SOUTH Korea are Asia’s most successful national team. They are the first and only Asian team to reach the semifinals in a Fifa World Cup, a feat they achieved as co-hosts of the 2002 World Cup. South Korea are the only Asian team to have played in the World Cup seven times and currently hold ...
RANKED number one by Fifa, this time around Spain’s performance in qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa was impressive. La Furia Roja are the current European Champions, having won the Uefa European Championship in 2008. They hold the honour of being the only team to be ranked number one having never won ...
THE current Swiss team are hoping to at least emulate the achievements of past teams who made the World Cup quarterfinals in 1934, 1938 and again, on home soil in 1954. More recently the Swiss made it to the Round of 16 at the 2006 event in Germany. They were unfortunately eliminated on penalties by ...
SOUTH Africa has a long football history but the story of Bafana Bafana begins in 1991 with the formation of the multiracial South African Football Association (Safa). The team got off to a very good start. On 9 July 1992 the united South Africa played their first game against Cameroon and won 1–0. Four years ...
URUGUAY is one of only five countries to have won two World Cup titles . Following their double Olympic games triumph in 1924 and 1928, Uruguay was chosen to host the first World Cup held in 1930 which they won. Uruguay again won the World Cup in 1950, beating hosts Brazil. The glory years of ...
THE United States national soccer team have not traditionally had a high profile in American sporting life, however the sport has steadily grown in popularity since the 1970s. USA started well enough in the first World Cup in Uruguay 1930, winning their first international matches against Belgium and Paraguay, eventually losing to Argentina. The U.S. ...
SLOVENIA are one of seven countries created from the former Yugoslavia in 1991 and recognised by most European countries in 1992. The official Slovenian team played their first match in 1992. A nation of just two million people, Slovenia have already punched above their weight to secure a place at this Fifa World Cup. Although ...
NIGERIA have achieved the highest Fifa ranking for an African side when they were ranked fifth in April 1994. They have since fallen to 15 in the rankings and are no longer favourites among the African contingent. It it was not long ago that the Super Eagles were seen as the most likely African nation ...
North Korea (The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) came from nowhere to storm into the Asian zone’s final round of qualifying, where they defied sizeable odds to take one of the continent’s four direct qualifying spots at the 2010 Fifa World Cup. North Korea have a longstanding reputation in Asia for being able to come ...
FINALISTS at Uefa Euro 2004 and semifinalists at the 2006 World Cup, Portugal “A Selecção das Quinas” will be aiming to go all the way this time around. With their third World Cup qualification in a row, Portugal have displayed some dazzling football in recent years, but without ever landing a major prize. They have ...