World Cup logs more than half the record of scoreless draws

Through the 16 games completed on Thursday, the Mexico-Poland, Denmark-Tunisia, Croatia-Morocco and South Korea-Uruguay matches all went scoreless

Uruguay’s Edinson Cavani fights for the ball during the World Cup group H soccer match between Uruguay and South Korea, in Al Rayyan, Qatar, on November 24. | Photo Credit: AP

The 0-0 draw between Uruguay and South Korea on November 24 was the fourth scoreless game of this year's World Cup — already more than half the tournament record through the first set of matches.

The record for scoreless draws in the World Cup is seven, done four times, in 1982, 2006, 2010 and 2014. The 2018 tournament in Russia had only one 0-0 draw, between Denmark and France.

Through the 16 games completed on Thursday, the Mexico-Poland, Denmark-Tunisia, Croatia-Morocco and South Korea-Uruguay matches all went scoreless.

There were no scoreless draws in 1930, 1934, 1938, 1950 or 1954. Before the start in Qatar, the World Cup averaged more than two goals per game. The highest average came in 1954, when 140 goals were scored in 26 games at 5.38 per game.

The least prolific scoring World Cup was the 1990 tournament when 115 goals were scored at only 2.21 goals per game.