22 Brazil, 18 Germany, who is the strongest team in the history of World Cup qualifiers?

The reporter reported coldly Japan defeated Bahrain 2-0 to qualify for the World Cup three rounds ahead of schedule, setting a record for the fastest World Cup qualification in team history. At the same time, this is also the fastest record for the Asian qualifiers for the World Cup. This Japanese team has been called "the strongest in history" by the Japanese media, and it should actually be the strongest team in the history of the World Cup Asian qualifiers. So, who is the strongest team in the history of World Cup qualifying?

Argentina beat Uruguay 1-0 yesterday (March 22), with five rounds of South American qualifiers remaining, Argentina are 15 points ahead of Bolivia in the seventh-place play-off zone, with a goal difference of 31 goals. Theoretically, Argentina has already qualified five rounds in advance. Next Wednesday morning's home game against Brazil, Argentina only need a draw against Brazil to qualify four rounds of events. However, the speed at which Argentina qualified four rounds ahead of schedule is still one round slower than the record held by Brazil in the 2022 World Cup South American qualifiers. In the last World Cup South American qualifiers, the Brazilian team qualified for 5 rounds in advance with 1 game less, which was the fastest qualification record in the history of World Cup qualifiers.

In the 2022 World Cup South American qualifiers, the Brazilian team started with 7 consecutive wins, and the 8th game against Argentina at home was forced to be suspended due to the entry of Brazilian epidemic prevention officials to try to take away Argentine players who violated epidemic prevention regulations. In this game, Brazil and Argentina qualified for the top two in the South American zone, and in the end, there was no make-up match that had no impact on the qualification. At that time, in the 13th round of the South American qualifiers, the Brazilian team, which had one less game, had 34 points, as many as 18 points ahead of Colombia in the fifth play-off zone, and qualified for 5 rounds in advance, and if you count 1 game less, it was 6 rounds in advance. In the end, the undefeated Brazilian team, which won 14 wins and 3 draws in 17 games, set a record of 45 points for the highest score in the South American qualifiers.

In the South American qualifiers for this World Cup, Argentina has accumulated 28 points in 13 rounds, and has 5 rounds left to lead the 7th place Bolivia by 15 points, which is theoretically qualified, but slightly inferior to the Brazilian team in the last qualifiers. Not only are the points 8 points less than Brazil's in 13 rounds, but Brazil's 1 game less at that time qualified 5 rounds ahead of 5th place by 18 points, and the lead is bigger than Argentina's this time. Even if they win all five of their next five games, Argentina has a high score of only 43 points, two points less than Brazil, which scored 45 points in just 17 games last year.

Previously, Brazil had qualified three rounds of the South American qualifiers in 2018 and 2010, tying the record set by Argentina in 2002 for the fastest advance qualifiers. However, Brazil (36 points) in the round of 15 in 2018 are only 13 points ahead of Chile in the fifth-placed play-off zone, and two points less than the Argentina team coached by Bielsa in 2002. The 3313 formation of the blue and white team swept South America, and after defeating Brazil 2-1 in the 15th round, they accumulated 38 points and 14 points ahead of Uruguay in the fifth play-off zone, and locked the right to qualify three rounds in advance.

Argentina finished with 43 points from 18 rounds, 16 points ahead of fifth-placed Uruguay, the largest point difference between the top team in the South American qualifiers and the team with the highest points that did not guarantee qualification. But this point difference record was also broken by Brazil in the 2022 World Cup South American qualifiers. Brazil (45 points), who had played one game less, finished 21 points ahead of Peru in the fifth-placed play-off zone, an unprecedented 21 points.

Brazil, which qualified five rounds in advance, had the most early rounds and the fastest speed, but was it the strongest team in the World Cup qualifiers? The answer is not necessarily. Because in the World Cup qualifiers, Brazil was one of the teams that won all of them. In 1954, 1970 and 1982, Brazil won all of the South American qualifiers for the World Cup. Among them, in the 1970 World Cup, the Brazilian team won all 6 games in both the qualifiers and the finals, and was the only team to win all the qualifiers and finals of the World Cup in a single session.

Other teams with a record of winning all World Cup qualifiers include Uruguay, Italy, the Netherlands, Argentina, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, France, Mexico, Egypt, etc. If New Zealand beat New Caledonia on Monday to qualify only directly from the Oceania zone, New Zealand will be the latest qualifier to win all five of their matches. However, in the 2010 and 2018 World Cup qualifiers, Spain and Germany in Europe won all 10 games and scored a full 30 points to qualify.

In 2018, Germany overtook Spain with more goals scored (43) and fewer goals conceded (4) to become the king of the World Cup qualifiers with the most wins and the best results in the history of World Cup qualifying. Moreover, the German team has won all five qualifiers in its history, which is the best in the world. However, the 2010 version of Spain, which has won the most games in a single qualifier, won the current World Cup, and is slightly better than the German team that stopped in the group stage of the 2018 World Cup.