So what other variables contribute to the making of a world champion team?
What do teams need to have to take home the World Cup?
DEAD BALL and SET PIECES: The set piece is the easiest way to score, but the most difficult to implement. It is the most silly way to concede a goal as well and games are won and lost on these.
In Russia 2918, Umtiti’s goal against Belgium in the semi-final, a header from a Griezmann corner, was the 69th at this World Cup to be scored from a set piece, out of the total 158 goals scored!
That’s almost 50% of all goals scored.
Successful teams always rehearse and work endlessly on the set pieces and dead ball situations: corner kicks, penalties, free kicks and goal kicks to their own advantage. The most successful teams find a way to turn this to their advantage. Teams who have scored 4 or more goals from set pieces in a World Cup in last 20 years have all gone on to win the cup: France 1998, Germany 2014, Italy in 2006.
Italy dumped out the host Germany in 2006 with a 70% conversion rate, two set pieces and it was curtains for Germany.
LUCK : Oh yes you need luck : a deflected goal, a penalty decision, a late goal when the opposition can no longer come back, a penalty you get away with, a red card, opposition players missing through suspensions and injuries and lots more.
You just need some luck to win world cups
Luck could also be the side of the draw you are; this World Cup has seen Sweden progress instead of Germany, has seen Croatia progress as group winners instead of Argentina. All of these add to the fact that the whole dynamics of who plays who in the latter stages would have been altered drastically.
TEAM SPIRIT: You can’t win the World Cup with a divided camp, we saw how the same French team that won the World Cup crashed out in bizarre fashion when the team was divided. Team spirit also includes coaching crew, medical crew, officials, football federations and their relationships with the players and all – which is where the worry for most African teams come in play for me – so a team not united on all fronts would struggle to win the cup. You need to be united to suffer together, accept you are not playing but are contributing to the group, play and encourage those not playing, will each to succeed, lose together (important) in order to win together
GAME PLAN & COACH: The team must have a plan and focus on the plan. Plans are different for each game but the vision is the same. Players have to buy in and accept the plan and even be ready to change on the pitch of play as the game demands. The coach’s plan must be clear and consistent, even when at times it seems like it needs a change. Players like consistency and they believe in a coach who has absolute belief in what works. They will suffer with him and stick to the plan, even when fatigued.
Who is responsible for the plan? The coach… and that’s why you need a good one and/or capable assistants to win the World Cup
A WINNING MENTALITY: In as much as you need a lot of other things, a winning mentality can not be despised. Spain won the World Cup at the back of the European championship and domination by Spanish teams in Europe.
Bayern Munich’s domestic dominance helped the 1974 German side win the World Cup.
Majority of the 2014 German World Cup winners came on the back of Bayern Munich’s champions league success and dominance in the domestic league.
There is something about winning that translates into magic.
Winning is a habit, so is losing. There is something about a team that refuses to lose and believes it can win, they win!
SUBSTITUTES AND THE BENCH : Who you do you have on the bench? Effective Substitutions alter big games. 2014 final saw Mario Goetze coming in to score the winner against Argentina. Apart from a World Cup final, several other games have been decided by the substitutions made by coaches. Germany had one of the best squads ever in 1990 and 1974, those squads were just expansive and unbeatable. They could play you anyway they wanted: skill, pace, technique, experience, power, defend, attack… they were that good.
Brasil 2002: the Selecao has too much depth. When you play matches in a World Cup and world class players like Denilson, Kaka, Kleberson and Ricardinho are coming off the bench for the opposition, you know the abundance of quality in the other team.
SPORTS SCIENCE, FITNESS : Football has gone to the computer screens and tablets. Every inch of grass, every second of the game, every sweat, movement, sprint and run nowadays is analysed and fed into systems to help neutralise the opposition and gain a winning advantage.
Everything is measured and analysed, teams analyse their own players and the opposition to know how they play, dribble, tackle, kick, move, sprint and run.
He who masters the science of football would win games today.
SUPPORT : Whether it’s your own fans, neutral fans or supporters from host nation, you need supportive fans and loud voices to get over the line in tough games.
I still remember Nigeria vs Argentina
In St.Petersburg few weeks ago, i appreciates the meaning of the 12th man that day, the support carried Argentina over the line, truly phenomenal watching 60,000 Argentines shout and sing from start to finish.
So France, Croatia and England would battle it out to determine the next champion of the world…..
Which of these teams have a combination of the ingredients to win the World Cup?
Which of them stand out as favourites to lift the cup?
Who has more in total sum of the parts above?
And can African and Asian teams take a cue from this discovery?
I’ll let you be the judge