Winning the First World Cup Match is Really Darn Important

June 3rd, 2006 | by: WC Bob | View Comments

I tend to shy away from anything to do with numbers. They generally scare me more than a close up shot of Oliver Kahn. But I do appreciate it when others crunch numbers to come up with interesting data. Over on the New York Times blog today they take a look at how important it is for World Cup teams to not lose the first match of group play. The answer: it is very important.

Here are the combined figures the Times calculated for 1998 and 2002:

*23 teams won their first games and 20 advanced: 87%
*18 teams tied their first games and 11 advanced: 61%
*23 teams lost their first games and 1 (Turkey in 2002) advanced: 4%

That 2002 Turkey team did make the semifinals so if your team does lose its first match you can hold onto that slim hope…