Past World Cup favorites

Who was the top scorer on World Cup 1994 in Italy?

 

I've just seen World Cups since 1998, but I don't remember Germany being a favorite then...

ANd, for example, in reading about the 74 World Cup Germany are hardly ever mentioned as a creative team.

 

no shortage of clueless posts in this thread...yes germany were among the top 3 favourites in 1998...they were among the top 3 or 4 favourites for just about every world cup from 58-98.
I understand some posters here are quite young but try and understand that the germany of the last decade is not a representation of previous german generations...and better than reading about it i'd recommend actually watching the matches and forming your own opinion...plenty of old games are available on dvd

 

Spain has been listed among the favorites since at least 1994. Before that, I can't remember.

Brazil was definitely thea favorite in 1994. I know I could not see another team winning it before the tournament.. And believe it or not, I had Bulgaria reaching semifinals too.

In 1958 Hungary was still the favorite, no?

In 1938 I believe Germany, with the Anchluss and everything, were the favorites, along with Italy the reigning world champions.

And I'm pretty sure that among the candidates/favorites for the 1934 World Cup were Austria, Spain, and Italy, all of whom did well.

 

1934 Italy Austria

 

bump

Since this topic was brought up in another thread I felt it would be better to just add on to this one.

I made some newspaper scrapbooks during the '82, '86, '90 and '94 World Cups and was hoping I had saved pre-tournament odds from them. But alas I didn't include them in my scrapbooks. The best I can offer are a few choice sentences from the many articles that were written up days before each tournament kicked off.
I was a bit pressed for time and so didn't get a chance to look at my '94 scrapbook.


1982
A story from UPI listed "Brazil are 3-1 favorites ahead of West Germany, Argentina and Spain...... USSR are prominent darkhorses."


1986
"... a tournament rated as the most 'open' in history."

"Oddsmakers have Brazil as the favorite but not overwhelmingly so. Argentina, Uruguay, Italy, England and Mexico are highly rated as are France, West Germany and Denmark."

BRAZIL - "Early favorite but it's hard to see why."
"A semifinal favorite barring a calamity."

FRANCE - "Best team on paper."
"Definately one of the teams to beat."

URUGUAY - "Will start slowly but finish fast as players meld."
A number of articles listed Uruguay as very strong favorites. Soccer Digest predicted a final of Uruguay over France.

DENMARK - Quote from Scotland coach Alex Ferguson: "The Danes are the best team in Europe."
Many articles compared Denmark's free-flowing attack style to that of the legendary Brazil teams. "The Brazilians of Europe" was a favorite phrase.

ARGENTINA - All the previews talked mainly of whether Maradona could redeem himself from '82.

WEST GERMANY - "Could reach semifinals."

ENGLAND - "They'll do well to reach the quarterfinals."

MEXICO - Many articles noted the home crowd, high altitude and weather all benefiting Mexico. And Hugo Sanchez.

HUNGARY - "Looked great in the qualifiers....... potential to pull its share of upsets."



1990
ARGENTINA - "A slimmed down Maradona led Napoli to the Italian league title.
Bilardo: "If Maradona is this good we will win."

BRAZIL - "By most accounts they are the most talented team"
"The punch has been removed from the legendary attacking style."
"Careca is the player to watch."

ENGLAND - "The tournament's dark horse."

ITALY - "Their players will have home support and play in the toughest league in the world. But they're inexperienced and the pressure to succeed could become suffocating."

HOLLAND - "The pick of many to go all the way, but Gullit is coming off a serious knee injury and a coaching change was made two months ago."
Quote from Gullit: " It's a miracle we qualified."

USSR - Many talented players but perestroika has allowed players to play throughout Europe and they haven't played together much as a team."

(WEST) GERMANY - "Never look to be favorites on paper but have always finished in the top three since 1966." (Actually, they missed out in '78)
Quote from coach Beckenbauer: "We have an ideal blend of young and old."

 

It would be nice to know the sources of these.

Thanks,

Jeff