Worth knowing about the Worldcup

Worth Knowing about the Worldcup

When Germany won the worldcup in 1990, 3 teams had won the worldcup 3 times (Brazil, Italy and Germany), 2 teams had won it twice (Argentina and Uruguay) and 1 team had won it once (England).
Germany also managed to have participated in 12 Worldcups (1934 - 1990 excl 1950) reached 8 semifinals, 6 finals, and won 3 of them.
King Gustav the 5th (swedish king) had his 80th birthday june 16th 1938, the same day that Sweden played semifinal against Hungary. But he wasn't pleased with the match, because the hungarian were so superior, that a blackbird could have sat on the hungarian side of the field, without getting disturbed.
When the Czechoslovakian team came to the Worldcup in Chile (1962), they didn't believe much in themselves. Before the quaterfinals and the semifinals they checked out of their hotel, even though they won both matches.
Brazil is the only country that have paricipated in all Worldcups.
South Africa was the first host country to have been eliminated in the 1st round (2010).
Brazil and Spain are the only countries, who have won a worldcup outside their own continent (Brazil: 1958, 2002) (Spain: 2010).
For the first time the world cup in 2010 could present four of five South American teams (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) in the quarter final. Only Chile didn't manage to qualify ... they were eliminated by Brazil in the second round.
In the 2010 world cup Ghana came as close as possible being the first african team in a semifinal. Unfortunately Gyan was denied by the bar, as he took the last shot of the ekstra time ... a penalty.
Rob Rensenbrinck (Holland) scored goal #1000 in the worldcup, when he put Holland in lead against Scotland in 1978 by 1-0 (Holland lost 2-3). Marcus Albäck (Sweden) scored World Cup goal #2000 during the 2006 World Cup against England.
Holland is the only team to have reached 3 worldcup finals and not winning a single one.
Jose Batista (Uruguay) got expelled after only 55 secs, in a match against Scotland in Mexico 1986.
Alfred Bickel (Switzerland) and Erik Nilsson (Sweden), are the only two players who have participated in a worldcup before and after 2nd World war. (1938 and 1950)
Hangary's 3-2 defeat against West Germany in 1954 was the 1st in 33 matches in 4 years, and the only defeat in 6 years. (The team was broken into pieces, when the USSR invaded Hungary in 1956).
Norman Whiteside (born 7/5-65) is the youngest player ever to have played a World cup match (1982).
24years and 3 months was the age difference between Camerouns Roger Milla (42) and Rigobert Song (17) in 1994 – this is still a record
Dino Zoff is the oldest World Champion. He was 40 when he won the cup as captain for the winning Italien team i 1982.
When Ghana and Germany played each other during the 2010 world cup, it was the first time two half brothers (Keven Prince Boateng, Ghana and Jerome Boateng, Germany) faced one another on opposite teams.
When Jerry Palacios was called up to join the Honduras national team for the World Cup in 2010, he joined his brothers Johnny and Wilson Palacios. Thus making it the first time in history were a team had 3 brothers during a World cup.
Since 1954 Germany has always been amongst the last 8 teams to remain in the World Cup.
During the 2010 World Cup, Honduras was the first team ever to have three brothers on the team roster. Jhony, Wilson and Jerry Palacios.
In the history of the World Cup final competition, only 40 players (pr. 1998) scored three and more goals in one match. In 1994, Oleg Salenko (RUS) shot to fame when he scored 5 times in less than 60 minutes in that 6-1 win over the "Indomitable Lions" of Cameroon. Sandor Kocsis (1954), Just Fontaine (1958) and Gerd Mueller (1970) are the only strikers who scored two hat-tricks in the same competition. With his three goals against Jamaica in Paris on 21 June 1998 - exactly four years after his hat-trick against Greece in Boston - Batistuta became the first player to score a hat-trick in two different World Cup finals.
During the 2002 worldcup, France did not manage to score a single goal, and had to leave the tournament with 2 defeats and 1 draw. This was the first time a world champion was sent home without scoring a single goal.
During the semifinal in 1938 between Italy and Brazil, Giuseppe Meazza suddenly found himself with some very loose shorts. Unfortunately the elastic in his short had ruptured, just before taking a penalty. But Meazza kept his nerve. He held his pants with one hand while running towards the ball ... he scored, and Italy won the game 2-1.
Prior to the worldcup in 1994 the president of FIFA Joao Havelange wanted to change the game, so a match would fall into 4 quaters each 25 min, in order to accomodate the American TV-networks need for more commercial time. Most of the participating countries were not happy with this idea.
The red and yellow cards, which today is a natural part of the game, were first introduced to the Worldcup in 1970. During the World Cup in 1966 the english referee Ken Aston had noticed that a lot of players did not understand wheter they had been booked or sent off. The yellow and red colour should supposedly be because of a traffic signal at Kensington High Street in London
The first worldcup in 1930 was held in a single city, Montevideo in Uruguay. Only 3 stadiums were used. As a contrast to this, the World Cup in Spain (1982) boasted 17 stadiums in 14 cities.
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Last updated 2010-07-11 (yyyy-mm-dd)