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The Commonwealth of Baker Park enter their eighteenth World Cup and will make their sixteenth attempt at qualification for the Finals in Pasarga and Eastfield Lodge. They have played in 351 WCC sanctioned matches in the mixed gender era compiling a record of 221 wins, 67 defeats and 63 draws.
--Manager Will Barnard has a record of 44 wins, 20 losses and 24 draws in the 88 matches since succeeding Jennifer Prescott following World Cup 93. The win against Captina Island in the final match of the pre-qualifying series pushed him past George Charleston, who was Baker Park's all time winningest boss prior to mixed gender. Barnard is the fifth manager to have surpassed “Mr Charlie's”
total, and now Barnard will set his sights on Trevor Richmond, who had 49 career wins.
--The Baker Park National Team won their 600th all time match in the final group stage fixture of the 2nd Arrosia Regional Championships held in the Commonwealth, with a 2-1 win against Equestria at the State Fairgrounds Stadium in Springfield.
--World Cup 97 will mark the first 48 nation Finals, a development that many thought was at least another cycle or two away. With as many groups that came down to final fixture during WC 96 qualifying with more than two potential nations alive for advancement there should not be a substantial drop off in the level of competition once qualification has been reached.
--Baker Park will face only three previous opponents in Group 8, as Zenic returns for a second straight qualifying after officially eliminating the Bees on the final matchday with a 1-0 defeat and grabbed a point at Rogers Stadium on matchday 6; Adab was the playoff opposition in World Cup 92 as BP earned a draw at Adab City Stadium before winning after extra time 4-3, as it was the first playoff where away goals were not a tie breaker meaning Park would've drawn the tie but lost on away goals; and Tumbra, the sides meeting on MD 1 of that same World Cup 92 playing to a 1-1 draw, the third matchup between the nations over three WC cycles after they also couldn't decide a winner at the BBP Stadium in WC 90 group play and the Black Eagles winning after extra time in the Final of Eagles Cup 13.
--BP just missed out on being in the second pot for the draw after several nations ranked ahead of them did not enter, so they are the highest ranked third seed; along with the three nations mentioned above which are the first, second and fourth seeds, the fixture list will include United Hawkland, Riena, BOF participants Of The Holy See and unranked Delitai—not to be confused with former WC Champion Delte—and the North Oharan Valley Union.
--The BBP Stadium will host four of the eight home fixtures, with the CONAGCO Stadium in Shirley, Rogers Stadium in Endborough, Newport City Stadium and the Prince William Stadium in Newmarket getting the other scheduled dates.
--If the point about short group stage formats being a particular Achilles’s Heel for BP hasn't sunk in, the overall record of the squad on each matchday of every WCQ they've taken part in should make for interesting reading. The Gold and Black have lost only four times in a qualifying fixture that comes after the fourteenth scheduled match (51-4-9). (ATTENTION: this chart was printed in the Cup of Harmony Factsheet with incorrect information. The correct data is presented here.)
MD1 9-2-4
MD2 10-3-2
MD3 8-2-5
MD4 13-1-1
MD5 11-4
MD6 9-1-5
MD7 12-2-1
MD8 10-2-3
MD9 9-1-5
MD10 13-1-1
MD11 7-5-3
MD12 8-2-5
MD13 6-4-3
MD14 9-4
MD15 10-0-2
MD16 9-1-2
MD17 10-2
MD18 11-1
MD19 5-0
MD20 3-0-2
MD21 2-0
MD22 1-0-1
MD23 0-0-1
MD24 0-0-1
