I would suggest getting all of Argentina's '86 World Cup matches because Maradona was at his best then. Against Bulgaria in the first half he made a great run from midfield elluding four defenders before shooting wide of the far post. And on Argentina's second goal in the same match, Maradona went past one defender and crossed from the left for Valdano to head home. The news articles I have said that after the match Maradona claimed that a neck chain of his had broken off during that play. He went back afterwards to try and locate it but couldn't find it. Don't know if he ever got it back, but if he didn't, what a piece of memorabilia to own!
I've seen the second goal in the Bulgaria match. Maradona's cross was beautiful and a quality header by Valdano. That chain would get thousands on eBay.
I think with the 2006 World Cup started, I could add some random facts about this iteration. Also some of the new guys might appreciate the "old stuff". At the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Brazil supplies the most coaches (5). They are Luiz Felipe Scolari of Portugal, Marcos Paqueta of Saudi Arabia, Zico of Japan, Carlos Alberto Parreira of Brazil and Alexandre Guimaraes of Costa Rica. The Netherlands supply four coaches (Marco van Basten of Holland, Dick Advocaat of South Korea, Leo Beenhakker of Trinidat & Tobago, Guus Hiddink of Australia), France have three (Roger Lemerre of Tunesia, Henri Michel of the Ivory Coast, Raymond Domenech of France). This year there are six newcomers to the World Cup: Trinidat & Tobago, Angola, Togo, Ivory Coast, Ghana and the Ukraine. Serbia & Montenegro have already participated as Yugoslavia in the past. It's Australias second time to qualify for a World Cup. The first was in 1974 when the World Cup was held in Germany as well. Back then Australia only managed one draw and two losses to finish last in their group. The six goals scored in this years opening match between Germany and Costa Rica (4-2) is a new record. In 1934 there was a higher Goal count at the Italy vs. USA game (7-1) and the Germany vs. Belgium game (5-2), but back then there wasn't an opening match, as all the games were scheduled for the same time. The same match had another record. The first three goals were the fastest three goals ever to be scored at an World Cup opener.
Little known and interesting or not facts re WC. A dull but little known one to start. The extremely dull and ineffectual Austrian team managed three group goals in 1998, one in each game, and every single one was in injury time at the end of each game. Anyone got anything little knowwn but more interesting?
Re: Little known and interesting or not facts re WC. Robert Prosinecki played for two different nations at World Cups (Yugoslavia 1990, Croatia 1998)
Re: Little known and interesting or not facts re WC. No host country has ever lost their opening match. 1930: Uruguay 1-0 Peru 1934: Italy 7-1 USA 1938: France 3-1 Belgium 1950: Brazil 4-0 Mexico 1954: Switzerland 2-1 Italy 1958: Sweden 3-0 Mexico 1962: Chile 3-1 Switzerland 1966: England 0-0 Uruguay 1970: Mexico 0-0 USSR 1974: West Germany 1-0 Chile 1978: Argentina 2-1 Hungary 1982: Spain 1-1 Honduras 1986: Mexico 2-1 Belgium 1990: Italy 1-0 Austria 1994: USA 1-1 Switzerland 1998: France 3-0 South Africa 2002: South Korea 2-0 Poland...Japan 2-2 Belgium 2006: Germany 4-2 Costa Rica
Re: Little known and interesting or not facts re WC. More to the point who scored for 'each' of those countries.
Re: Little known and interesting or not facts re WC. If im not mistaken, I think France played S.Arabia. first.
Re: Little known and interesting or not facts re WC. No I think you will find it was South Africa on their very annoying way to winning the cup the country was not the least bit interested in.
Re: Little known and interesting or not facts re WC. Many sets of brothers have been teammates during the World Cup, including World Cup winners Ottmar and Fritz Walter (West Germany, 1954) and Bobby and Jack Charlton (England, 1966). Not so well known are the seven sets of bothers who competed in different World Cups, meaning they were never teammates: Andrés Prieto (Chile, 1950) Ignacio Prieto (Chile, 1966) Uli Hoeness (West Germany, 1974) Dieter Hoeness (West Germany, 1986) Thomas Allofs (West Germany, 1982) Klaus Allofs (West Germany, 1986) François Van der Elst (Belgium 1982) Leo Van der Elst (Belgium, 1986) Sócrates, aka Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira (Brazil, 1982/1986) Raí, aka Raí Souza Vieira de Oliveira (Brazil, 1994) Franco Baresi (Italy, 1982/1990/1994) Giuseppe Baresi (Italy, 1986) Rolando Chilavert (Paraguay, 1986) José Luís Chilavert (Paraguay, 1998/2002) The Republic of Ireland squad at the 2002 World Cup included Gary Kelly and his nephew Ian Harte.
Re: Little known and interesting or not facts re WC. Of the 65 people who have both played and coached in the World Cup, only four of them have both played in AND coached in more than one tournament: Mário Zagallo player: Brazil, 1958/1962 coach: Brazil, 1970/1974/1998 Franz Beckenbauer player: West Germany, 1966/1970/1974 coach: West Germany, 1986/1990 Jack Charlton player: England, 1966/1970 coach: Republic of Ireland, 1990/1994 Berti Vogts player: West Germany, 1970/1974/1978 coach: Germany 1994/1998
Re: Little known and interesting or not facts re WC. Shirt numbers of World Cup winning captains: (numbers were not worn during the first three tournaments) 1 - Dino Zoff (Italy, 1982) 2 - Hilderaldo Bellini (Brazil, 1958) 2 - Cafu (Brazil, 2002) 3 - Mauro Ramos (Brazil, 1962) 4 - Carlos Alberto (Brazil, 1970) 5 - Obdulio Varela (Uruguay, 1950) 5 - Franz Beckenbauer (West Germany, 1974) 5 - Fabio Cannavaro (Italy, 2006) 6 - Bobby Moore (England, 1966) 7 - Didier Deschamps (France, 1998) 8 - Dunga (Brazil, 1994) 10 - Diego Maradona (Argentina, 1986) 10 - Lothar Matthäus (West Germany, 1990) 16 - Fritz Walter (West Germany, 1954) 19 - Daniel Passarella (Argentina, 1978)
Re: Little known and interesting or not facts re WC. At the World Cup in Chile (WC62), during the group stage Uruguay-USSR match (USSR won 2:1), a goal was scored after the ball entered the Uruguay net from outside. The referee did not see that. He was approached by Russian player Khusainov who said there was no goal. The referee changed his mind and called a goal kick. I wonder if this sort of thing had ever happened again or before.
Re: Little known and interesting or not facts re WC. of the 7 teams who have CURRENTLY won a world cup (uraguay, italy, germany, brazil, england, argentina and france) the US has faced exactly 1 of these teams in every single world cup they have been in. In fact, the round that the us faces them is always the round in which they get eliminate, even if the us beats or ties said team. in 3 cases when the us was not drawn in the first round w/ one of these teams, they advanced through to the knockout stage, but were eliminated as soon as they faced one of the 7. 30: advanced. knocked out by argentina in semis 34: knocked out by italy in first game 50: beat england! but still fail to advance 90: loss all 3 games, including 1 to italy 94: advance! lose to brazil in r16 98: loss all 3, one to germany 02: advance to quarter finals! loss to germany 06: tied italy, but still failed to advance 2010: US is drawn in group A and wins the world cup when all 7 get knocked out!!! errr, ok, geting ahead of myself
Re: Little known and interesting or not facts re WC. Norway has lost a total of 3 World Cup matches. All three have come against Italy.
Re: Little known and interesting or not facts re WC. In 1990 and 1994, USSR/Russia had lost 4 out of their six matches. Their two victories? Both against Cameroon, 4-0 and 6-1.
Re: Little known and interesting or not facts re WC. A Keeper has never scored a goal in the World Cup Finals. The one who came the closest was Jose Luis Chilavert on a Free kick that hit the crossbar against Bulgaria in France '98.
Re: Little known and interesting or not facts re WC. Most people think that America's win over Mexico in 2002 was the first time a north american team won a knockout game. but in fact The first time a North American team (or for that matter, any team outside of europe and south america) won a 'knockout match' was Cuba in 1938. there was no group stage, so cuba's opening match was a knockout tie 3-3 with romania. as penalty kicks were not used as tie breakers the match was replayed 4 days later and Cuba won 2-1
Re: Little known and interesting or not facts re WC. Are you forgetting about Mexico's victory in the Round of 16 in 1986?
Re: Little known and interesting or not facts re WC. For the last five World Cup's they've played in (86-90-98-02-06), England has been in the first round group with the fewest goals.
Re: Little known and interesting or not facts re WC. In every World Cup but 1930 either Germany or Brasil finished in the top 3. Only twice did neither country reach the finale after WW2. It took until 1990 to have a finale in which only one team scored, then it happened four consecutive times (not counting penalties in 1994).
Re: Little known and interesting or not facts re WC. Hungary had a +6 goal diff. in the group stage in Spain 82 but failed to advance out of the first group stage... the largest of any team not to advance out of 1st group play they did however advance with a +14 goal diff. in 54 Switzerland the largest ever goal diff.
Re: Little known and interesting or not facts re WC. This fact masks that Hungary only had 1 win, the 10:1 thrashing of Salvador. And the following WC they were on the receiving end of the worst clubbing of the WC86, 6-0 to USSR