David Mills is curious about the most significant international and club matches that have yet to take place, specifically the teams that have never competed against each other.
Pete Tomlin kicks things off for us with the kind of researched answer that could put us out of work. “I have been looking at international matches and used the current Fifa rankings to decide which are the biggest matches that have not occurred, depending on the teams’ current placings,” he begins. “It also depends what you class as competitive – there are tournaments such as the Confederations Cup, Umbro Cup, etc which may be seen as competitive by some but are not officially.
After considering all factors, I have determined that the greatest men’s international match that has surprisingly not taken place is between Argentina (ranked No. 1) and Portugal (ranked No. 6), with a total ranking of 7. Despite having played against each other eight times since 1928, all of their fixtures have been classified as friendly matches. They did face off in 1964 in the Taça das Nações (Little World Cup), which was held in Brazil to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Brazilian Football Confederation. They also competed against each other in the 1972 Brazil Independence Cup, which was a friendly tournament.
“The largest potential international match that has not yet occurred is between France (Ranked 2) and USA (Ranked 11), with a combined ranking of 13, as they have only faced each other four times in friendly matches, with France winning three. The largest potential match between teams that have never played each other would be between Argentina (Ranked 1) and Senegal (Ranked 20), with a combined ranking of 21. This is also equalled by a potential match between Croatia (Ranked 10) and USA (Ranked 11). However, the only time these two teams have met was in Croatia’s inaugural international friendly in October 1990, which is not recognized by Fifa as an official match.”
“The top-ranked team that has not faced England’s men’s team is Bolivia (ranked 85th). Morocco (ranked 13th) is the highest-ranked team that Wales has not yet played against, while Japan (ranked 18th) holds the same title for Northern Ireland. Senegal (ranked 20th) is the highest-ranked team that Scotland has yet to play against.”
Lino Di Lorenzo also offers international options, such as the current European champions Italy (ranked No 9) and Colombia (ranked No 17). Interestingly, these two teams have never faced each other in men’s games, even in friendly matches. In September 2013, they were ranked even higher at No 5 and No 4 in the world, yet they still did not choose to play against each other.
Stephen Pollack Toal brings us back to the world of men’s club football: “If we use the measure of European Cup victories, then there is no need to look beyond the matchup between Nottingham Forest and Real Madrid. Despite having a total of 16 European Cups between them, these two teams have surprisingly never faced each other in a competitive game.”
Dirk Maas mentions several prominent European teams that have yet to face each other in a competitive match despite having over 40 years of experience in the European Cup. These teams include Milan and Valencia, Liverpool and Feyenoord, Atlético Madrid and Rangers, Valencia and Benfica, Juventus and PSV, and PSV and Celtic.
A-B-C-D sub chain
“Do we have any examples of extended chains in which a player is substituted off and then replaced by another, and so on until reaching player F? Doremus Schafer poses this question.”
In this year’s Open Cup loss to Cincinnati, the NY Red Bulls made a substitution chain (A-B-C-D) that involved several players. In the 69th minute, Dru Yearwood was replaced by Cory Burke. However, in the second minute of added time, Dante Vanzeir scored a goal for Cincinnati, causing Burke to suffer a concussion in the 100th minute of extra time. As a result, Burke was substituted for Matt Nocita, who was making his first-team debut. This concussion gave NY an additional substitute, making it the seventh substitution of the match (the sixth was added specifically for extra time). As the game was heading towards penalties, manager Troy Lesesne decided to bring on usual starting goalkeeper Carlos Coronel to take a spot-kick instead of Nocita, who is tall and lanky. Coronel came on in the final seconds of the match but was not able to take a penalty as Cincinnati had already scored five goals. Therefore, the substitution chain can be described as Yearwood (A) > Burke (B) > Nocita (C) > Coronel (D).
White Hart pain
Jeremy Cartwright ponders if Spurs have ever let in two goals during injury time in the second half in their previous two matches.
Huw Richards clarifies that we do not need to search far to find another team that has experienced a similar disappointment. “Just down the road from White Hart Lane, you will come across Haringey Borough. They were ahead 1-0 at the end of 90 minutes in their Isthmian Premier matches against Hastings on September 9th and Hornchurch on September 23rd, but ended up losing both with a score of 2-1. While they did have an FA Cup game in between, these were back-to-back league games, which contributes to their current position in the relegation zone.”
Be aware of the (GD) gap.
Jack Hart asks, “At this point in the season, has there ever been a larger gap between first place Hornchurch, with a +34 goal difference, and second place Enfield, with a +11 goal difference, after 15 games in the Isthmian League Premier Division?”
According to Chris Roe, the answer is affirmative for the top four English divisions. However, we must look back to the inaugural season in 1888-89 where at the 15th match mark, the goal difference between first place Preston (+43) and second place Aston Villa (+19) was 24. This has only occurred three times, all in the distant past. A recent example from 2000-01 is when Manchester United had a goal difference of +29, which was 19 higher than Arsenal’s +10 after 15 matches.
Knowledge archive
Chris Liptrot wrote in May 2002, “In the recent Nike commercials, a player crouches down while another player jumps off his back for a header. Is this permissible during a game?”
Surprisingly, there were no regulations against it in the official rules of the game. However, a referee had the authority to call a foul.
The laws of the game do not address this particular scenario, therefore there is no clear rule in place. According to Fifa spokesman Andreas Herron, this has left them puzzled. After discussing with colleagues and enduring five minutes of Fifa’s slow and boring anthem, Andreas stated that while it is not explicitly prohibited, it would ultimately be up to the referee’s judgement whether the action is considered dangerous play. However, Andreas also questioned the likelihood of a player intentionally jumping on someone’s back instead of going for the ball themselves.
Can you help?
“Alan Sheppard wonders about the earliest occurrence of a plane carrying a banner above a football stadium. Is there anything that took place before the ‘staying down forever’ banner was flown above Burnley’s ground by a group of Blackburn fans in 1991? This is briefly mentioned here.”
Ant Gee wonders if there are other countries or clubs that have similarly impressive records to Brazil’s recent loss to Argentina in a World Cup qualifier. This defeat marked two records for Brazil: their first time losing three consecutive qualifiers and their first time losing a home World Cup qualifier.
Christopher Zorn notes that if the Tottenham v Aston Villa match had ended in a draw on Sunday, the top five teams in the Premier League would have all been tied with 30-29-28-27-26 points. He poses the question of what the longest and highest sequences of points in the league have been.
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Source: theguardian.com
