The most abstract team in the World Cup was born! The population is only 290,000, but it is closer to the World Cup than the Chinese men s football team

In the 9th round of the World Cup 18th World Cup, the Chinese team will play away against Indonesia on June 5. The Chinese team, which currently has the lowest 6 points, can only regain hope of qualifying if they win. Previously, after expanding to 48 teams in the World Cup and Asia won 8.5 places, many people believe that the hope of the Chinese team's qualifying increased significantly, but now it seems that this number is not enough. However, the expansion of the World Cup has indeed increased the chances of qualifying for some teams that have never advanced to the World Cup. For example, Cape Verde in Africa has a population of only 546,000, but they are now ranked first in the group and have the opportunity to qualify directly.

Cape Verde is located on the Cape Verde Islands in the North Atlantic. Its population is close to that of the Maldives in Asia. In the first six rounds of Group D of the African Qualifiers, they won 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss, and had 13 points, ranking first in the group, one more point than Cameroon, who scored 7 times in the World Cup. According to the rules, they directly qualify in the first place in the group and have the opportunity to play in the second place in the group, so for Cape Verde, they actually have a good chance to advance to the World Cup for the first time.

Maybe Cape Verde is unfamiliar to Chinese fans, but now we have to mention another place here, their population is smaller than Cape Verde, which is New Caledonia in Oceania. New Caledonia is composed of New Caledonia and the Loarty Islands, located about 1,500 kilometers east of Brisbane, Australia, and belongs to the overseas territory of France. Although New Caledonia is larger than Cape Verde in terms of land area, due to their more remote location, the population of New Caledonia is only about 290,000, which is far less than Cape Verde's 546,000. However, because New Caledonia has abundant mineral resources and French support, they are actually very wealthy, with a per capita GDP of about US$36,000 and the entire country's GDP is close to US$10 billion.

Although New Caledonia has a small population, they also have a football team. This football team ranks 151st in the world, with a net worth of only 250,000 euros. The players mainly play in the Australian League and the French low-level league. After the World Cup expansion to the 48th team, Oceania's quota has also increased to 1.5 places, which also gave them some hope of qualifying. Originally, Australia was the strongest in Oceania, but after Australia joined the AFC, New Zealand became the strongest team in Oceania now. Due to the huge gap in Oceania football, these 1.5 places are almost a "free gift" for New Zealand.

In the previous Oceania qualifiers, New Zealand won all 5 games in the group stage and knockout rounds, scored more than 7 goals in 3 games, easily winning the Oceania qualifiers championship, thus leading to advance to the World Cup. For New Caledonia, they first qualified 2 wins and 1 draw in the group stage, then defeated Tahiti 3-0 in the semi-final to advance to the final, and finally lost to New Zealand 0-3 in the final. Although New Caledonia lost in the final and failed to qualify directly, they obtained a play-off spot, and they still have the opportunity to compete for a World Cup ticket by playing games with teams from other continents.

Although the playoffs are difficult, theoretically speaking, after New Caledonia gets the playoff chance, the hope of advancing to the World Cup is actually greater than that of the Chinese team. After all, the Chinese team is now at the bottom of the group stage and will be eliminated early if they cannot win the next game. In general, New Caledonia has a population of only 290,000 and is ranked only 151st in the world, but it has a greater hope of qualifying than the Chinese team. It can be said that they are almost the most "abstract" team in the World Cup qualifiers. Next, can they advance to the World Cup? Let's wait and see!