The Did you know thread. Uselss, but fascinating trivia, facts and stories

[fernb8]

Gordon Ramsey was also a good footballer in his day and found his way into the kitchen after suffering a serious knee injury which prevented his career from developing further. Apparently Rangers were keen on him for a while.

[Excape Goat]

The group match between Argentina and Chile at the inaugural World Cup in 1930 was believed to be the first ever recorded mass brawl in international football. Both teams were levelled on point after two matches, and the winner advanced to the semi-final. The brawl began after a foul by Luis Monti on Chile's Arturo Torres. Chile, not only eventually lost the match, was banned from international football for 5 years.

[David Hankey]

Bon Accord of Aberdeen suffered the worst defeat in a British senior football match losing 0-36 to Arbroath on 12th September 1885 in the 1st Round of the Scottish Cup.

Strangely and amazingly that beat the 0-35 defeat of Aberdeen Rovers by Dundee Harps on the same day in the same competition!!

[Michele]

Morten Andersen(capped by Denmark youth national team)

That is not true. Morten Andersen played soccer in Denmark as a kid, and, according to Wikipedia, barely missed playing for the Danish junior national team. And if you search for him at DBU, this is the only Morten Andersen you will get. http://www.dbu.dk/lbase/player.aspx Morten Bertolt, who used to play for FC Copenhagen, but now plays for Viborg.

[Almogavar92]

Prior to the 2002 World Cup, hosts Korea had never won a single World Cup match. Now that's not a fact worthy of this thread. However, prior to the same 2002 World Cup, Korea had never scored a goal by a header. Cue Ahn Jung-hwan who scored Korea's first headed goal against the United States in Daegu during their group match stage to level the score and save the hosts some blushes. The second headed goal was scored again by ..Ahn.. and it counted more the second time after Ahn headed a Lee Young-pyo cross and outmanned the usually defensively sound Maldini to put Korea into the quarter-finals for the first and subsequently only time.

Only two players have scored in two different World Cup final matches. Germany's Paul Breitner (1974 and the consolation goal in 1982); Zinedine Zidane for France (twice in 1998 and the penalty in 2006 prior to losing his head).

[Michele]

In 2002, Turkey became the first team since Bolivia in 1950 not to play against a European team throughout the tournament.

In 1950, Bolivia played in a two team group! and lost 8-0 to Uruguay in their only match.

In 2002, Turkey played the maximum amount of games, 7, but faced Brazil, Costa Rica, China, Japan, Senegal, Brazil again and South Korea.

It happened again in 2006 with Croatia. They played Australia, Japan and Brazil and was eliminated in the group stage. And it will be a lot more common in the years to come with the decreasing number of European teams.

All teams that have taken part in the World Cup have, at some point, played against a European team.

[Michele]

In contrast to my previous post, the following teams have only played European teams in their WC history.

Egypt, 1934, 1990: Hungary, Holland, England, Ireland
Dutch East Indies/Indonesia, 1938: Hungary
Cuba, 1938: Romania, Romania, Sweden
Kuwait, 1982: England, Czechoslovakia, France
Honduras, 1982: Spain, Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia
Canada, 1986: France, Soviet Union, Hungary

Egypt is the only one of these countries who has participated more than once, but only with one game in 1934.

Three of the six countries are from CONCACAF and three of the six countries have met Hungary as one of their (or their only) opponents. However, Canada is the only country to fit both criteria.

I don't expect this list to be expanded since FIFA has decreased the number of European spots to less than half the participants and are seeding the teams to include a maximum of two European teams in any group. The last group with three European teams was in 1994, when Mexico faced Norway, Italy and Ireland.

[Sagy]

In 2002, Turkey became the first team since Bolivia in 1950 not to play against a European team throughout the tournament.

In 1950, Bolivia played in a two team group! and lost 8-0 to Uruguay in their only match.

In 2002, Turkey played the maximum amount of games, 7, but faced Brazil, Costa Rica, China, Japan, Senegal, Brazil again and South Korea.

It happened again in 2006 with Croatia. They played Australia, Japan and Brazil and was eliminated in the group stage. And it will be a lot more common in the years to come with the decreasing number of European teams.

All teams that have taken part in the World Cup have, at some point, played against a European team.

Great stat about Turkey (rep on the way).

I think that you either forget or didn't take into account pre-1950 WCs.

In 1930 (only 4 European teams in the WC):

France beat Mexico, lost to Argentina and Chile.
Yugoslavia beat Brazil and Bolivia, advanced to the 1/2 finals and lost to Uruguay.
Romania beat Peru and lost to Uruguay in a three team group (Uruguay advanced to the 1/2 finals).
Belgium lost to USA and Paraguay.


In 1938:

Romania tie and loss to Cuba.
Poland lost to Brazil.


A great deal less interesting than 2002 Turkey.

[Excape Goat]

A great deal less interesting than 2002 Turkey.

Turkey also played all three East Asian teams in the tournament.

[Michele]

Great stat about Turkey (rep on the way).

I think that you either forget or didn't take into account pre-1950 WCs.

In 1930 (only 4 European teams in the WC):
France beat Mexico, lost to Argentina and Chile.
Yugoslavia beat Brazil and Bolivia, advanced to the 1/2 finals and lost to Uruguay.
Romania beat Peru and lost to Uruguay in a three team group (Uruguay advanced to the 1/2 finals).
Belgium lost to USA and Paraguay.
In 1938:
Romania tie and loss to Cuba.
Poland lost to Brazil.
A great deal less interesting than 2002 Turkey.

I didn't take those early instances into consideration. The key fact is Turkey's amazing non-European run and I just went back from there to find the last time it happened, and that was more than 50 years ago! Then I pointed out that it had already happened again and will occur much more in the future because of the allocation of spots. In 2010, there will be 3 groups with only one European team and if any of those fail to progress, it will be the same.

But the funny thing is the 1950-2002 span combined with the 1 >< 7 games played.

But thanks for completing the list. Perfection is never a bad thing.

[Sagy]

Turkey also played all three East Asian teams in the tournament.

Add to that the fact that they manged to beat both hosts. 1:0 over Japan in the round of 16 and 3:2 over South Korea in the third place game. Clearly no one else has even done it since this is the only time the WC had two hosts.

The only time a team faces the host twice:
1954 - Italy lost to Switzerland twice (group and group playoff)

[Kazuma]

Spanish singer Julio Iglesias was a a keeper for the Real Madrid youth ranks until a car accident ended his football career.

[henryo]

Just curious, does RSSSF Trivia has a section dedicated to vacated / un-awarded titles?

If not, it may be a good idea to start one, the few occurences I can think of so far are:

2004/05 Serie A: Juve was stripped off title due to match-fixing and it wasn't awarded to another team: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_football_champions

1992/93 Ligue 1: Marseille was stripped off title due to match-fixing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligue_1#Previous_Winners
1991/92 French Cup: The final was not played (disaster at Furiani Stadium in Bastia): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Cup#Finals_result

1926/27 Serie A: Torino was stripped off title due to match-fixing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_football_champions

1908/1909 Scottish Cup: Crowd violence if I remembered correctly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Cup#Facts

[Cool Rob]

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown was in the stands to see Scotland-Brazil, 1982.

[unclesox]

Scottish player Ray "Tonka" Stewart is the only non-English player to have played for West Ham in their three FA Cup winning sides (1964, 1975, 1980).


Cardiff City defeated Leeds United 2-1 at Elland Road in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup...... in 1956, 1957 and 1958! :eek:

[Excape Goat]

Roberto Baggio never played in a European Championship Finals.

The first European Championship in 1960 required 50 pounds entrance fees. According to FourFourTwo, none of the Home nations, plus West Germany & Italy could not afford the fee and boycotted the tournament. :)

[nutbar]

The first black player to play for France was Raoul Diagne, a native of French Guyana, who played internationally from 1931 to 1940.

[Seaside Mafia]

Paul Stewart, the only player to have played in the three most famous derby matches in England.

North London derby (for Tottenham)
Merseyside derby (for Liverpool)
Manchester derby (for Man. City)

He was also at Sundeland so he could have played in another famous one, the Northeast derby, but I am not sure if he ever played vs. Newcastle while at Sunderland.

Or indeed whether he ever played against Preston whilst a Blackpool player.

[Republic of Mancunia]

Paul Stewart, the only player to have played in the three most famous derby matches in England.

North London derby (for Tottenham)
Merseyside derby (for Liverpool)
Manchester derby (for Man. City)

He was also at Sundeland so he could have played in another famous one, the Northeast derby, but I am not sure if he ever played vs. Newcastle while at Sunderland.

He only kind of played in a Manchester derby. In the season he signed for Manchester City both derbies had already been played and City went on to be relegated. United finished mid table so the two teams were in different divisions during his only other season at City. There were no cup ties between them during this time. He did play in a pre-season game prior to the 87/88 season against United if you wanted to counted that.

Brian Kidd, Nicolas Anelka and Paul Walsh have played in all three, with the first two scoring in each of the three derbies mentioned.

To try and claim some street-cred back and not sound like a total geek (:)), I didn't know that off the top of my head but Walsh sprang to mind and whilst checking it out, came across the rest. To my shame, forgot about Kidd, and Anelka was so obvious I didn't think of him.

[guynice_101]

CHILE is the only SOUTH AMERICAN team to defeat ENGLAND in WEMBELY stadium.

it happened APRIL i believe during the run up to the 1998 world cup in FRANCE.

I think after that game we recieved our best ranking ever at 6th place because of a string of impressive wins against some good teams.

The final score was 2-0 , with MARCELO SALAS scoring both goals,including a spectacular goal in which he recieved a pass from half field just outside the 16 yard box,brining it down with his thigh , then blasting it past the keeper without the ball ever touching the gound.

Amazing,simply amazing.