9. Serbia

They've been one of those teams who usually have been considered "dark horses" on every major tournament they reach but it always has ended up with some sort of dissapointment. They've had some memorable matches though like 3-3 vs Slovenia and 3-4 vs Spain in Euro2000 and 0-6 vs Argentina in WC2006. Although they've been in World Cups 3 times out of the last 4 tournaments they haven't had much success there, being the worst side in the group stages in WC2006 and beating Germany but somehow managing to lose to Australia in the deciding match in WC2010 group stage. Maybe their best top tournament so far has been Euro2000 but since then they have failed to qualify to EC's 3 times in a row which is puzzling if you look at their lineup filled with good players having successful careers at top clubs. They are clearly underachievers especially if compared to their smaller ex-Yugo neighbors Croatia and Slovenia.

 

Great thread and another great list in progress.
Keep it up Andy:thumbsup:

 

8. Scotland

After qualifying to 4 top tournaments in a row from WC1990 to Euro96 (and never making past the group stage) they have completely dissappeared from view since then. They have a lot of history being maybe the strongest NT in the world in the late 19th century but nowadays they simply fail to produce enough quality players to be competitive in the international stage. Maybe it is unfair to call them underachievers at all. Anyway, despite of their subpar results they enjoy amazing fan support and the Tartan Army has been far more entertaining than the team itself during the last decade.

 

"My country is better than your country" in the making. Good effort, Andy.

 

7. Ivory Coast

The Elephants of 00's-10's are definitely one of the greatest African teams ever on paper and in FIFA rankings but unfortunately they have failed to dominate on the football pitch when it matters the most. They have made it to the last two World Cups and been unlucky with the draw landing them into Groups of Death both times where they have crashed out but showing some entertaining football in the process.

But it is their lack of success in African Cup of Nations which causes them to make it into this list. They haven't won it since 1992 despite being the favourites in many people's eyes during the four last tournaments. They were outsmarted by Egypt in the 2006 final and 2008 semifinal and shockingly lost to huge underdogs Zambia in this year's final.

Given that some of their brightest stars are getting old already it might be that IC's golden generation ends up with no international trophies in their hands.

 

Finland was mismanaged when the squad was at its strongest, which was around 2000-04. The team always lacked the mentality to just grind out results. They could lead Germany 2-0 and completely outplay them but you just knew it won't hold. When Hodgson came for the Euro2008 qualifiers, that was immediately changed. His ultra-defensive system got some nice results and until the final day Finland had a chance to qualify. But ultimately there just wasn't enough quality in the attacking players to make up for the defensive gameplan.

For the WC 2010 qualification the team still did alright, drawing Germany twice. But it was obvious that there has to happen drastic rebuilding. Which is where Finland is now, a young squad with little quality and no hope in the next two qualifiers at least.

 

6. Poland

It is probably fair to call Poland the worst sporting nation in Europe during the last 25 years, considering that for a 38-million country they have achived practically nothing noteworthy and produced only a couple of internationally recognized athletes during the past decades (the most well-known of them being a ski jumper). They are also poor in team sports and football is no exception. Having achieved impressive 2 Bronze medals in World Cups ('74 and '82) they faded away into nothingness after Soviet period ended. Although they have actually qualified to 2 WC's and one EC since then it is easy to forget it because they have been among the most boring teams on these tournaments.

Another reason they suck is because of their questionable practice of naturalizing players without any cultural connection to Poland: first with Olisadebe before WC2002 and then with Roger Guerreiro (a very average Brazilian who had played in Polish league only 2 years) before Euro08.

 

It is probably fair to call Poland the worst sporting nation in Europe during the last 25 years, considering that for a 38-million country they have achived practically nothing noteworthy

Wozniacki is Polish :stuckup:


If this was about the last 10 years Romania would make the top-10. But in the last 20 years the good results in the 90's still compensate, I guess.

 

Ivory Coast at 7?!? Amateurish stuff...

Bosnia better be no.1. :hopeful:

Who else is there, England? Belgium? Hungary?

 

Argentina should be number 1.

 

They have Copa America wins in 91 and 93. roud:

 

mickey mouse cups are not an indication of great achievement.

 

Interesting thread. Don't know that I see some of the sides chosen on the list, like Finland, but I don't follow NTs so closely. Ivory Coast definitely should be on the list though and I reckon closer to the top. I thnk they should have had an African Cup of Nations and some better showings in the WC with some of the talent they had a few years back. To a lesser extent, and maybe not for the whole of the last 10 years, but Cameroon also had some talented players. Maybe not the whole package, but some real quality on paper.

 

:thumbsup:

 

5. China

Being the highest populated country in the world where football has enjoyed a relatively high popularity over the last 2 decades, China's actual achievements in this sport have definitely been subpar. They made it to the WC2002 where they were the second-worst team overall. They have also never won the Asian Cup and have reached the final match only once (in 2004).

Of course one could say that they have not had enough time to improve considering that Chinese football was in a very amateurish state during the 80's and before. But same could be said about their neighbors Japan and South Korea where professional leagues were created as late as in 90's but who have been far more successful since then. And even the other and far more ****ed up communist state North Korea has achieved more than China in recent years despite having more than 50 times smaller population and suffering a huge lack of resources.

 

That's what happens when you employ Arie Haan

 

If it wasn't for the last to tournament then Spain would win biggest underachiever every time, the Raul Spain I'm talking about, but Euro 08 and WC10 change that roud: So England eeryday! :yess:

 

4. Hungary

They had the greatest football team in the world (and one of the greatest of all-time) a little more than half a century ago. No other football nation in the world has suffered such a huge decline since then. They have not qualified to a top tournament since WC86. So even if we forget the comparison between their glorious history and gloomy present we still must say that they are by far the worst underachiever in Central Europe. Every one of their neighbors or nearby countries has qualified to the World Cup at least once during the last 20 years and most of them have several appearances in major tournaments. Once glorious Hungary stands alone in this aspect. Hungary also has not produced any noteworthy football stars during the last 20 years. I guess these 2 things are somehow related...

 

Stuck this one and unstick Millwall's thread. Hope millwall returns to complete it soon.

 

3. Russia

For a country with 143 million inhabitants where football has been the second most popular sport for decades right after competitive vodka drinking, Russia's failure to qualify for 3 out of 5 previous World Cups definitely should be considered as a massive underachivement. The only noteworthy major tournament performance from them since the breakup of CCCP was Euro2008 where they surprisingly beat the favourites Holland in quarterfinals only to lose to the eventual champions Spain in the semi.

I've heard many reasons mentioned for the lack of success of Russian football: bad climate, lack of investment in the 90's, insufficient training methods and tactical shortcomings etc. In the recent years there has been a huge investment boom into Russian football and they have employed top European managers to turn around the fortunes of Russian NT but without much success so far. For some reason they haven't really produced that many world class players during recent decades...basically only Arshavin was considered among the very elite of world football during a few years.

 

2. Argentina

Getting to heavyweights now...Argentina has been recognized as one of the greatest and most entertaining teams on the planet but the problem is they simply haven't won shit all in senior level for 19 years now (their last trophy being '93 Copa America). They haven't made it past the quarterfinals on any of the last 5 World Cups. The closest they came to winning silverware was losing the Copa America finals in 2004 and 2007 and Confederations Cup final in 2005. It is certainly bizarre as their NT has consistently been full of World Class players in the World Cups at least.

Maybe Messi can turn the tide.

 

2. Argentina

They haven't made it past the quarterfinals on any of the last 5 World Cups.
Maybe Messi can turn the tide.

This is unbelievable.

 

Mostovoi >>>>>>>> Arshavin.

 

maybe careerwise but he was never considered a world class player during his active career while Arshavin was considerd so after Euro08.

 

1. England

Yet another team always having plenty of world class talent in their ranks but failing to turn this into success in big tournaments, England has become the most notorious example of continuous underachievement in international level.

There is really no logical explanation for it. They have tried everything bringing in respected continental managers like Eriksson and Capello but it has resulted in no success.

For some reason England always looks less than the sum of its parts in every big competition: they never remind you the well-oiled, well-disciplined machines of Germany or Holland even though their squad looks good enough on paper to match these teams. Going to Euro2012 everybody knows they will yet again fail to win the title.

 

No Holland? I mean they do well considering the players they have but failing in so many finals...must be something there.

Oh and about England, for the past 15 years or so, they havent exactly been failing that much in the finals but imo its more about the massive overhyping their players are getting.

Of course England look less then the sum of its parts cause some happy folks tend to think that a six is actually an eight.

 

No Holland? I mean they do well considering the players they have but failing in so many finals...must be something there.

definitely not top 10 material as they made it to WC final and SF plus two Euro semis during the last 20 years and have failed to qualify only once...can't really be called underachievers IMO.

 

Hm, interesting thread would like to see opposite list too.

Yet, some things worth mentioning:
Egypt: most successful team in African Nations Cup, pisspoor record in World cups

Have failed to q for last 5 WC, yet keep winning ANC every 2 years.


Not that i believe in this, but Russia have had to deal with special refereing at times, werent they hard done in 2004? I kind of recall watching Russia play in euro 04 and bias whistle against Russia.

India worth mentioning because of the population too.

 

What's with Cameroon?

And I don't really understand your definition of the word underachieving
I thought underachieving = teams that have very good potential, but don't have the results

That doesn't apply to half of the list imo.

Neither of Poland or China are underachievers - they're are inable to produce good players compared to their population which isn't the same thing.

Hungary on the other hand fails to build on their historical potential which is another different issue.

 

I kept the historical perspective in mind too...for example Poland finished 3rd in WC74 and WC82 so they have been good and been able to produce good players not so long ago. As for China I explained it pretty well IMO...they are underachievers compared to their neighbors.

I mean it would be easy to simply go after the teams with great players and call them huge underachievers when they haven't won anything in 10 years. But in some other cases you have countries who have been great once or should be great and produce good players because football is a popular sport there and they have tradition but somehow they just can't do it: countries like Russia, Scotland or Hungary. I would say this is underachieving on a far grander scale. maybe I've understood the word wrongly, I don't know.

 

In some sense Canada possibly too, because noone ever mentions them anywhere, they made the world cup in 1986 and finished last in GS, but have won CONCACAF twice and once in 2000, no idea what it is, but saw they had to beat Mexico on their way so cant be too easy.

Population is big enough and their multicultural environment should boost their progress. Yet people talk mainly about US possible potential, given their resources but lack of history in football.

 

Hargreaves, Hoilett, Jonathan De Guzman...three Canadian-born players who don't play for the national team. That's our biggest problem. Our best players would rather play elsewhere. The US doesn't have this problem as far as I can tell.

 

England? STFU. We'll win the Euro's!

 

Here are World Cup results compared to Elo rating for some nations

Netherlands
WC94: #2 - QF
WC98: #8 - SF
WC02: #4 - NQ
WC06: #2 - Top 16
WC10: #3 - 2nd

Argentina
WC94: #9 - Top 16
WC98: #9 - QF
WC02: #2 - Top 32
WC06: #8 - QF
WC08: #7 - QF

Russia
WC94: #17 - Top 24
WC98: #16 - NQ
WC02: #23 - Top 32
WC06: #34 - NQ
WC10: #14 - NQ

England
WC94: #11 - NQ
WC98: #6 - Top 16
WC02: #7 - QF
WC06: #3 - QF
WC10: #4 - Top 16

Poland
WC94: #33 - NQ
WC98: #51 - NQ
WC02: #39 - Top 32
WC06: #21 - Top 32
WC10: #47 - NQ

Ivory Coast
WC94: #29 - NQ
WC98: #51 - NQ
WC02: #58 - NQ
WC06: #29 - Top 32
WC10: #26 - Top 32


Gotta say Ivory Coast is by far the unluckiest team too, with that draw they got in '06 and '10 they were never expected to get past the group stage tbh.