1994 FIFA World Cup

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1994 FIFA World Cup World Cup '94
Tournament details
Host nation	United States
Dates	June 17 – July 17
Teams	24 (from 5 confederations)
Venue(s)	9 (in 9 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Brazil (4th title)
Second place	Italy
Third place	Sweden
Fourth place	Bulgaria
Tournament statistics
Matches played	52
Goals scored	141  (2.71 per match)
Attendance	3,587,538  (68,991 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Hristo Stoichkov Oleg Salenko (6 goals)
Best player	Romario

The 1994 FIFA World Cup, the 15th staging of the FIFA World Cup, was held in the United States from June 17 to July 17, 1994. The United States was chosen as hosts by FIFA in July 1988. Brazil became the first nation to win four World Cup titles when they beat Italy 3-2 in a penalty shootout after the game ended 0-0 after extra-time, the first final to be decided by penalties.

The average attendance for the tournament was 69,000 while the total attendance was 3.6 million. The 1994 World Cup holds the record for the highest attendance in World Cup history. It was also the highest-attended single sport sporting event in United States history.

Contents 1 Qualification 2 Opening Ceremony 3 Summary 4 Mascot 5 Venues 6 Referees 7 Squads 8 Results 8.1 First round 8.1.1 Group A 8.1.2 Group B 8.1.3 Group C 8.1.4 Group D 8.1.5 Group E 8.1.6 Group F 8.1.7 Third Place qualifiers for round of 16 8.2 Knockout stage 8.2.1 Round of 16 8.2.2 Quarter-finals 8.2.3 Semi-finals 8.2.4 Third place match 8.2.5 Final 9 Winner 10 Awards 10.1 All-star team 11 Scorers 12 Trivia 12.1 Firsts 13 References 14 External links

[edit] Qualification

Main article: 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification

Greece, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia qualified for the World Cup finals for the first time. Russia, competing independently for the first time after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, also qualified. The defending champions West Germany were united with their East German counterparts, representing the unified Germany for the first time since the 1938 World Cup. Due to the strong performances by African teams in 1990, Africa were given three spots for the first time, with Nigeria joining Cameroon and Morocco. On the other hand, for the first, and so far the only time, no British teams competed in a World Cup since they started to participate in the tournament in 1950.

[edit] Opening Ceremony

While opening ceremonies are normally forgettable affairs this one was made infamous by the tournament's first miss. Pop star Diana Ross was performing and took a penalty as part of her show. She toe-poked the ball embarassingly wide as the goal split into two and the goalkeeper jumped out of the way. Furthermore, emcee Oprah Winfrey fell through the dais.

[edit] Summary

FIFA's decision to hold the event in the United States over the bids of Morocco and Brazil surprised many due to the perception that the United States had a relative lack of soccer fans. FIFA hoped that by staging the world's premier soccer tournament there, it would lead to America's growth of interest the sport. (One condition FIFA imposed was the creation of a professional soccer league, as Major League Soccer started play in 1996.) Despite these misgivings, in terms of attendance the event was a rousing success. The average attendance of nearly 69,000 shattered a record that had stood since 1950, due to the bigger capacities of the American stadiums compared to those of Europe and Latin America. To this day, the total attendance for the final tournament of nearly 3.6 million remains the highest in World Cup history, despite the expansion of the competition to 32 teams in 1998. Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Belgium, Italy and the USA were seeded for the final draw that took place in Las Vegas, on December 19, 1993.^[1]

The format of the competition stayed the same as in 1990: 24 teams qualified, divided into six groups of four. Sixteen teams would qualify for the knockout competition: the six group winners, the six group runners-up, and the four third-placed teams with the best records. This was the last time this format was used, due to the expansion of the finals tournament in 1998 to 32 teams. This World Cup was the first in which three points were awarded for a win instead of two. FIFA instituted this feature to encourage attacking football after the defensive display of many teams at Italia '90.

The tournament saw the end of Diego Maradona's World Cup career. Hero in 1986 as he led Argentina to the World Cup title, he was expelled from the tournament after he failed a drug test. Maradona was found to have ephedrine, a weight loss drug, in his blood. There was also the tragic story of Colombia's Andrés Escobar. In a first-round match with the United States, he scored an own goal as the U.S. went on win, 2-1, leading to Colombia's surprise early elimination from the finals. When Escobar returned to Colombia, he was shot to death outside a bar in a Medellín suburb only 10 days after the match. On the field, the biggest surprise of the tournament was Bulgaria. The Bulgarians had previously never won a match in the finals but qualified from their group with two wins. They defeated Mexico 3-1 on penalties in the second round and then produced a major shock, defeating the reigning world champions, Germany, in the quarter-finals. Bulgaria eventually finished in fourth place.

Brazil and Italy, both three-time World Cup champions at that time, contested the final. While Brazil's path was relatively smooth as they defeated the United States, the Netherlands and Sweden (it was the second game between Sweden and Brazil in the tournament, the first ending 1-1) in the knockout stage, the same cannot be said for Italy. During the group stage the Italian team struggled and narrowly advanced to the next round, despite losing 1-0 to the Republic of Ireland. Roberto Baggio, who was expected to be the shining star, had not scored a goal. During the Round of 16 match against Nigeria, Italy was trailing 1-0 in the dying minutes when Baggio scored the equalizer forcing the game into extra time. There, he scored again on a penalty kick to send Italy through. Baggio carried the Italians from there, scoring the game-winning goal in the quarter-final against Spain, and both goals in Italy's semi-final victory over Bulgaria.

The final match at the Rose Bowl was tense but devoid of scoring chances. Despite the strategies disposed by the FIFA to promote offensive play, both teams lacked the energy to produce a goal. After 120 goalless minutes, the World Cup title would be decided for the first time by a penalty shoot-out. After four rounds, Brazil led 3-2, and Baggio, playing injured, had to make his kick to keep Italy's hopes alive. He missed by shooting it over the bar, and Brazil were crowned champions. One of the most famous moments of the World Cup was Baggio standing in front of the goal with his arms at his sides in disbelief.

The third-place playoff was set between Sweden, the team which scored more goals than any other in this World Cup, and Bulgaria, with their top goalscorer Hristo Stoichkov. Sweden won convincingly with a 4-0 victory, showing the world why they had come so far in this tournament. One of Sweden's World Cup profiles - Thomas Brolin - was named to the All-star team.

The tournament's Golden Boot went jointly to Hristo Stoichkov of Bulgaria and Oleg Salenko of Russia, who scored a record five goals in their match against Cameroon. Both players scored six goals in the tournament. Brazil's Romário, with five goals, won the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player.

[edit] Mascot

The official mascot of this World Cup was Striker, a dog, wearing a red, white and blue uniform with a soccer ball.

[edit] Venues

Pasadena	Pontiac	Stanford	East Rutherford	Orlando
Rose Bowl	Pontiac Silverdome	Stanford Stadium	Giants Stadium	Citrus Bowl
Capacity: 91,000	Capacity: 80,000	Capacity: 80,000	Capacity: 77,000	Capacity: 70,000
Chicago	Dallas	Foxborough	Washington DC
Soldier Field	Cotton Bowl	Foxboro Stadium	RFK Stadium
Capacity: 67,000	Capacity: 67,000	Capacity: 61,000	Capacity: 57,000

[edit] Referees

Africa Lim Kee Chong Neji Jouini Asia Jamal Al Sharif Ali Bujsaim Europe Fabio Baldas Manuel Díaz Vega Philip Don Bo Karlsson Hellmut Krug Leslie Mottram Peter Mikkelsen Pierluigi Pairetto Sándor Puhl Joël Quiniou Kurt Röthlisberger Mario van der Ende

North and Central America Arturo Angeles Rodrigo Badilla Arturo Brizio Carter South America José Torres Cadena Ernesto Filippi Francisco Lamolina Renato Marsiglia Alberto Tejada

[edit] Squads

For a list of all squads that appeared in the final tournament, see 1994 FIFA World Cup squads.

[edit] Results

[edit] First round

All kick-off times local. (EDT/UTC-4, CDT/UTC-5, PDT/UTC-7)

[edit] Group A

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Romania	3	2	0	1	5	5	0	6
Switzerland	3	1	1	1	5	4	+1	4
USA	3	1	1	1	3	3	0	4
Colombia	3	1	0	2	4	5	-1	3

1994-06-18 11:35 EDT	USA	1 – 1	Switzerland	Pontiac Silverdome, Pontiac Attendance: 63,425 Referee: Francisco Oscar Lamolina (Argentina)
	Wynalda  45'	(Report)	Bregy  39'

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1994-06-18 16:35 PDT	Colombia	1 – 3	Romania	Rose Bowl, Pasadena Attendance: 93,586 Referee: Jamal Al Sharif (Syria)
	Valencia  43'	(Report)	Răducioiu  16'  89' Hagi  34'

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1994-06-22 16:05 EDT	Romania	1 – 4	Switzerland	Pontiac Silverdome, Pontiac Attendance: 61,428 Referee: Neji Jouini (Tunisia)
	Hagi  36'	(Report)	Sutter  16' Chapuisat  53' Knup  66'  72'

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1994-06-22 16:35 PDT	USA	2 – 1	Colombia	Rose Bowl, Pasadena Attendance: 93,689 Referee: Fabio Baldas (Italy)
	Escobar  34' (o.g.) Stewart  52'	(Report)	Valencia  89'

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1994-06-26 13:05 PDT	Switzerland	0 – 2	Colombia	Stanford Stadium, Palo Alto Attendance: 83,401 Referee: Peter Mikkelsen (Denmark)
		(Report)	Gaviria  44' Lozano  89'

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1994-06-26 13:05 PDT	USA	0 – 1	Romania	Rose Bowl, Pasadena Attendance: 93,869 Referee: Mario van der Ende (Netherlands)
		(Report)	Petrescu  17'

[edit] Group B

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Brazil	3	2	1	0	6	1	+5	7
Sweden	3	1	2	0	6	4	+2	5
Russia	3	1	0	2	7	6	+1	3
Cameroon	3	0	1	2	3	11	-8	1

1994-06-19 16:35 PDT	Cameroon	2 – 2	Sweden	Rose Bowl, Pasadena Attendance: 93,194 Referee: Alberto Tejada Noriega (Peru)
	Embé  31' Omam-Biyik  47'	(Report)	Ljung  8' Dahlin  75'

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1994-06-20 13:05 PDT	Brazil	2 – 0	Russia	Stanford Stadium, Palo Alto Attendance: 81,061 Referee: Lim Kee Chong (Mauritius)
	Romário  26' Raí  52' (pen.)	(Report)

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1994-06-24 13:05 PDT	Brazil	3 – 0	Cameroon	Stanford Stadium, Palo Alto Attendance: 83,401 Referee: Arturo Brizio Carter (Mexico)
	Romário  39' Márcio Santos  66' Bebeto  73'	(Report)

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1994-06-24 19:35 EDT	Sweden	3 – 1	Russia	Pontiac Silverdome, Pontiac Attendance: 71,528 Referee: Joël Quiniou (France)
	Brolin  37' (pen.) Dahlin  59'  81'	(Report)	Salenko  4' (pen.)

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1994-06-28 13:05 PDT	Russia	6 – 1	Cameroon	Stanford Stadium, Palo Alto Attendance: 74,914 Referee: Jamal Al Sharif (Syria)
	Salenko  15'  41'  44' (pen.)  72'  75' Radchenko  81'	(Report)	Milla  46'

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1994-06-28 16:05 EDT	Brazil	1 – 1	Sweden	Pontiac Silverdome, Pontiac Attendance: 77,217 Referee: Sándor Puhl (Hungary)
	Romário  46'	(Report)	K. Andersson  23'

[edit] Group C

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Germany	3	2	1	0	5	3	+2	7
Spain	3	1	2	0	6	4	+2	5
Korea Republic	3	0	2	1	4	5	-1	2
Bolivia	3	0	1	2	1	4	-3	1

1994-06-17 14:05 CDT	Germany	1 – 0	Bolivia	Soldier Field, Chicago Attendance: 63,117 Referee: Arturo Brizio Carter (Mexico)
	Klinsmann  61'	(Report)

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1994-06-17 18:35 CDT	Spain	2 – 2	Korea Republic	Cotton Bowl, Dallas Attendance: 56,247 Referee: Peter Mikkelsen (Denmark)
	Salinas  51' Goikoetxea  55'	(Report)	Hong Myung-Bo  85' Seo Jung-Won  90'

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1994-06-21 15:05 CDT	Germany	1 – 1	Spain	Soldier Field, Chicago Attendance: 63,113 Referee: Filippi Cavani (Uruguay)
	Klinsmann  48'	(Report)	Goikoetxea  14'

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1994-06-23 19:35 EDT	Korea Republic	0 – 0	Bolivia	Foxboro Stadium, Foxborough Attendance: 54,453 Referee: Leslie Mottram (Scotland)
		(Report)

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1994-06-27 15:05 CDT	Bolivia	1 – 3	Spain	Soldier Field, Chicago Attendance: 63,089 Referee: Rodrigo Badilla (Costa Rica)
	E. Sánchez  67'	(Report)	Guardiola  19' (pen.) Caminero  66'  70'

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1994-06-27 15:05 CDT	Germany	3 – 2	Korea Republic	Cotton Bowl, Dallas Attendance: 63,998 Referee: Joël Quiniou (France)
	Klinsmann  12'  37' Riedle  20'	(Report)	Hwang Sun-Hong  52' Hong Myung-Bo  63'

[edit] Group D

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Nigeria	3	2	0	1	6	2	+4	6
Bulgaria	3	2	0	1	6	3	+3	6
Argentina	3	2	0	1	6	3	+3	6
Greece	3	0	0	3	0	10	-10	0

1994-06-21 12:35 EDT	Argentina	4 – 0	Greece	Foxboro Stadium, Foxborough Attendance: 54,456 Referee: Arturo Angeles (United States)
	Batistuta  2'  45'  89' (pen.) Maradona  60'	(Report)

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1994-06-21 18:35 CDT	Nigeria	3 – 0	Bulgaria	Cotton Bowl, Dallas Attendance: 44,132 Referee: Rodrigo Badilla (Costa Rica)
	Yekini  21' Amokachi  43' Amuneke  55'	(Report)

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1994-06-25 16:05 EDT	Argentina	2 – 1	Nigeria	Foxboro Stadium, Foxborough Attendance: 54,453 Referee: Bo Karlsson (Sweden)
	Caniggia  21'  28'	(Report)	Siasia  8'

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1994-06-26 11:35 CDT	Greece	0 – 4	Bulgaria	Soldier Field, Chicago Attendance: 63,160 Referee: Ali Bujsaim (United Arab Emirates)
		(Report)	Stoichkov  5' (pen.)