Historically Cyprus has to be among the worst World Cup Qualifier squads ever. Sure there are many terrible squads out there and plenty deserve to vie for the title, but Cyprus has not just had a bad spell or anything here they have been consistently terrible for many decades.
I know what you’re thinking. I’m being way to hard on this poor little island country and my expectations are way too high because I don’t realize how hard it is to make the World Cup in the first place. Well part of my problem with Cyprus isn’t their poor play in the World Cup (because they have never been to the event), but it is their poor play in generally every competition they have ever played in.
In 92 World Cup Qualifiers, Cyprus has only won ten matches. Some teams will likely go a perfect ten for ten this year which would tie them with Cyprus’ entire history of winning. With only ten wins that means the squad has suffered plenty of losses. Try 72. Most absurd is that the country only has 68 career World Cup Qualifying goals and has given up 262 goals. That’s a pretty terrible goal differential if you ask me.
The good news for Cyprus this season is that although they are out of the World Cup running for this summer, they at least won a game this time around. As of last week two teams in the group were still winless and Cyprus was not one of them. I realize this isn’t the most ideal definition of what makes a good year, but with only ten wins in their qualifying history Cyprus needs to celebrate ever victory that they earn.
