The Confederations Cup: The Most Important, Not So Important, FIFA Tournament. Plus 3 Fun Facts! HD

patreon.com/penandpaper Welcome to The Most Important, Not So Important, FIFA Tournament By a large margin the most exciting but not so significant FIFA tournament is the FIFA Confederations Cup. The Confederations Cup is currently held 1 year before the FIFA World Cup and it is hosted by the country that will host the following year’s World Cup. The Confederations Cup is held for 4 reasons. #1 It is primarily held to serve as a mini dress-rehearsal to give the host nation a chance to practice hosting a major soccer tournament. #2 The teams get to experience competition in the country and venues they will be playing in the following year #3 FIFA gets to do what it loves best, Make $. and #4 The fans get to whet their appetite for the coming World Cup with games between really good teams. So, who gets to play in the Confederations Cup? The Confederations Cup is composed of the Current champion of each of the 6 Continental Confederations (hence the name) plus the current World Cup Champion and the HOST. This makes for 8 teams. If one team qualifies twice, say by winning their Continental Cup AND the previous World Cup, then the runner up from the Continental tournament gets to attend also. The 8 teams are split into two groups of 4 and each team plays the others in its group once. After group play the winner of each group plays the runner-up of the the other group in semi-final matches and the other 4 teams go home. After the semifinals, there is a 3rd place match and of course a final, where a champion is crowned, they get a trophy but no STAR on their jerseys. And now 3 FUN FACTS about the Confed. Cup #1 Although you might think so, the CC does not predict the winner of the following world cup. Going into 2017 the CC final match has only ONCE contained a team that would play in the next World Cup Final Match and in that case Brazil won the 1997 CC but lost to France in the final at the 1998 WC. While the winner can’t be predicted, historically if your team plays in a CC hosted by the next WC host, your team has an 81% chance to qualify for the next WC. Additionally, if you are in the CC you will have a 50% chance of making the KNOCK OUT rounds at the following WC. #2 The 2009 CC saw the USMNT come 17 minutes from winning its first ever FIFA trophy … in Men’s Soccer. After 2 losses, on a miraculous final group match day the US managed a win and a 6 goal swing over both Egypt and Italy AND THEN managed to defeat by 2 to 0 then-defending European champions Spain, who had won its last 16 games and had not lost in 35 games. In the final against Brazil, the US was winning 2-0 at the half and was still up as late as the 73rd minute. But Brazil was Brazil in the second half and put in 3 goals to take the trophy and crush American dreams. pause #3 Since 2005, the CC has been hosted as a dress rehearsal by the next WC host. That great idea will be put on hold in 2021, where Qatar will not host the CC but will host t