Random World Cup Facts

Sweden 1958 is the only time that all 4 UK teams made it to the WC. They were all in different groups.

Northern Ireland finished 2nd(*) in Group A and lost to France in the 1/4 finals.

Scotland finished 4th in Group B.

Wales finished 2nd(*) in Group C and lost to Brazil in the 1/4 finals.

England finished 3rd(*) in group D.

(*) after and extra playoff game since 2/3 place teams were tied on points.

USA 1994 is the only time since 1950 that none of the UK teams made in to the WC.

 

Germany played their first WC Qualifying Game at Luxemburg on Nov 3rd 1934 and won 9:1.

From that day they haven´t lost any WCQ game for almost 51 years until Portugal bet them at Stuttgart 1:0 on Oct 16th 1985.

With the 1:5 defeat against England on Sep 1st 2001 they only lost two WCQ games ever in history and never lost a WCQ game on foreign soil.

 

Holland has been to 2 finals and never won the cup.

 

Likewise for Czechoslovakia (when they existed) and Hungary.

 

The 1974, 1978 and 1982 World Cup finals had delayed kick-offs. In 1974, the corner flags weren't put into place. In 1978, the Argentinian squad came out onto the pitch late and they complained about the plaster around the arms of one of the Van Der Kerkhof brothers. In 1982, the Spanish had trouble with playing the Italian and German anthems.

 

(Referring to 1982)

The Semifinal between France and W Germany was a classic. (France led 3-1 in overtime, only to have Germany score twice, the latter on a spectacular bicycle kick, and win in penalties.)

 

I read somewhere that during WWII, Jules Rimet kept the trophy hidden under his bed.

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I have the Uruguay-Scotland match on video. By my count, Batista was sent off after 40 seconds.

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"Kaiser Franz" is the only one to captain and manage championship winning sides.

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I'm always amazed at the records of Brazil and Germany and how long it took before they finally met.

 

For four consecutive World Cups (1966-1978) the opening match of the tournament ended goalless.
'66: England -v- Uruguay
'70: Mexico -v- USSR
'74: Brazil -v- Yugoslavia
'78: West Germany -v- Poland

 

I remember one commentator during the semi-final against Poland saying that Italy had been 44-1 outsiders to win the World Cup once it was learned that they'd have to play Brazil and Argentina in the second round.
Two matches later, they were favorites to win it all at 5-4.

 

In that same match (Cameroon -v- Russia) Oleg Salenko set a single-match record by scoring five goals.

(I attended that match )

 

For the Brazil 1-2 Uruguay match, Brazil wore an all-white strip.
In the FIFA Centenary match in 2004, they wore that kit color for the first time since the '50 final (first half only).

 

For three consecutive World Cups, Italy's campaign ended on penalty kicks. (1990, 1994, 1998)
Talk about rotten luck.

 

World Cup 2002 was the first time that all 5 confederations qualifying for the world cup was represented in the quarterfinal stage. CONCACAF (USA), Asia (Korea), CAF (Senegal), CONMEBOL (Brazil), UEFA (Spain, Germany, England, Turkey) making this the first time that the 8 teams making this stage comprised of teams from all 5 confederations. Oceania, being the 6th confed did not have a qualifier for this world cup.

 

Indeed. Sadly, that is what helps teams to win penalty shoot-outs.

 

Actually, it's 55.

Didn't Steve Nicol miss an easy chance to win the match for the Scots?

 

On fifaworldcup.yahoo.com, there's a summary of the 1950 World Cup and it said that Italian Vice-President of FIFA, Dr. Ottorino Barassi was the one who kept the trophy.

 

Another fact about Salenko: he made his international debut playing for Ukraine.

 

This obviously has nothing to do with luck, but with choking.

 

What would you know? Stay in Croatia.

 

Yes I will. I won't go somewhere else, let's say, hm, Australia, and pretend to be a big patriot.
If it was just football where the Italians choke, I might have even taken those penalties as a coincidence.
Are penalties not a good way to end a match? Well, stop playing on 0-0 and then make complaints.

 

55?
Is this an official number put out by FIFA or are you watching and timing it?

I have the full match on video and by my timing, Joel Quiniou holds up the red card at around 40 seconds. The foul occurred at roughly 34 seconds.

I can't remember who it was, but Scotland did miss a golden opportunity in the first half. A low cross from the right found an wide open man just outside the six-yard box but the shot was in the middle of goal and Rodriguez was able to block it out.

 

Argentina and Italy met each other in five consecutive tournaments:

1974: Italy 1-1 Argentina
1978: Argentina 0-1 Italy
1982: Argentina 1-2 Italy
1986: Italy 1-1 Argentina
1990: Italy 1-1 Argentina, Argentina 4-3 on penalties

 

Everyone knows that Brazil made it to all 17 WC finals and Germany never failed to qualify to WC finals (Didn't enter in 1930 and 1950).

But did you know that currently Belgium (still) has the longest streak of consecutive qualifications to the WC finals - 6 (1982-2002). Next come Spain with 5 (they were the hosts in 1982 and therefor didn't have to qualify) and Cameroon with 4.

On the other hand France has not qualified to the WC finals since 1986 (they were the hosts in 1998 and champs in 2002).

 

Good one.