Random Rants on the Beautiful Game

By the numbers, England exerts major influence on World Cup.

By Chris Courtney
SoccerTimes

COLOGNE, Germany (Sunday, June 4, 2006) -- Say what you will about England's chances to win the World Cup this year, but a glance at the rosters for this year's competition indicate the English influence on the game they invented has not waned. Of the 736 players listed on World Cup rosters, a whopping 102 earn their living playing in England, nearly one out of every seven.

Of the clubs which can claim that their players have been selected for World Cup duty, the top two are English Premier League clubs -- Chelsea with 16 and Arsenal with 15. The English might not have won the Cup in 40 years, but their influence remains strong.

A full 60 percent of the players in this year's tournament earn their living playing in 10 countries: England with 102, Germany (74), Italy (62), France (58), Spain (51), Ukraine (25), Mexico (23), Saudi Arabia (23), Portugal (19), and Japan (19). Major League Soccer can take pride that 15 of its players are on World Cup rosters with 11 Americans, plus Costa Rican Douglas Sequiera (Real Salt Lake), Mexico's Claudio Suarez (Chivas USA), and two players from Trindad & Tobago -- Avery John (New England Revolution) and Cornell Glen (Los Angeles Galaxy).

The national teams of Italy and Saudi Arabia feature lineups made exclusively of players who earn their living in their native country. At the other end of the scale, all 23 of Ivory Coast's players ply their trade abroad, playing primarily in England, France and Italy.

Which clubs are most represented?

English Premier League champion Chelsea has 16 players in the World Cup, the most of any club, followed by Premiership rival Arsenal with 15 and Italian power AC Milan with 13. Champions League winner and Spanish champion Barcelona, Italian titlist Juventus and EPL runnerup Manchester United each have 12 players selected.

In seventh place is Germany's Bayern Munich with 11, followed by an eighth-place tie between Spain's Real Madrid and Ukrainian Cup holder Dynamo Kyiv at 10 apiece. Tenth place is a four-way tie between Saudi Arabia's Al Hilal, French champion Lyon, Ajax of the Netherlands, and Germany's Bayer Leverkusen, all with nine players named to World Cup squads.

Which are the most experienced teams?

The most capped player at this year's World Cup is Saudi Arabia goalkeeper Mohammed Al Deayea with 181 international appearances. The next most capped player in the competition is Mexico and Chivas USA's Claudio Suarez with 176 appearances. Thirteen other players in this year's tourney have at least 100 caps.

Seven players will make their fourth appearance in a World Cup: the United States' Claudio Reyna and Kasey Keller, Germany's Oliver Kahn, Saudi Arabia's Al Deayea and Sami Al Jaber, plus Brazil's Cafu and Ronaldo. Keller is the only player on any roster to have participated in the 1990 World Cup, though he did not play.

The most experienced teams in terms of overall international experience are Japan and Mexico with a team average of 45 caps. The Black Stars of Ghana average 15 caps, making them the team with the least international experience.

Beyond caps, a telling factor is which players have made those appearances in World Cup play. Unluckily for Group F opponents, the top three in this category are Brazil's trio of Cafu with 16, followed by Ronaldo with 14, and Roberto Carlos with 13. The USA's Reyna and Brian McBride enter the tournament with seven World Cup caps apiece.

The big and the small

Ecuador striker Christian Lara is the tournament's shortest player at 5-foot-4. On the other hand, three other players stand a full 6-7, including Jan Koller of the Czech Republic, Australia's Zeljko Kalacand and Nikola Zigic of Serbia & Montenegro. In another sign of how bruising it will be for U.S. defenders Eddie Pope and Oguchi Onyewu in their June 12 opener against the Czechs, Koller also weighs in as the heaviest player at this year's World Cup tipping the scales at 220 pounds. Onyewu is a chiseled 6-4 and 210 pounds himself.

The young and the old

England's 17-year-old Theo Walcott is the youngest player in the tournament and could become the youngest-ever goal scorer in World Cup history, assuming he gets on the field and finds the back of the net. Forty-year-old Tunisia goalkeeper Ali Boumnijel is the oldest player at this year's event and the fifth oldest in World Cup history.

The average age for all players in this year's competition is 27 years and four months. The oldest teams on average are the Czech Republic, the France, and the Soca Warriors of Trinidad & Tobago at 29 years and one month. Newcomer Ghana has the youngest squad with an average age of 25 years and two months.

Goal scorers

The record for most all-time goals scored in the World Cup, held by Germany's Gerd Mueller with 14, is in danger since Brazil's Ronaldo enters the competition with 12 goals already to his credit. Obviously, he is in a good position to threaten Mueller's total, which was earned in the 1970 and 1974 World Cups.

McBride enters 2006 with the chance to become the first American to score in three consecutive World Cups after previously finding net in 1998 and 2002. He enters the tourney with three World Cup goals to his name, while teammate Landon Donovan has two.

Germany's Miroslav Klose celebrates his 28th birthday when his nation faces Costa Rica June 9 on the tournament's opening day. He is certainly looking to celebrate by adding more goals to his previous tally of five from 2002.

Without Turkey in this year's finals, Hakan Sükür won't have a chance to better his record for the fastest World Cup goal, scored 11 seconds into a 3-2 victory over South Korea in the 2002 third-place match.

Goalkeepers

The Czech Republic's Petr Cech is the frontrunner for this year's Lev Yashin award, given to the top goalkeeper at the World Cup. He allowed just 11 goals in 23 qualifying matches with seven clean sheets to his name. His club record for Chelsea in the 2005-2006 season is even more impressive with 13 goals allowed in 34 games for a 0.388 goals-against average.

Now retired from international play, U.S. and Blackburn Rovers goalkeeper Brad Friedel remains the only keeper in World Cup history to save two penalty kicks in regulation, as he did in the 2002 tourney. American fans might hope Keller does not need to resort to such heroics in 2006.

Chris Courtney is SoccerTimes European correspondent and lives in Brussels.