FIFA World Cup History - Part 2 Quiz

Answer: 1994

The USA were hosts to the 15th FIFA World Cup, which ended being the most financially successful, despite the sport not being so popular there.

24 years after their last title, Brazil won the World Cup for the fourth time, becoming the first team to do so. They beat Italy in a penalty shootout, after a goalless draw. The last kick was taken by Italian star Roberto Baggio, but he shot over the crossbar, sealing Brazil's victory by 3-2.

The Group B match between Cameroon and Russia saw a couple of records being broken. Russian striker Oleg Salenko scored five goals for his team's 6-1 victory. The Cameroonian goal was also for the books: it was scored by Roger Milla, who, at 42 years of age, became the oldest goalscorer in World Cup history.

Group E was particularly curious, as all four teams finished tied on points and goal difference, each one having won a game, lost another, and tied the remaining one. The next tie-breakers had to be used, leaving Mexico as group winners with 3 goals scored, Ireland in second place and Italy in third, as they both had 2 goals scored but Ireland won the match between the two, and Norway eliminated by having scored only one goal.

There is also a tragic story associated with this edition of the World Cup, involving Colombian defender Andres Escobar. After scoring an own goal that contributed to his team's early elimination, he was shot to death upon returning to Colombia, reportedly in retaliation for that goal.

A final tidbit of trivia. In their third World Cup appearance, Bolivia finally broke two negative marks: they earned their first-ever point after a 0-0 draw against South Korea, and scored their first-ever goal in their 1-3 loss to Spain (Erwin Sanchez was the goalscorer).

Answer: 2018

After two consecutive editions elsewhere (South Africa 2010 and Brazil 2014), the World Cup returned to Europe, being celebrated for the first time in an eastern country. Russia hosted the 21st edition among some controversy concerning racism and discrimination in the country, as well as the recent annexation of Crimea. The tournament was still a major success and produced very entertaining matches and plenty of memorable moments. Despite not setting any records regarding total or average goals scored, this edition was notable in that there was only one match that finished goalless, being a group stage match between France and Denmark.

For the first time, Video Assistant Referee (VAR) was implemented in full at this World Cup. Reactions to its use were and still are mixed, as there are still decisions that are questionable at best.

This edition also featured the first use of the Fair Play rule as a tiebreaker in one of the groups. Senegal was the unfortunate team to be eliminated on this basis, with Japan progressing at their expense by having one yellow card less. Japan's last match, however, echoed the 1982 match between Austria and West Germany, as the Japanese, already aware of the outcome, spent the last ten minutes passing the ball aimlessly, with Poland, their rivals, not attempting further attacks as they were already eliminated.

The cup was won by France, beating Croatia 4-2. It was the second title for the French (first was 1998).

Answer: 2010

For the first time, the World Cup was held in Africa, when South Africa hosted the event in 2010. When thinking of this edition, the first thing that crosses most people's minds are the vuvuzelas, a local horn-like instrument, that could be heard prominently on every match throughout the tournament.

The host nation tried their best, but didn't manage to go past the group stages, being the first hosts to do so. They did, however, hold Mexico to a draw, and beat France, the runner-ups of the previous edition (2006 Germany); France were also eliminated at the group stage. Surprisingly, the reigning champions, Italy, also failed to get out of the group stages, meaning that it was the first time that the two previous finalists didn't reach the knockout rounds. The group stage also produced a curious result as New Zealand, in their second appearance (their first was 1982), were the only unbeaten team in the tournament, drawing their three group games. Like the host nation, NZ failed to progress out of the group stage.

The cup was won by Spain for the first time, becoming the eighth nation to be crowned FIFA World Champions. In a very tight game, they beat the Netherlands 1-0 after extra time, with a goal by Andres Iniesta in the 116th minute, four minutes away from the penalty shootout. This result meant that the Netherlands achieved the heartbreaking record of being the first team to reach the final game three times and not winning it (1974, 1978 and 2010).

Answer: 1990

Italy earned the rights to host the tournament for the second time in 1990 (their first was the 1934 edition). Despite producing some memorable moments, this cup is regarded as one of the poorest of all. Most of the teams relied on overly defensive tactics to stall the game, split points and, in the knockout rounds, take it to the penalties. Two teams, Netherlands and Republic of Ireland, made it to the round of 16 and quarterfinals, respectively, and eventually left the tournament without winning a single game outright (with Ireland's progress in the round of 16 coming through a penalty shootout). Furthermore, both teams ended tied with the very same record in their group, so their final position in Group F (2nd or 3rd), was decided by a drawing of lots, the first time this system had to be used. Ireland came up in second place and the Netherlands in third place, and both teams progressed to the knockout rounds.

The defensive style of play produced a cup with very few goals, and an average of 2.21 goals per match, the lowest of any edition. To discourage this type of tactics, FIFA would make two significant changes before the next edition: the introduction of the back-pass rule (penalising teams that played the ball back to their keeper for him to pick it up), and the awarding of 3 points, instead of 2, for each game won.

One of the most remembered facts from the tournament was the surprising performance of Cameroon. Topping their group over Romania, Argentina and the USSR (their last appearance as a unified nation), they eventually reached the quarterfinals, succumbing to England in a close contested match that saw them in the lead until England equalised in the 83rd minute (lost 2-3 aet). They were the first African team to go that far, and prompted FIFA to allocate an extra place for African teams for the following tournament (increased from two to three).

The final was a rematch of the previous one, with West Germany and Argentina again facing each other; it was the third consecutive final for the Germans. They won their third title (1954, 1974 & 1990), with a late penalty by Andreas Brehme in the 85th minute. Argentina, one of the teams that exhibited the defensive tactics discussed earlier, failed to score, becoming the first team to end the final match goalless (alternatively, West Germany can be considered as the first team to keep a clean sheet in a final). Argentina also had two players sent off for the first time in a final: Pedro Monzon and Gustavo Dezotti.

Answer: 2006

Germany hosted the world cup for the second time (1974 & 2006). A noteworthy change from the previous stagings were that the reigning champions needed to enter the qualifying process to earn their tickets. Brazil was the first team to go through this process, and successfully qualified for the cup.

Many football fans consider this as one of the best World Cups, mainly because of the great number of stars that took part in it. To name a few, Ronaldo, Kaka, Ronaldinho, Zidane, Henry, Pirlo, Del Piero, Ballack, Klose, Shevchenko, Lampard, Marquez, Raul, Robben, and even the future superstars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, who played their first World Cup.

Six nations made their debut in this edition, a record for the 32-team era: Angola, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, and Ukraine. Only Ghana and Ukraine made it past the group stages.

Italy won the title for the fourth time (1934, 1938, 1982 & 2006), in a match that saw French star Zinedine Zidane sent off after an infamous headbutt on Marco Materazzi, in what was to be his final professional match. The final was decided on penalty shootouts, with Italy taking revenge for their 1994 final loss, by winning 5-4.

As a final trivia, on the Brazil v. Ghana match: Ronaldo scored his 15th World Cup goal, breaking Gerd Muller's mark set 32 years prior. Also, Switzerland achieved a bittersweet record: they exited the cup at the round of 16, without conceding a single goal in the whole tournament, having won two games and drawn two more. They were beaten in a penalty shootout 3-0 by Ukraine, which also made them the first team to not score a single penalty during a shootout.

Answer: 2002

The 2002 edition broke the usual Europe - South America rotation by being staged in Asia for the very first time. It also marked another first, as it was hosted by two nations jointly: Japan and South Korea.

It produced several shock results, including South Korea being the first Asian nation to reach the semi-finals (with their run being marked by controversial refereeing in their matches against Italy and Spain). They didn't, however, finish in the top three, as they were beaten to it by another surprise, Turkey. The 3rd place play-off match ended 3-2 and included the fastest goal in the history of the tournament, scored by Hakan Sukur at only 11 seconds of play.

The other shocking outcome was the early elimination of reigning champions France, who didn't even manage to score a goal and finished last in their group. Starting from this edition a "curse" of sorts started taking place, as the team that was crowned champion at one edition would be eliminated at the group stages in the following tournament.

This edition marked the last time the Golden Goal was used in the knockout matches. Three games were decided by this system: South Korea v. Italy, Senegal v. Sweden, and Turkey v. Senegal (with Ilhan Mansiz's being the final golden goal in WC history).

Finally, this was the first time that five continents were represented in the quarter-finals: Europe (Spain, England, Germany), North America (USA), Asia (South Korea and Turkey), Africa (Senegal) and South America (Brazil). The cup was won by Brazil for a record 5th time, after defeating Germany 2-0 with both goals by Ronaldo (who became the first top scorer, since 1974, to score more than 6 goals in the tournament). Brazil were also the second team, after West Germany, to play in three consecutive finals.

Answer: 1998

The 1998 edition saw the number of teams expand to 32 for the first time. France became the sixth country to win the cup on home soil, convincingly beating Brazil 3-0 in the final match to grasp their first title.

This was one of only two editions that used the Golden Goal as a decider for knockout matches. In the end, of the four matches that went to extra time, only one required of a Golden Goal: France's Laurent Blanc scored the winning goal against a tough Paraguayan side in the round of 16.

Answer: 1982

The 12th world cup was held in Spain, and it was the first to feature 24 teams. The format was similar to the one used in the two previous world cups, but with a slight variation. The teams were divided into six groups of four each, playing on a round-robin format. The top two of each group advanced to a second group stage, comprised of four groups of three teams. The four winners of these groups then qualified to the semi-finals (there were no semi-finals played in 1974 and 1978).

Italy were crowned champions for the third time by beating West Germany 3-1, after an unconvincing first round that saw them through by drawing all of their matches. They picked up their pace in the second round, eliminating a strong Brazilian side in the process.

West Germany, on the other hand, made it through to the second round despite a shock defeat to Algeria. Their final group match against Austria was dubbed "the disgrace of Gijon", an infamous game that saw both teams aimlessly kicking the ball around and holding on to a result that would send both of them through to the next round at the expense of Algeria. This meant that, starting from the following edition, the final matches of any group would be played at the same time to avoid speculation and "match fixing".

In the semi-finals, the Germans played a memorable game against France that ended in a 3-3 draw after trailing twice. This led to the first ever WC penalty shootout, in which they prevailed 5-4. Uli Stielike was the first player to miss his shot.

Answer: 2022

The 2022 edition was held in Qatar, which was a very controversial choice due to the country's poor records regarding human rights, and the relative lack of football culture. As proof of the last fact, Qatar became the first host nation to lose all of their matches, finishing at the bottom of their group.

The host selection also caused the tournament to be played late in the year, instead of the usual months of June and July. This was due to Qatar's climate being very punishing during those two months, with temperatures that can exceed 40°C (104°F). The tournament's revised schedule clashed with the usual staging of many national leagues, causing some players to enter the tournament with very few days of rest, or even injured.

Going into the sporting facts, the big surprise of this edition was Morocco. While not displaying a particularly attractive style, they managed to progress over Belgium, Spain and Portugal, becoming the first African team to reach the semi-finals. They would eventually end up in the 4th place after losing to France and Croatia.

For the third time, the champion was decided by a penalty shootout. In a thrilling match, Argentina dominated France for 80 minutes, leading by 2-0, but then France quickly equalized in less than two minutes through Kylian Mbappe (he scored in the 80th and 81st), and took the game into extra time. Goals from Messi and Mbappe once again left the game tied, at 3-3 after extra time, and to be decided on penalties. Argentina's keeper Emiliano Martinez saved one of the French shots and forced other to go wide (aside from making a vital save during the closing minutes of the match), helping his team to clench their third world title.

Mbappe became only the second player to score a hat-trick in the final, after Geoff Hurst in 1966. Also, he was the second player to score five goals against a single team (2 in 2018 and 3 in 2022), after Salenko in 1994. And since we're talking about goals, Cristiano Ronaldo's penalty against Ghana made him the first player to score at five World Cups.

Answer: 1986

The rights to host the 1986 edition were originally awarded to Colombia, but they withdrew in 1982. Mexico was selected as the new host, thus becoming the first nation to host the event twice (1970 & 1986).

This tournament adopted the group stage - knockout rounds format that was used for the last time in the 1970 edition, also held in Mexico. For the first time, an African team progressed past the group stages, when Morocco surprisingly topped their group over England, Poland and Portugal. They would only reach the round of 16, where they narrowly lost to West Germany 1-0.

Argentina won their second title after a closely contested game against West Germany that ended 3-2 in favor of the South Americans. Their success was mostly single-handedly driven by their star player Diego Maradona, who scored 5 goals and created most of his team's other scoring opportunities. The quarterfinals match against England is remembered by him scoring one of the most infamous goals of the event's history, when he punched the ball past the English goalkeeper without the referee noticing - a goal later dubbed "the Hand of God". Later on in that same match, he dribbled past six English players, covering more than half of the pitch, to score the second goal of the match, in what is considered one of the greatest goals of all time.

Answer: 2014

The 20th World Cup, on a personal note, is by far my favorite of the ones I had the chance to see. Most of the games were an entertaining exhibition of nice football by every team - even some of the goalless draws kept spectators on the edge of their seats.

Brazil, hosting for the second time (1950 & 2014), were eager to avenge the loss at the 1950 World Cup and finally lift the trophy on home soil, but their dreams were shattered by a fierce German side, who shocked the world by beating them 7-1 in the semi-finals, the largest margin of defeat by a host nation in history. In that match, Miroslav Klose reclaimed back for Germany the record of the all-time top scorer of the World Cups, scoring his 16th goal to surpass Ronaldo.

The decisive match saw Germany and Argentina facing each other for the third time in the final. A late goal by Mario Gotze made Germany the first European side to win a World Cup held in an American country, with all previous editions being won by American teams (Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina). They also became the third team, after Brazil and Italy, in winning a fourth title. Coincidentally, all three nations won their 4th cups exactly 24 years after their 3rd: Brazil won in 1970 and again in 1994, Italy won in 1982 and again in 2006, and Germany won in 1990 and again in 2014 (with this being their first title as a unified nation).