A lot of them are in the Asia-Oceania or Caribbean area. Lots of independent island nations, as well as other tiny countries. Basically, nations with little footy interest, small population (and in-turn a small talent pool), and teams practically made up of semi-pros and amateurs. Shame really that Chinese-Taipei is one of them, I'm half-Taiwanese. It'd be nice to root for them without it being futile.Since this is Soccer thread, I was looking at FIFA world cup rankings (updated for June) and I saw so many places I have never heard of, like the second to worst team (worst Papua New Guinea dropping 11) was Montserrat, who are they, personally I have never heard of them, some others would be Macau, Timor-Leste, Chinese-Taipei (I know where China is but I had no clue this place Taipei? Had a team. Of course all these teams suck, sorry if any of you root for those teams.
And yeah, what gaudetjaja said. Chinese-Taipei is the designated sporting name for Taiwan/the Republic of China*. A long political mess to do with China and Taiwan's political status.
*The "Republic of China" is basically Taiwan and other small islands around it. The "People's Republic of China" is mainland China, and its other territories. Just figured I'd mention that, since the similar names just makes things more messy.
Back to Euro 08, I agree with everyone here. Loved the Turkey-Czech Republic game. Really dramatic comeback. Just because of the nature of their qualification for the knock-out stages, I'd love to see Turkey go far.
Also, tonight, I'll be rooting on Austria (1/4 Austrian too, heh). If they win, Germany really won't hear the end of it, and considering no one gave Austria a hope (myself included), to see them make it to the knockout stages would be great.
From what I understand, the tie-breaking criteria is: head-to-head results > goal difference > goals scored and if all of those are tied, then it'll go to penalties. So unfortunately, it won't go to pens if its a draw, Sweden will go through.Goal Difference isn't used. Head to head results are. If Sweden and Russia draw it will go to penelties just like Turkey vs Czech.R would have done.




