Look across three different competitions right now and you find the same five letters staring back: L, L, L, L, L. Eight teams, spread from Sweden to the Gulf to southern Africa, have taken zero points from their last five matches. None of them are picking up anything, anywhere, at the moment.
Asia's stuck trio
At the AFC Asian Cup 2023, three teams share the identical line. India, Kuwait and North Korea have each lost five in a row and sit on nothing from their last five games. All three carry the same form string, LLLLL, a rare coincidence that three sides in the same tournament would be running parallel losing streaks of the same length.
Africa Cup of Nations 2023: two more
The pattern repeats at the Africa Cup of Nations 2023. Botswana and Guinea-Bissau have both gone LLLLL, five defeats on the spin, zero points to show for it. Two different federations, two different regions of the continent, the same barren run.
Sweden's trio in Allsvenskan
It is not just international tournaments. In the Allsvenskan, Åtvidabergs FF, GIF Sundsvall and Helsingborgs IF are all mid-slump with the same LLLLL reading and zero points from their last five league matches. Three clubs, one table, all losing at once.
The numbers in one place
- India: LLLLL, 0 pts in last 5 (AFC Asian Cup 2023)
- Kuwait: LLLLL, 0 pts in last 5 (AFC Asian Cup 2023)
- North Korea: LLLLL, 0 pts in last 5 (AFC Asian Cup 2023)
- Botswana: LLLLL, 0 pts in last 5 (Africa Cup of Nations 2023)
- Guinea-Bissau: LLLLL, 0 pts in last 5 (Africa Cup of Nations 2023)
- Åtvidabergs FF: LLLLL, 0 pts in last 5 (Allsvenskan)
- GIF Sundsvall: LLLLL, 0 pts in last 5 (Allsvenskan)
- Helsingborgs IF: LLLLL, 0 pts in last 5 (Allsvenskan)
None of these runs are connected to each other beyond the raw arithmetic: five games, five losses, nothing gained. But laid side by side, they tell a simple story about how form can dry up completely, in a World Cup qualifying tournament or a domestic league, no matter the level or the continent.