2006 FIFA World Cup™ Preliminary

A total of 198 teams registered for the preliminary competition, but after three withdrawals, that number was reduced to 194 for the kick-off. Those 194 teams set a new record, as did the number of matches (847) and the total number of spectators (18.6 million). Ten teams remained unbeaten for the duration of the preliminary competition, but only seven of them actually booked a ticket to Germany – Cuba, Israel and Morocco bowed out without losing a single match.

The preliminary competition for the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ proved to be Australia’s last as a member of the OFC. In the end, they saw off the challenge of the surprise packages, the Solomon Islands, without too many problems.

The preliminary competition in Asia threw up few surprises, with Korea Republic qualifying for the sixth consecutive time. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, reached their fourth successive World Cup and Japan their third. Nine goals from veteran striker Ali Daei, meanwhile, ensured that Iran made a return to the World Cup stage after an absence of eight years.

In the CONCACAF zone, Costa Rica firmly established themselves as the third major power in the region behind Mexico and the USA, with Paulo Wanchope’s goals firing them to their second successive World Cup. The 14 goals scored by Mexico’s Jared Borgetti were not bettered anywhere in the world. To make it to Germany, Trinidad and Tobago played a total of 20 matches, the most of any team in the entire preliminary competition.

Familiar faces also qualified from South America. Brazil (thanks to ten goals from Ronaldo) and Argentina (with seven goals from Crespo) shared the honours at the top of the table, even though the Seleçao drew seven matches and the Argentinians could even afford to lose four games. Further down the pecking order, Paraguay made it to their third successive World Cup after finishing level on points with another qualifier, Ecuador, who boasted an unbeaten home record and victories over both Brazil and Argentina.

There were surprises, however, in Africa. Of the quartet of teams that qualified for the 1998 and 2002 World Cups, it was, somewhat surprisingly, only Tunisia who managed to complete their hat trick. Cameroon and Nigeria were narrowly pipped at the post by Côte d’Ivoire and Angola respectively, but South Africa stood little chance in a group dominated by Ghana. Meanwhile Senegal, the surprise package at the 2002 World Cup, failed to overcome Togo.

In Europe, the Netherlands emerged from a very strong group along with the Czech Republic, the latter requiring a play-off against Norway before sealing their first ever qualification as an independent nation. Of the other traditional European powerhouses, only Russia and Belgium failed to reach the finals. Spain struggled for long periods and needed a play-off victory over Slovakia to seal their passage to Germany. Turkey, semi-finalists in 2002, gave way to the Ukraine, another country who made their World Cup debut in Germany. The Turks, however, held off the challenge of Greece and Denmark to reach the play-offs, where they ultimately lost to Switzerland, who qualified for the World Cup after a lengthy absence of 12 years. France qualified at the top of an extremely close group in which the top four teams all had more draws than victories under their belts. England saw off a determined Poland, although the latter – together with Sweden (in Croatia’s group) – did qualify for Germany 2006 as two best group runners-up.

With 9 goals scored in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers, Iran’s Ali Daei became the all-time top scorer of FIFA World Cup preliminaries with a total of 30 goals (7 in 1994, 4 in 1998 and 10 in 2002). The previous top scorer was Japan’s Kazu Miura with 21 goals.

Ecuador’s Ivan Hurtado tops the all-time ranking in the number of World Cup qualifiers played, playing a total of 56 matches, with 17 in the 2006 preliminaries.

Zambia’s Kalusha Bwalya, at the age of 41, scored the decisive goal (1-0) in the match against Liberia on 4 September 2004. Bwalya came into play in the second half and scored his 50 th goal in 100 matches with his national team in the dying minutes. Bwalya also played and scored on his first World Cup qualifier in 1984 just before the whistle, in their 3-0 win against Uganda.

AFRICA – 50: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde Islands, Chad, Congo, Congo DR, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome e Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

ASIA – 37: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, China PR, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Korea DPR, Korea Republic, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Macao, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen.

CONCACAF – 34: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent / Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, US Virgin Islands, USA.

EUROPE – 51+1* (Germany as Host): Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-

Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland Republic, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia FYR, Malta, Moldova, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Scotland, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Wales.

OCEANIA – 12: American Samoa, Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Tonga, Vanuatu.

SOUTH AMERICA – 10: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela

Number of teams participating for the first time in the preliminary competition – 2: Afghanistan, New Caledonia.

• Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Philippines, Myanmar, Puerto Rico, Djibouti (all did not enter), Central African Rep, Guam and Nepal (all withdrew), Serbia and Montenegro was called Yugoslavia before February 2003. As to the new regulations the defending Champion is no longer automatically qualified.

ANGOLA, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Costa Rica, CÔTE D’IVOIRE, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, England, France, Germany (H), GHANA, Iran, Italy, Japan, Korea Republic, Mexico, Netherlands, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Serbia and Montenegro, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, TOGO, TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, Tunisia, UKRAINE, USA.

Legend
NEWCOMERS TO FINALS in upper case italics
(C) Defending champions, qualified automatically

Preliminaries tournament statistics (without taking into account technical and annulled results)
Matches (neutral field)	847 (34)
Goals Scored	2464
Host Goals Scored	1465 (59,46%)
Guest Goals Scored	847 (34,38%)
Neutral Goals Scored	152 (6,17%)
Home win	413 (48,76%)
Draws	183 (21,61%)
Away win	217 (25,62%)
Goals Scored (average per match)	2,91
High score (more than 3 goals)	268 (31,64%)
No Score Draw	68 (8,03%)
Attendance (*incomplete data)	19 374 791
Average viewers per match (*incomplete data)	23 203
Penalties awarded (*incomplete data)	131
Penalty goals	117
% Successful Penalty kicks (*incomplete data)	89,31 %
Own goals	38
Cautions (on average) (*incomplete data)	0 (0)
Sent off (aver.)	0 (0) - 0/0
Players participated (*incomplete data)	1246