(edit title) Football world cup. Has Sweden ever won it? Options

[byke]

My eldest is doing a school project, and somehow the Football world cup was brought up.
I have to be honest, not a big football fan.

But am I right in understanding that Sweden has never won the football world cup?
(Not even in the olden days when there was less teams?)

[Snood]

I couldn't care for football. Wikipedia seems to indicate Sweden was in one final in 1958 and came second.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_FIFA_World_Cup_finals

[byke]

Yeah I saw that (with my eldest) while we looked for an answer.
But I couldn't get my head around it, and wondered if it really was true (or someone messing with wikipedia).

[gplusa]

And Sweden placed 3rd in 1994. From memory they were the top goal scoring nation at that tournament.

[byke]

But no win?
I am still trying to figure out, if they have ever won it?

[Jamtjim]

No, Sweden has never won the Football World Cup.

Only eight teams ever have. These are:

Brazil (5)
Italy (4)
Germany (3)
Argentina (2)
Uruguay (2)
England (1)
France (1)
Spain (1)

[gplusa]

Here's your list of winners: http://www.topendsports.com/events/worldcu...cer/winners.htm

[byke]

No, Sweden has never won the Football World Cup.

Cheers for that.

[Migga]

No gold in the world cup. But they have one from the olympic games. In 1948 Sweden beat Yugoslavia 3-1 in the Olympic final and won the gold medal at the London Olympics. But when it comes to the world cup the highest achivement for both men and women are silver. For the men it was 1958 and for the women it was 2003. If you want to know more;

http://svenskfotboll.se/in-english/history/

[gplusa]

Trivia footnote that Sweden holds the record for finishing in the top 4 (4 times) without winning.

[byke]

(not aimed directly at any member ... free thought rambling by me)

Its quite a strange way to look at things, but I suppose that In football it comes down to 4 teams.
However in sports its usually the top 3 that are counted or honored as such (gold, silver and bronze)

But do you bother to count or recognize the placing of the 4th team? (in football)
Usually you have a winner, a looser & runner up.

Is a top 4 placement an acceptable thing to be "proud" of, or is it just one place to far out of the top 3 triangle that most other sports are judged by? reserve runner up?

[gplusa]

Considering that the answer to your original question was one click away on a Google search engine, I was rather suspecting that was the angle of the post from the beginning. The piece of useless trivia wasn't posted as some kind of pride post (although it does suggest an admireable record of consistantly achieving at a high level as opposed to being merely a one hit wonder)but was taken directly from the same Wikipedia page that you no doubt had already found. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cu...in_the_top_four

[byke]

TBH - No it wasn't, it was a genuine question.
I just didn't believe some of the things I read as I forgot that the world cup was halted between the second world war etc. Considering there were only 16 teams back then I thought odds may have been more in favor to sweden at the time.

[Jamtjim]

Its quite a strange way to look at things, but I suppose that In football it comes down to 4 teams.
However in sports its usually the top 3 that are counted or honored as such (gold, silver and bronze)

There is usually a play-off to decide who gets 3rd place.

But do you bother to count or recognize the placing of the 4th team? (in football)
Usually you have a winner, a looser & runner up.

The point at which each team was knocked out of the competition is recorded in their official statistics. So for example if they finish bottom or second from bottom in their group and are eliminated, knocked out in the last sixteen or quarter finals. If they win their semi they go on to either play in the final if they win or else in the 3rd place play-off if they don't.

[AW1]

On the subject of football, will anyone here be going to any of the games?