
 
grahamo said:
Mark Hughes played 2 games in 1 day in November1987. The 1st a midday kick off for Wales v Czechoslovakia. Then a quick flight to Munich where he was used as a 2nd half sub for Bayern
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And they complain about schedules these days!
 
After Arsenal scored and got a player injured almost at the same time, manager George Graham wanted to sub in Perry Groves, but Groves had celebrated himself unconscious when Arsenal scored.

Instead of jumping out of the dugout, he jumped straight up hitting his head in the dugout roof. He was okay enough to stay watching the game though. Just got a cartoon-sized lump on his head and was laughed at by opposition fans.
 
chomsky89 said:
After Arsenal scored and got a player injured almost at the same time, manager George Graham wanted to sub in Perry Groves, but Groves had celebrated himself unconscious when Arsenal scored.

Instead of jumping out of the dugout, he jumped straight up hitting his head in the dugout roof. He was okay enough to stay watching the game though. Just got a cartoon-sized lump on his head and was laughed at by opposition fans.
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‘Celebrated himself unconscious’ is a delicious turn of phrase.
 
Freddy Adu made his debut 20 years ago, in fact he made his debut a few months before Garnacho was even born
 
Botafogo had a 13-point lead halfway through last year's season in the Brazilian league, and they finished 5.
 
galwayfa said:
ya, think he got one, if memory serves me right which i doubt sometimes, he got one, might have been a fergie pressure on FA thing
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Clubs can apply for extras for players who didn't reach the number of appearances to qualify for one.
 
Rivaldo, Laurent Blanc, and Bent Skammelsrud got the same amount of points at the 1997 Ballon d'Or.
 
Melbourne Red said:
Athletic Club have won a total of 24 Copa del Reys, despite not having won one since 1984.

These are the years they've won it:
They must have been a giant club at one stage?
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They had a very strong period in the 50's and 80´s and very famous players like Pichichi (the top scorer award) , Iribar or Zarra. Not exactly giants but spanish football cannot be explained without Athletic.
The old San Mames was called the cathedral of Spanish football. They were always limited by their philosophy and even more so since Bosman.
 
Athletic used to be the biggest/most successfull club in Spain in the first half of the 20th century. They remained successful and competitive in the 50s and early 60s, then had another competitive period in the early 80s. To be honest, if they had an Aduritz or Urzaiz now they might have been challenging for the title this season
 
Most players/managers don't ever experience being 3-0 up and losing a game once in their career - but Dean Richards (who sadly died in 2011 - only 36 years old) and his manager Glenn Hoddle experienced it twice in 7 months.

Feb 21 2001 - Southampton were 3-0 up against Tranmere at half-time in a cup-game. Richards even getting the 3-0 goal just before the break and looked already qualified for the next round. Tranmere came out firing after the break and a hat-trick from former Everton-striker Paul Rideout turned the match around and Tranmere won 4-3

Manager Glenn Hoddle left Southampton to join Tottenham 1.5 month later, and in august the same year he signed defender Dean Richards from his old club for £8 million

Sep 29 2001 - Tottenham played Man United - Richards scored the first goal, Ferdinand the second and Ziege added the third just before the break....and the rest as they say is history as United scored 5 in the second half to win 5-3
 
I remember posting in here how I thought it was kind of novel to me that a bloke called Matty Cash ended up playing for Poland. Obviously plenty of none-traditionally sounding English names have played for England or the other British isles teams. It was quite rare to see it the other way around.

Today I learned that Birmingham-born George Baldock plays for Greece.

Might not seem unusual to younger people who may be more used to people moving around much more but I'd never have guessed that. What's in a name anyway?
 
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