World Cup: Don't Fall Behind (updated)

The 2006 World Cup has come and gone, and once again the champion barely knew what it felt like to be down a goal. Updating my post on this before the World Cup, Italy only spent 12 minutes trailing for the whole tournament (all vs France in the final). That's only 1.7% of the time.

The average World Cup winner has spent only 6.1% of the time trailing. When all the minutes are added together, collectively they've spent only 5.3% of the time trailing. That's only 30 minutes per tournament.

Italy also did not allow 2 goals in a game. Only 18 times in 18 tournaments has the eventual winner allowed 2 goals in a game. Most amazingly, only 1 of the 18 winners has ever trailed by 2 goals at any point of the tournament (West Germany 1954).


Minutes Behind

		Total	Pct
1930	Uruguay	31	8.6%
1934	Italy	19	3.7%
1938	Italy	0	0.0%
1950	Uruguay	124	34.4%
1954	W.Germany	99	18.3%
1958	Brazil	6	1.1%
1962	Brazil	39	7.2%
1966	England	6	1.1%
1970	Brazil	38	7.0%
1974	W.Germany	63	10.0%
1978	Argentina	28	4.2%
1982	Italy	0	0.0%
1986	Argentina	28	4.4%
1990	W.Germany	0	0.0%
1994	Brazil	23	3.5%
1998	France	1	0.1%
2002	Brazil	27	4.3%
2006	Italy	12	1.7%