The Best Team to Never Win

There have been 20 World Cups over all time, competed among 80 different nations but only 8 different winners.  In those times there have been some teams that have come close but not close enough.

Hungary made the final match twice, first time in 1938 and then in 1954 arguably one of the greatest teams in the world.  They had gone unbeaten in all matches from May 1950 to July 1954 - winning 22 out of 25 games and scoring 118 goals.  They even beat Germany by 8-3 in the group stage before going on and losing in the Final to the same German team.

Czechoslovakia and Sweden also made the final but never won, Czechoslovakia, like Hungary got there twice.  

But the best team at being great but not the best is Netherlands.  In terms of win percentage they have a better record than former champions Spain, France, England and Uruguay.  They have also made more finals than each of those teams.  They are runners up three times, this is one better than Hungary and Czecholovakia.  And again this time out they were great beating Spain 5-1 but not good enough and will have to settle for Third in the end.

If we look down the table by win percentage, below Netherlands are Portugal, and then surprisingly Turkey and Denmark.  None of these have ever made the Final match but all have better win percents than say for example Spain.  The most surprising to see here is probably Turkey, but then Turkey is a football mad country and has a great tradition and a very strong domestic league.  Indeed in the 2014 World Cup there are no less than 26 players based in Turkey present.  That include Kuyt and Schnieder in the Dutch squad.

The worst team to win the World Cup on the other hand is Uruguay if we go by win percentage - and not only did they win it, but they won it twice!

Also interesting to note, Brazil are the only team to have qualified/played in all 20 World Cup Tournaments - Germany and Italy are close behind with 18.

In terms of goals scored Brazil had 220 total world cup goals and that was the best until Germany put 7 past them to bring their own total haul of World Cup goals to 223.  With this result Germany also edged past Brazil on finals - this will be Germany's 8th Final, whereas Brazil have only 7.

Brazil still hold on to top spot when you look at total titles (5) and best win percent (68%) and as we said tournament participation (20).

All time world cup statistics (before tonights match)

	Tournaments participated in	Total Times World Champions	Times as Runner-up	Matches played	Matches Won	Win Percent	Goals Scored	Goals Against
Brazil	20	5	2	103	70	68%	221	99
Germany	18	3	4	105	65	62%	223	121
Argentina	16	2	2	76	42	55%	131	83
Italy	18	4	2	83	45	54%	128	77
Netherlands	10	0	3	49	26	53%	83	48
Portugal	6	0	0	26	13	50%	43	29
Turkey	2	0	0	10	5	50%	20	17
Denmark	4	0	0	16	8	50%	27	24
Spain	14	1	0	59	29	49%	92	66
Poland	7	0	0	31	15	48%	44	40
France	14	1	1	59	28	47%	106	71
Hungary	9	0	2	31	14	45%	81	57
Croatia	4	0	0	16	7	44%	21	17
Yugoslavia	9	0	0	37	16	43%	60	46
Russia	10	0	0	40	17	42%	66	47
England	14	1	0	62	26	42%	79	56
Austria	7	0	0	29	12	41%	43	47
Ecuador	3	0	0	10	4	40%	10	11
Ukraine	1	0	0	5	2	40%	5	7
Senegal	1	0	0	5	2	40%	7	6
Colombia	5	0	0	18	7	39%	26	27
Uruguay	12	2	0	51	20	39%	80	71
Romania	7	0	0	21	8	38%	30	32
Czechoslovakia	8	0	2	30	11	37%	44	45
Sweden	11	0	1	46	16	35%	74	69
Belgium	12	0	0	41	14	34%	52	66
Ivory Coast	3	0	0	9	3	33%	13	14
Bosnia and Herzegovina	1	0	0	3	1	33%	4	4
Chile	9	0	0	33	11	33%	40	49
Czech Republic	1	0	0	3	1	33%	3	4
Ghana	3	0	0	12	4	33%	13	16
Serbia	1	0	0	3	1	33%	2	3
Jamaica	1	0	0	3	1	33%	3	9
German DR	1	0	0	6	2	33%	5	5
Cuba	1	0	0	3	1	33%	5	12
Switzerland	10	0	0	33	11	33%	45	59
Costa Rica	4	0	0	15	5	33%	17	23
Nigeria	5	0	0	18	5	28%	20	26
Peru	4	0	0	15	4	27%	19	31
Paraguay	8	0	0	27	7	26%	30	38
Mexico	15	0	0	53	14	26%	57	92
Norway	3	0	0	8	2	25%	7	8
Slovakia	1	0	0	4	1	25%	5	7
United States	10	0	0	33	8	24%	37	62
Japan	5	0	0	17	4	24%	14	22
Northern Ireland	3	0	0	13	3	23%	13	23
Algeria	4	0	0	13	3	23%	13	19
South Africa	3	0	0	9	2	22%	11	16
Greece	3	0	0	10	2	20%	5	20
Wales	1	0	0	5	1	20%	4	4
Scotland	8	0	0	23	4	17%	25	41
Slovenia	2	0	0	6	1	17%	5	10
Cameroon	7	0	0	23	4	17%	18	43
South Korea	9	0	0	31	5	16%	31	67
Australia	4	0	0	13	2	15%	11	26
Republic of Ireland	3	0	0	13	2	15%	10	10
Morocco	4	0	0	13	2	15%	12	18
Saudi Arabia	4	0	0	13	2	15%	9	32
Korea DPR	2	0	0	7	1	14%	6	21
Bulgaria	7	0	0	26	3	12%	22	53
Tunisia	4	0	0	12	1	8%	8	17
Iran	4	0	0	12	1	8%	7	22
Serbia and Montenegro	1	0	0	3	0	0%	2	10
Angola	1	0	0	3	0	0%	1	2
Iraq	1	0	0	3	0	0%	1	4
Israel	1	0	0	3	0	0%	1	3
Togo	1	0	0	3	0	0%	1	6
China PR	1	0	0	3	0	0%	0	9
New Zealand	2	0	0	6	0	0%	4	14
Trinidad and Tobago	1	0	0	3	0	0%	0	4
Zaire	1	0	0	3	0	0%	0	14
El Salvador	2	0	0	6	0	0%	1	22
Kuwait	1	0	0	3	0	0%	2	6
Bolivia	3	0	0	6	0	0%	1	20
Canada	1	0	0	3	0	0%	0	5
Haiti	1	0	0	3	0	0%	2	14
Honduras	3	0	0	9	0	0%	3	14
Egypt	2	0	0	4	0	0%	3	6
United Arab Emirates	1	0	0	3	0	0%	2	11