Re: (recent) historical ranking of European countries

Quoting James Allnutt in rec.sport.soccer:

>6 goals x 1
>Again, nothing brilliant, but hardly the worst in the world.

"Better" teams than Andorra has by 6 goals or more at times. In any decent
sample of games from a competition there will almost inevitably be some
large margin wins. Some day baby when the rivers run free [implicit quiz]
I'll calculate the mean and stddev for WC prelims in the regions. (Unless
someone beats me to it). 

>There's no "seems" about it - it is very tight. Teams can go from 0-1-7 
>and last place in one qualifying tournament to 5-5-0 and make World Cup 
>finals via a playoff the next (Slovenia in 98 and 02) or from 6-2-0 
>group winners to 2-4-4 and finishing 4th the next (Norway same years).

Only really possible in Conmebol, if at all. At least reasonably regularly.

-- 
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passion burning out from under my skin.
Take me for a ride, 'til the night-time's over,
and daylight steals the magic of the dark.