World Cup: The Tie

I'm looking through the groupings and trying to determine a valuable stat to hold on to. I've mentioned a couple of times that location is key. It'll be very interesting to see if South Africa makes it out of the Group Stage (GS).

Ties, draws or whatever you want to call them, are extremely important in the GS. The teams that have won the most... tie the most (although the numbers do not coincide). Germany has the most draws with 19. But, alas my friend. We are remedial statisticians here at Helltown! I need at least 20 points of data and percentages tell the better story.

Honduras has the highest tie % but they have only played 3 WC games, man. We have to dig deeper. Of the teams that have played over 20 games; England is the King of the draw. Doing so in almost half of all their GS games. 47% to be exact. WHO, I say, WHOM doth tie the least with over 20 games? Well the United States. We are going to win that sucker or lose it, fool. I like that stat. Very American. Only 12% of the time will the US tie in the GS. Portugal is the same way. Yet even less at 9% (with 19 games played).

Of the WC winners Brazil does tie the least amount of times. Italy, the team that has won four, draws almost 40% of the time, one of the highest percentages. Yet, still below England. Which, If I've learnt anything here today, helps me understand why someone like Rooney becomes a godlike figure. England has been searching for a striker to score two goals in a critical game for a hundred years.

So, what am I getting at with all this tie nonsense? Well, I thought it would mean something, but it doesn't. That happens I guess.