The 1930 FIFA World Cup

---

In 1929, it was decided that the first ever World Cup would take place in Uruguay from 13 July to 30 July 1930. Thirteen nations would be participating after accepting invitations  no qualifications took place. In 18 matches, 70 goals would be scored including the first  hat-trick in World Cup history by Guillermo Stábile. When the tournament was over, Uruguay had been crowned as first World Cup champions.

  At the time for the event, an economic depression took place in Europe. The travel expenses hindered some teams and many of the European players were reluctant to leave their countries on a long trip, afraid that they would  lose their jobs – this was long before it became normal with  football players playing for a living.

  The idea that professionals would be allowed caused a lot of controversy and aversion (only amateur players were traditionally allowed in the Olympics). That was the reason  for Denmark and Germany refusal to take part. Due to prestigious reasons England would also refrain from participation. For a while it looked like none of the Europeans countries would make the trip to Uruguay and  the first World Cup was in danger. 

 In the end three European nations would send their teams to Uruguay. Unfortunately, none of these were among the highest ranked teams. Many of the best European teams  would be absent, such as Austria, England, Hungary, Italy  and Spain. The European teams that finally traveled over the Atlantic would be helped economically by Uruguay which at the time was a country with a great economy.

 The host team Uruguay was the favorite to win. They had won the Paris Olympics 1924 and in Amsterdam Olympics 1928. But on the other side, their closest rivals Argentina had won the South American Championship in 1929. The national team of Brazil had not yet become the powerhouse that they would later be and would arrive to the first World Cup ill-prepared (due to internal disputes, they were only represented by players from Carioca).

   Besides from not being the best teams from the European continent, the Europeans participating teams would also suffer from the travel conditions (they would spend ten days on a boat without any chance for training).  The reason a group phase was taken into practice (which  was not done in the Olympics) was actually to give the long  distanced guests the pleasure to at least play two games.

  An old rivalry between Uruguay and Argentina was expressed without questions by the majority of the audience booing the guests in their first match against France to the extent that the Argentines wanted to leave the tournament. The president of Uruguay had to mediate. Yet, it was in the last match in the  group between Argentina and Chile that things really got out of hand. Most of the players of both teams got involved in a large scrimmage after an incident between two players. After a break the match continued and Argentina won the match and also their group. 

  Yugoslavia and USA would surprise many by winning their groups and advance to the Semi-finals.  The USA which had been humiliated by the Argentinians in the 1928 Olympics with 11-2 would once again be crushed by them in the Semi-finals, this time by 6-1. On behalf of the Americans pride, it should be  added that two of their players were injured and – as the bizarre rule at this time dictated – they were not allowed to be replaced. 

  Uruguay would defeat Romania and Peru in their group and then beat Yugoslavia by a large margin in the Semi-finals. However, the result would not reflect the game to a full extent. Although, Yugoslavia had taken the lead earlier, they had one goal disallowed by a strange decision from the referee and two of Uruguay's first goals were approved in unconvincing circumstances. 

  In the final they faced their archenemy Argentina who had also been their opponents in the final in the 1928 Olympics tournament. In the presence of over 80,000 people at Estadio Centenario (pictured above) in Montevideo (the attendance figures are debated: the official attendance was 68,346, but there was undoubtedly more people watching the game and some sources claim there was over 90,000 people),  Uruguay could pulled off another victory with four goals against two after Argentina had taken a 2-1 lead.  Uruguay would defeat Argentina in the final with 4-2. The football players of the Uruguay team would renew their earlier status as the pride of the nation by winning the inaugural FIFA World Cup.

 However, the friendship between the two countries would be affected negatively for a time after the final. Players of the Argentine side had felt threatened before the game by supporters and one player had received death threats. Argentinian supporters would also report of being harassed during the event. As a  revenge, the Uruguayan embassy in Buenos Aires got vandalized by citizens and the government cut off the relation to its neighbor country (this decision would be reversed in subsequent years). 

   Format:  The tournament was played with a group phase followed by Semi-finals and a final (a match for third  place wasn't played). 

  Participating Teams: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, France, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Romania, United States of America (USA), Uruguay and Yugoslavia.

 Cities and Stadiums:  Montevideo (Estadio Centenario),  Montevideo (Estadio Gran Parque Central) and   Montevideo (Estadio Pocitoseight)  

 Average World Cup Match Attendance: 24,139 

Top Scorers: Guillermo Stábile (8 goals), Pedro Cea (5 goals) and Guillermo Subiabre (4 goals)

   1st, 2nd and 3rd Places: Uruguay (Winners), Argentina (Runners' Up) and Yugoslavia/United States of America (Third Place)

Source:   https://www.footballhistory.org/world-cup/1930-uruguay.html

What's a product or service you'd like to show.

Say something interesting about your business here.

 The third World Cup in football took place in France between 4 June and 19 June. The fact that two World Cups in a row were held in Europe was met with anger in South America which had expected the tournament to be played in their continent every second time. This led to a boycott from Argentina and Uruguay.

 In total 16 teams were participating after a qualification that included 37 teams (the host nation France and the reigning World Champions Italy directly qualified). The World Cup in 1938 would be dominated by European nations, 13 of 16 teams were European.

 The most exotic team to participate were the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) which also became the first Asian team to participate in the World Cup. They had qualified since all other teams in Asia withdrew. 

 Spain were absent because they had been affected by a civil war and the turbulent political climate in Europe which stood in the doorway to a great war could be noticeable. Mostly because just before the start of the tournament  Austria had been annexed by Nazi Germany and Austria was for that reason abolished. It was also noticeable by an upset audience in the games that included Germany or Italy . The Italian players made fascist salutes before the games and when they had to change to the away team shirt against France in the Quarter-finals, they would not play in white shirts as usual but they chose to play in black – the fascist color. 

    The format for the competition was a knock-out tournament. If the match was a tie after regular match time a period of 30 minutes extra time would take place. If the match still wasn’t decided after extra time a rematch would be arranged the following day (penalty shoot-out was not introduced until 1978). 

 The matches would be played in ten French cities and in nine stadiums. However, since one match was canceled, no match was played in Lyon. This was the match between Austria and Sweden. The final would be played in Paris at Stade Olympique de Colombes (pictured above) that had a capacity of 60,000.

   On the sporting aspects, it could be stated that Brazil for the first time made a great impact in World Cup football and they went far in the tournament with a crowd-pleasing style.  

 The biggest surprise was probably the Cuban victory against Romania. However, Cuba wouldn't stand for another surprise against Sweden in the quarterfinals because they were tired after playing on a muddy pitch from a replay match and as a result of that they got slaughtered by Sweden. 

 The 1938 FIFA World Cup would include 18 matches in which 84 goals were scored (4.66 per match). Four players were sent of during the tournament. 

 First round, places 9-19: Norway, Belgium, Poland, Netherlands, Dutch East Indies, Germany, Austria, Romania. 

 Quarter-finals, places 5-8: France, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, Cuba. 

 Italy and Hungary would win the Semi-finals and in the third place playoff match Brazil would beat Sweden by 4-2. 

 The final was played between Italy and Hungary in front of 45,124 people. The match was finally won by Italy after two goals by Gino Colaussi and Silvio Piola each. Italy successfully defended their World Championship title. They not only became the first team to win two World Cup titles but they also became the first defending World Champions to do it back-to-back in a row. Because of the Second World War, the next World Cup had to wait until 1950. 

Participating Teams: Austria (abolished), Belgium, Brazil, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), France, Germany, Hungary,  Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden and Switzerland.

Cities and Stadiums: Paris (Stade Olympique de Colombes and Parc des Princes), Marseille (Stade Vélodrome), Lyon (Stade Gerland),  Toulouse (Stade Chapou), Bordeaux (Parc Lescure), Strasbourg (Stade de la Meinau), Le Havre (Stade Municipal), Reims (Vélodrome Municipal) and Lille (Stade Victor Boucquey).

 Average World Cup Match Attendance: 20,889 

Top Scorers: Leônidas (7 goals), György Sárosi (5 goals), Gyula Zsengeller (5 goals) and Silvio Piola (5 goals)

 1st, 2nd and 3rd Places: Italy (Winners), Hungary (Runners' Up) and Brazil (Third Place)

Source Information: https://www.footballhistory.org/world-cup/1938-france.html

What's a product or service you'd like to show.

What's something exciting your business offers? Say it here.

 The 1954 FIFA World Cup took place in Switzerland from 16 June to 4 July. In total, 16 teams participated in what was the final stage of the tournament and 26 matches were played. It was the fifth edition of the FIFA World Cup tournament and it would be the first one which could be seen on television. 

 The defending champions Uruguay were among the teams in the 1954 World Cup. Their national side had so far won the tournament in every attempt. However, Hungary were the big dominant force in European football at this time and they had arrived in Switzerland as the number one favorites to win this edition. One of their players was none other than the legendary Ferenc Puskás. Although he was injured against West Germany in the group stages, he would recover for the knockout stage of the competition.

 Scotland, South Korea and Turkey had all managed to qualify for the 1954 World Cup for the first time in their respective football histories (the former great power in football, Scotland, had only been a member of FIFA since 1949). Germany that had been forbidden to participate in the previous World Cup due to their actions in World War II but this ban was lifted and they were welcomed back to compete in the FIFA World Cup. 

 The atmosphere in Switzerland was completely different from what it had been four years back in Brazil. It was a rather big contrast to the passionate audience that had filled the enormous Maracanã. It may seem strange that such a small country as Switzerland would be the host for the biggest global football tournament in the world, but it was one of few European nations which had not been particularly affected by the recent war. Switzerland remained a neutral country during World War II and was rarely affected by the negative impacts of the geo-political decisions and uncertain atmosphere existing at the time amongst the global military powers.

 The format had a first phase group stage with four four-team groups from which two teams would advance to a final knockout stage. A curious thing with the set-up for this tournament was that every team only played two group matches, and would only meet two out of three teams. Ranking would decide which teams met each other. Unsurprisingly, the design was criticized. It was also the idea that no concern would be taken if a team had come first or second in the group when the teams were assigned opponents in the Quarter-finals. This resulted in the creation of very plausible final type match which already came off in the Quarter-finals between Hungary and Brazil.

 The matches would be played in six cities and at six stadiums. The Wankdorf Stadium (pictured above) in Bern had the biggest capacity with places for over 64,000 and the final would consequently be played here.  

 The tournament would achieve the highest goals average ever in a World Cup with an astonishing 5.38 goals per match. The most excessive production of goals came about in the Quarter-final game between Austria and Switzerland: 7-5 after 90 minutes (12 goals in one match is still a record in the tournament). Another reason was because South Korea had a negative record with 16 goals forfeited. Over five goals per match had never happened before and it will certainly not happen again. 

 In the Quarter-finals Hungary faced Brazil in a match which had all the makings of a final match. But the major impression of the game was not the sporting aspects, but the violent encounters on the field. The game that would go down in history as the "Battle of Berne" included three red cards, fights on the sideline after the final whistle and continued fighting further with Brazilians attacking the Hungarian players in their locking room. 

 West Germany may be one of the biggest and successful football nations known today, but back then the team in the 1954 World Cup lacked the qualifications to a certain great degree to be counted as such and it was a big sensation when they won the Quarter-final against Yugoslavia. Even bigger was their 6-1 victory against Austria in the Semi-final. Despite their overrun against Austria, Germany was expected to stand no chance against Hungary in the final. Anything else would be a miracle.

The stage was set for the final between Hungary and West Germany. Hungary would take a 2-0 lead, but German morale and a muddy pitch which did not serve the Hungarian passing style made it possible for what has since been called “The Miracle of Bern” to take place. West Germany which was led by their legendary Captain Fritz Walter came in as the underdogs but they launched one of the greatest comebacks in football history by defying all the odds to become the winners of the tournament after beating Hungary in a tense game with three goals to two.

  The 1954 FIFA World Cup would include 26 matches in which 140 goals were made (5.38 goals per match). Three players were sent off during the tournament. 

 The Hungarian player Ferenc Puskás after the tournament would accuse the Germans of doping. He was forced by FIFA to take back his accusations, but 50 years later a match attendant testified that they had found syringes in the Germans locking room after the final. A study made by the Berlin Humboldt University would also later confirm that systematic doping had taken place in West Germany during a long period. The same report also claimed that the German football players had taken Methamphetamine before the 1954 World Cup final. 

Participating Teams: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Czechoslovakia, England, France, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Scotland, South Korea, Switzerland, Turkey, Uruguay, West Germany and Yugoslavia.

Cities and Stadiums: Basel (St. Jakob Stadium), Bern (Wankdorf Stadium), Geneva (Charmilles Stadium), Lausanne (Stade Olympique de la Pontaise), Lugano (Cornaredo Stadium) and Zürich (Hardturm Stadium).

Average World Cup Match Attendance: 34,212

 Top Scorers: Sandor Kocsis (11 goals), Max Morlock (6 goals), Josef Hügi (6 goals) and Erich Probst (6 goals)
 

1st, 2nd and 3rd Places: West Germany (Winners), Hungary (Runners' Up) and Austria (Third Place)

Source Information: https://www.footballhistory.org/world-cup/1954-switzerland.html

What's a product or service you'd like to show.

What's something exciting your business offers? Say it here.

What's a product or service you'd like to show.

 The seventh World Cup was played in Chile from May 30 to June 17. The qualifications that had started two years earlier included 57 national teams. Of these, 14 teams manage to go on to the final tournament together with the automatically qualified host nation Chile and the reigning World Champions Brazil.

   Chile was an unexpected choice as the host for the seventh World Cup. Argentina had seemed more likely since it was South Americas turn, but due to political instability in Argentina at this time Chile was instead nominated. 

  Despite the fact that African and Asian nations would participate in the qualification round, only American and European nations would partake in the final tournament. The African and Asian teams had to play extra qualification matches against European teams which decreased their chances. No African nation would reach the final tournament until 1970 when FIFA finally gave Confederation of African Football (CAF) one guaranteed place. 

  The rule which dictated a replay had to take place after a draw was abandoned and goal difference was used instead if two teams had the same amount of points in the groups. The goal difference rule gave the advantage to teams with less conceded goals which contributed to the use of defensive tactics by teams.

 The matches of the World Cup in 1962 took place in three different cities and stadiums. It was prearranged to be eight stadiums, but a megathrust earthquake in Valdiva (in the south of Santiago), with a magnitude of about 9.5 affected the plans. Besides the national stadium in Santiago the remaining three stadiums were much smaller and as a result they were World Cup stadiums with capacities under 20,000.

 Despite an injured Péle, Brazil managed to defend their title. They did so by beating Czechoslovakia in the final by 3-1. With Péle on the bench the big star of the 1962 World Cup was Garrincha.  Another big football name that was participating in the 1962 World Cup was Ferenc Puskás, but this time for the  Spanish national team after he had changed nationality due to the Hungarian Revolution. At this point in time it was quite common for great footballs stars to change their nationality and team (but this would soon be changed by a set of new rules). 

Chile managed to eliminate the Soviet Union (the Soviets had won the first European Championship) in the Quarter-finals. The Chileans ended up winning the bronze medal and once again they proved the traditionally advantage of being a home nation in the World Cup (however, since 1962 Chile has never succeeded to go further than the first round in the knockout stages of the World Cup but hopefully this could change in the future).

 Some games were very rough and the brutality escalated several times into actual fighting incidents in which certain violent actions involving punches being thrown and kicks being directly targeted at rival players took place on the field. The worse scenes were displayed in the game between Chile and Italy, this game has infamously been referred to as "La batalla de Santiago" or "The Battle of Santiago". It has has been recognized as one of the most scandalous matches in the history of the World Cup. The disgraceful events culminated with a long brawl which resulted in one of the Italians players finally having to be assisted off from the field with the help of the local police.

  Just like the previous World Cup tournaments no substitutes were allowed. Yellow and red cards were not yet put into practice but a player could still be sent off and this happened six times in the Chile tournament.

 FIFA World Cup 1962 would include 32 matches in which 89 goals were scored. The 2,78 goals per match were by far the lowest recorded in a World Cup tournament and reflected a new tendency in the game where tactics had become more focused on defense. This meant that many games were boring to watch. 

  The Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, West Germany, Chile, Brazil, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Italy all advanced from the group phase to the quarter-finals.

 In the Quarter-finals Chile, Brazil, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia won their matches and were going through to the Semi-finals. Chile would face Brazil and Yugoslavia faced Czechoslovakia in the semi-finals.

 Brazil and Czechoslovakia faced each other in the final for the FIFA World Cup trophy.

 By winning in 1962 Brazil victoriously defended their title and they became the second nation ever to do win two consecutive World Cup titles back-to-back. Italy had been the first to achieve this incredible feat by winning in both 1934 and 1938.  
  

Participating Teams: Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Czechoslovakia, England, France, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Soviet Union, Switzerland, West Germany and Yugoslavia. 

Cities and Stadiums: Santiago (Estadio Nacional), Viña del Mar (Estadio Sausalito), Rancagua (Estadio Braden Copper Co.) and Arica (Estadio Carlos Dittborn).

 Average World Cup Match Attendance: 27,911 

Top Scorers: Garrincha (4 goals), Vavá (4 goals), Leonel Sánchez (4 goals), Flórián Albert (4 goals), Valentin Ivanov (4 goals) and Dražan Jerković (4 goals). 

1st, 2nd and 3rd Places: Brazil (Winner), Czechoslovakia (Runners' Up) and Chile (Third Place).

Source Information: https://www.footballhistory.org/world-cup/1962-chile.html 

What's a product or service you'd like to show.

Say something interesting about your business here.

What's a product or service you'd like to show.

 When the ninth World Cup was played in Mexico it was the first time the tournament wasn't played in Europe or South America. The dates for the tournament were from 31 May to 21 June. The qualifications for the final tournament included 75 national teams and among these 14 teams qualified for the World Cup final tournament (Israel were the representatives of the Asian-Confederation, and El Salvador and Morocco also made their first appearances at the FIFA World Cup). In addition, the automatically qualified host nation Mexico and the reigning World Champions England were included.

 In 1964, it was decided that Mexico would be host country for the ninth World Cup. At that time Mexico was a nation that had accomplished very little in global football tournaments and the more reputable Argentina were displeased being overlooked once again.

   The 1970 FIFA World Cup 1970 was the first World Cup ever to be broadcast in colored television (notice that some countries still have the possibility of watching colored television).

  It was also the first World Cup with an officially sponsored match ball. The manufacturer Adidas had created the ball, called Telstar (pictured below).

 The tournament format would be divided into a group stage phase and a knockout phase. The  group stage phase consisted of four groups in which two out of four teams would advance to the knockout stage phase. 

 Five stadiums were used for the tournament located in five cities. The final was played at the legendary Azteca Stadium with a capacity of over 100,000. The average attendance for the whole tournament would for the first time exceed 50,000.  

 Two new rules were taken into practice for the first time in the World Cup. Substitutions which had oddly enough never been allowed in previous World Cups were now implemented with two per team allowed in a game. The second new rule involved the introduction of the red and yellow card (it had been tested in the 1968 Olympics). The referee Kurt Tschenscher would show the first historical yellow card in the opening match between Mexico and Russia. Despite the fact that the red card hadn't been used earlier in the World Cup, players had been sent of the pitch (somewhat curiously, no player in this tournament was shown a red card).

Brazil hadn't impressed in the last World Cup and they hadn't participated in the last South American Championship before the 1970 World Cup. For a while, it looked like they had their backs against the wall. However, they had impressed in the qualification. New young players like Gérson and Jairzinho together with the veteran Pelé and Rivellino would be key components in what would become a classic national team (some would argue that this is the greatest national team squad in football history in terms of the manner and approach in which they played).

 The reigning champions England had a strong team, but would be eliminated by West Germany in a memorable match. West Germany would meet Italy in one of the Semi-finals which would include seven goals and a ticket to the final for the Italians.

 Brazil took revenge for the defeat at the 1950 World Cup by beating the Uruguayans in the other Semi-final. The final match which followed between Brazil and Italy was seen as a battle between futebol d'arte (football as art) and futebol de resultados (playing for the result). Brazil which represented the art would deliver another marvelous performance and become the first nation in the history of the World Cup to claim three victories (they would also be the first team in a World Cup since Uruguay in 1930 to win all their matches and in ordinary match time). As a result, they claimed permanent ownership of the Jules Rimet Trophy which was to held in their possession forever as a show of respect for their triumph at winning the World Cup for a third time ahead of Italy (which had also won the coveted trophy two previous times).   

 Some football historians considering this tournament to be  the end of an era. Jonathan Wilson writes: "for the last time in a major competition, there was space" and "never again would a side enjoy such success simply by throwing their best players on the field". 

Participating Teams: Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, El Salvador, England, Israel, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Romania, Soviet Union, Sweden, Uruguay and West Germany.

Cities and Stadiums: Mexico City (Estadio Azteca), Guadaljare (Estadio Jalisco), León (Estadio Nou Camp), Puebla (Estadio Cuauhtémoc) and Toluca (Estadio Luis Dosal).

Average World Cup Match Attendance: 50,124  

Top Scorers: Gerd Müller (10 goals), Jairzinho (7 goals) and Teofilio Cubillas (5 goals)

1st, 2nd and 3rd Places: Brazil (Winner), Italy (Runners' Up), West Germany (Third Place)

Source Information: https://www.footballhistory.org/world-cup/1970-mexico.html

At 11 v 11 Football Channel, we are dedicated to providing high-quality sports equipment and apparel to athletes of all levels. Our mission is to empower athletes to achieve their full potential through our products and services.

What's something exciting your business offers? Say it here.

At 11 v 11 Football Channel, we are dedicated to providing high-quality sports equipment and apparel to athletes of all levels. Our mission is to empower athletes to achieve their full potential through our products and services.

 The eleventh World Cup was played in Argentina between 1 June and 25 June. A total of 107 national teams were involved in qualifications for the final tournament from which 15 would advance to the final tournament phase. For the first time only the host nation was allowed automatic qualification and not the title holders (this rule has lasted ever since). The 1978 World Cup tournament would consequently consist of 16 teams competing (for the last time by the way, the following World Cup final tournament would be extended to 24 teams).

 West Germany were the reigning World Champions, but this time without both Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Muller. The runners-up from 1974, the Netherlands, would also be without their biggest star, Johan Cruyff. The biggest expectations before the tournament were instead on players like Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (West Germany), Roberto Bettega (Italy), Rivellino in (Brazil), Michel Platini (France) and Mario Kempes (Argentina).

   The tournament would to some extent be overshadowed by political circumstances. The military junta had taken over power in Argentina two years earlier and they would use the event to benefit their own interests. The turbulent times in the country had not been ideal for the preparations and the organization was far behind schedule, almost to the point that FIFA had considered moving the whole tournament to Spain. However, the new government would prioritize making drastic changes and, in the end, the tournament would go on as planned.

 The set-up which had been implemented into practice at the 1974 World Cup with two group phases was copied. The best two teams from four groups would be gathered into another group stage phase of two four-team groups. The winners from each of these groups would meet in a final and the runner-ups would meet in the third place playoff. 

 The 1978 World Cup was played in six stadiums and in five cities. Estadio Monumental (pictured above) was the largest and would serve as the venues for the final and eight other games (including the majority of Argentina’s matches). 

 Tunisia’s victory over Mexico would mark the first time an African team won a match in a FIFA World Cup.  

Argentina had the home advantage which made them one of the favorites of the tournament, but they had much to prove since they hadn't yet won a major trophy in a global tournament. The belief in an offensive football by the charismatic coach Cesar Luís Menotti was combined with some unjust conducts. 

 The less sympathetic features of the Argentinian team were featured in the match against Brazil. The rivalry between the teams produced a violent encounter in which the 0-0 result was typical of a match which showed little productiveness (in order words it wasn't very entertaining in terms of the actual football which was played).

  After the 0-0 draw between Argentina and Brazil in the second group phase, Brazil would go on to defeat Poland by 3-1. As a result, Argentina was forced to win by a four goal margin in their last match. And they did more than that,  they defeated Peru by six goals to nothing!!! Because of the circumstances and the result, the match has been controversial and some have claimed that it might have been fixed.  Although Peru started the match aggressively and almost got the lead. The performance from Argentina was sensational while Peru had nothing to play for. Thanks to that 6-0 win, Argentina won the group by goal difference and moved on to their first World Cup final since 1930.

 The final was somewhat an ugly affair due to certain aspects of brutal football being displayed. In a match that was dramatic in so many ways, the final outcome was delayed by 30 minutes extra time. In the added time, Argentina scored twice and it ended with another defeat in a second consecutive World Cup final for the Netherlands but for Argentina it was their first World Cup triumph. The crowd cheered and Mario Kempes was recognized as the greatest hero of the moment. 

  What was most memorable about this World Cup was perhaps the iconic images of the white confetti raining down onto the field and the stadium stands at the home teams matches (including the final).  

 The 1978 FIFA World Cup was made up of 38 matches in which 102 goals were scored (2,68 goals per match). Three red cards and 65 yellow cards were shown during the tournament. Another statistical fact was that the opening match between West Germany and Poland was the fourth World Cup opening match in a row to end 0-0. 

 Italy, Argentina, Poland, West Germany, Austria, Brazil, Peru and the Netherlands would advance from the first group phase. 

 Netherlands and Argentina would win their groups in the second group phase, and would therefore face each other in the final. The runners-up from the two groups, Italy and Brazil would play in the third place playoff match. 

 Brazil would win the third place match by 2-1 against Italy and Argentina would win the final by 3-1 against the Netherlands. 

Participating Teams: Argentina, Austria, Brazil, France, Hungary, Italy, Iran, Netherlands, Mexico, Poland, Peru, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia and West Germany.

Cities and Stadiums: Buenos Aires (Estadio Monumental), Buenos Aires (Estadio José Amalfitani), Córdoba (Estadio Córdoba), Mar del Plata (Estadio José María Minella), Rosario (Estadio Gigante de Arroyito) and Mendoza (Estadio Ciudad de Mendoza)

 Average World Cup Match Attendance: 40,688 

Top Scorers: Mario Kempes (6 goals), Rob Rensenbrink (5 goals) and Teófilo Cubillas (5 goals)

1st, 2nd and 3rd Place: Argentina (Winner), Netherlands (Runners' Up) and Brazil (Third Place)

Source Information: https://www.footballhistory.org/world-cup/1978-argentina.html

What's something exciting your business offers? Say it here.

What's something exciting your business offers? Say it here.

At 11 v 11 Football Channel, we are dedicated to providing high-quality sports equipment and apparel to athletes of all levels. Our mission is to empower athletes to achieve their full potential through our products and services.

 The 13th World Cup was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June. In the final phase of the FIFA World Cup tournament 24 teams participated after a qualification which included 121 nations. As the host nation, Mexico automatically qualified. 

 The 13th World Cup was originally planned to take place in Columbia, but the country was in economic crises and they decided to back out of the large arrangement. The United States and Canada both wanted to take over as host nations, but Mexico was ultimately chosen instead. It was a controversial decision since Mexico had already been the hosts once and rather recently as well (they hosted the competition back in 1970).  Money had a big role to play in the outcome.

   However, the host-ship of Mexico was in jeopardy after a major earthquake happened in Mexico City, it caused thousands of casualties eight months before the tournament. But the country managed to go through the event in line with the plans. 

 Among the anticipated stars of the tournament were Enzo Francescoli, Michel Platini, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Gary Lineker, Hugo Sánchez, Michael Laudrup and Diego Maradona. It turned out to be Diego Maradona’s World Cup and perhaps (with the possible exception of Garrincha at the 1962 World Cup) no player before had managed to rise above all other players in a World Cup tournament like Maradona had done in 1986.

 The tournament format consisted of a group stage phase of six groups (two teams from every group plus four third-placed teams advanced on to the next round) and a knockout stage phase. The knockout stage phase came directly after the group stage phase instead of a second group stage phase. This approach restored the old set-up used in 1970 and in several other previous editions of the World Cup tournament. 

  The 1986 World Cup was played in twelve stadiums in eleven cities. The biggest stadium was Estadio Azteca. It was  built with a capacity to hold 114, 600 people and it also became the first stadium to host final match of the the World Cup on two different occasions (the first occasion was back in 1970). 

  Two group stage rounds had been put into effect when the expansion to 24 teams had been implemented back in 1982. However, in 1986 a different format was used with 16 out of 24 teams advancing from the groups to the knockout stage. This resulted in two teams (Bulgaria and Uruguay) advancing to the knockout stage phase despite them losing one match and not winning any of their matches.

  Surprisingly, the biggest sensation in the group stage phase was not Argentina, but arguably Denmark!!! In their first appearance ever at the FIFA World Cup, they won all games in the group stage phase, owing much to the team's attack which consisted of Michael Laudrup  and Preben Elkjær. Sadly, the saga would abruptly end in the knockout stage after a 1-5 defeat against Spain.

  The home team (Mexico) was boosted by a passionate audience and the presence of the Real Madrid striker Hugo Sánchez would redeem the nation until they experienced a cold encounter at the hands of West Germany in the Quarter-final.

     One of the high points of the tournament was the quarter-final match between Brazil and France in which France finally won after a penalty shoot-out!!! Sadly, France would fall at the hands of West Germany. In the final, West Germany would ultimately be defeated when confronted with Diego Maradona's Argentina. The Argentinian national team also had great impactful players in that final match and throughout the tournament such as Jose Luis "Tata" Brown, Oscar Ruggeri, Ricardo Bochini, Jorge Burruchaga, Sergio Batista and Jorge Valdano.    

 The 1986 FIFA World Cup was made up of 52 matches in which 132 goals were scored (2,54 goals per  match). Eight red cards and 135 yellow cards were shown during the tournament.     

 Argentina, Italy, Bulgaria, Mexico, Paraguay, Belgium, Soviet Union, France, Brazil, Spain, Denmark,  West Germany, Morocco, England and Poland advanced from the group stage phase into the knockout stage. 

  Argentina, West Germany, France, England, Mexico, Belgium, Brazil and Spain won the matches in the Round of 16.

 Argentina, West Germany, France and Spain won the matches in the Quarter-finals. Against England in the Quarter-finals, Diego Maradona scored two of arguably the greatest goals ever witnessed at the World Cup (after Pele's goal in 1958) and in world football history. The first goal was the infamous 'Hand of God' goal (he scored this goal with his hand without the referee and the linesmen noticing) and the second often less talked about goal was referred to as 'The Goal of the Century'. The match was a heated affair built off the back of the previous political turmoil which existed from the Falklands War between England and Argentina. Argentina failed to win the war to reclaim the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas to Argentinians) four years earlier. This football victory was symbolic in so many ways because it not only gave Argentinians the chance to restore their national pride and get some form of indirect payback against England for the outcome of the war but it also cemented Diego Maradona's Legendary status at the top of the Pantheon of the Greats (alongside Messi and Pele) when it came to football and sports in general. He truly immortalized his name in the archives of football history as one of the all time greats based on his outstanding performances and heroics at the 1986 World Cup.     

 Argentina and West Germany won the semi-finals and would go onto the final. France defeated Belgium in the third place playoff match and Argentina defeated West Germany in the final by 3-2.  

Participating Teams: Algeria, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Hungary, Italy, Iraq, Mexico, Morocco, Northern Ireland, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Soviet Union, Spain, South Korea, West Germany and Uruguay.  

Cities and Stadiums: Mexico City (Estadio Azteca), Mexico City (Estadio Olímpico Universitario), Guadalajara (Estadio Jalisco), Puebla (Estadio Cuauhtémo), San Nicolás de los Garza (Estadio Universitario), Monterrey (Estadio Tecnológico), Nezahualcóyotl (Estadio Neza 86), Irapuato (Estadio Sergio León Chávez), Zapopan (Estadio Tres de Marzo), Querétaro (Estadio La Corregidora), León (Estadio Nou Camp) and  Toluca (Estadio Nemesio Díez). 

Average World Cup Match Attendance: 46,026 

Top Scorers: Gary Lineker (6 goals), Diego Maradona (5 goals), Emilio Butragueño (5 goals) and Careca (5 goals).

1st, 2nd and 3rd Place: Argentina (Winner), West Germany (Runners' Up) and France (Third Place)

Source Information: https://www.footballhistory.org/world-cup/1986-mexico.html           

At 11 v 11 Football Channel, we are dedicated to providing high-quality sports equipment and apparel to athletes of all levels. Our mission is to empower athletes to achieve their full potential through our products and services.

What's a product or service you'd like to show.

What's something exciting your business offers? Say it here.

 The 15th World Cup was played in the United States of America (USA) from 17 June to 17 July. The final stage of the FIFA World Cup Tournament was preceded by a qualification stage which included 147 national teams. Among these 24 teams would go on to the final World Cup tournament, which included the automatically qualified United States of America (USA) as the home team and Germany as the reigning World Champions. Greece, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia each succeeded in qualifying for the World Cup for the first time in their respective histories. 

 Since the 1990 World Cup had produced the lowest goals per match figure ever in the history of the tournament, FIFA made some changes with the idea to create a more offensive game in the 1994 World Cup. The goalkeeper would no longer be allowed to take up the ball with his hands if the ball had come from a teammate. Another rule change was that a player would get a red card if that player had fouled another player with the ball and only the goalkeeper was between himself and the goal. A third rule change was that a team gained three instead of two points for a win. 

 The referees had also got instructions to be harder on fouls and the linesmen were instructed to blow for offside only when completely sure (a somewhat strange criterion). Apart from the new rules the referees would for the first time no longer wear traditionally black shirts.

 From one perspective the 1994 World Cup was characterized by attacking game but the rule changes failed to achieve their intended goals (this was relatively speaking, the goals per match were actually not much higher than in 1990).

   The same set-up was used as in the previous World Cup tournament. The teams were divided into six four team groups from which the best two teams in each plus four third placed teams advanced to the knockout stage phase. 

 The 1994 World Cup was played in nine cities and with the same amount of arenas. For the first time some matches would be played indoor, in the Pontiac Silverdome. The USA 94 World Cup final match was held at the Rose Bowl (pictured above) and it was a grueling match-up between Roberto Baggio's Italy and Romario's Brazil under the hot scotching California sunny skies. 

 The two biggest sensations in the USA 94 tournament were Sweden and Bulgaria. Sweden was elevated to a new level by players such as Tomas Brolin and Martin Dahlin and they were near their second ever World Cup final match. Bulgaria was led and inspired by the Barcelona player Hristov Stoichkov. they too could have reached their first ever World Cup final match. Sadly, both teams would meet each other in the match for third place instead. 

 The World Cup trophy would once again be lifted by Brazil (for the first time since the Pele era) and their striker Romario was arguably the biggest reason for this accomplishment. Although much respect has to be given to other Brazilian players such as Bebeto (he and Romario formed one of the most exciting attacking duos ever seen in the World Cup), Branco, Mazinho, Dunga (the captain of the Brazilian squad and a formidable defender at the time) and Claudio Taffarel (Brazil's outstanding goalkeeper at the tournament). Aside from Roberto Baggio the Italians also had their own squad of star-studded players such as Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi, Alessandro Costacurta, Dino Baggio, Demetrio Albertini and Roberto Donadoni. They were also led by the legendary Italian manager Arrigo Sacchi. However, the last game was an example of how hesitant and careful a final in big football tournaments sometimes tend to be.

  Two unfortunate events which occurred chiefly on the pitch overshadowed the sporting aspects of the tournament. The first event was in connection to Diego Maradona. He had to abruptly and disgracefully depart from the tournament after testing positive for ephedrine, a banned substance used for weight loss to which he strongly denied having any intention or knowledge of willingly taking to boost his performance levels. Maradona had made a comeback into the Argentinian national team and had lost 20 pounds in a short time. He showed some brilliance on the field against Greece, but Argentina had to manage without him in the remaining matches (his substitute Ortega got introduced into the team, he had a playing style which mirrored Maradona's). Sadly, the damage to the image of the Argentinian national team also affected their performances on the field and they were subsequently eliminated from the tournament.

 The second event to cast a dark shadow over the tournament was the gruesome murder of the Colombian defender Andrés Escobar whose unlucky own goal against the United States of America (USA) would lead to him getting murdered after he returned to Colombia.

 The 1994 FIFA World Cup was made up of 52 matches in which 141 goals were scored (2,71 goals per match). A new record in the tournament's history was made by Russian Oleg Salenko who became the first player to score five goals in one match. Another record was set by the legendary Cameroonian Roger Milla, who became the oldest player (42 years and 39 days) to play in the tournament. 

Brazil would defeat Italy in the final and for the first time in World Cup history the final match would be a draw after both ordinary match time and extra time. Therefore, the match would be decided by a penalty shootout in which Brazil won after Italy's Roberto Baggio had missed Italy's third penalty during the penalty shoot-out despite his previous outstanding performances throughout the tournament. 

Participating Teams: Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Colombia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States of America (USA). 

Cities and Stadiums: Los Angeles (Rose Bowl), San Francisco (Stanford Stadium), Detroit (Pontiac Silverdome), New York (Giants Stadium), Dallas (Cotton Bowl), Chicago (Soldier Field), Orlando (Citrus Bowl), Boston (Foxboro Stadium) and Washington D.C. (RFK Stadium).

  Average World Cup Match Attendance: 68,991

Top Scorers: Hristo Stoichkov (6 goals), Russia Oleg Salenko (6 goals), Romário (5 goals), Roberto Baggio (5 goals), Jürgen Klinsmann (5 goals) and Kennet Andersson (5 goals).

1st, 2nd and 3rd Place: Brazil (Winner), Italy (Runners' Up) and Sweden (Third Place).

Source Information: https://www.footballhistory.org/world-cup/1994-unites-states.html

At 11 v 11 Football Channel, we are dedicated to providing high-quality sports equipment and apparel to athletes of all levels. Our mission is to empower athletes to achieve their full potential through our products and services.

What's a product or service you'd like to show.

What's something exciting your business offers? Say it here.

 The 17th World Cup was played in South Korea and Japan from 31 May to 30 June. For the first time ever the World Cup tournament was held in Asia and for the first time ever host-ship was shared by two nations. A total of 199 nations were involved in the  qualification. This was a new record. Finally, 32 teams would be competing in the final tournament (including the three automatically qualified nations made up of the two host nations and the reigning World Champions France). China, Ecuador, Senegal and Slovenia all entered the tournament for the first time in their respective histories. 

  South Korea and Japan were hardly obvious candidates as hosts for the biggest football tournament in the world.  Instead of bringing the action to a place associated with football tradition, the reason for the choice was mainly based on an attempt to expand the game into a new market with billions of people.

  The same model from the previous tournament (France 98) was kept. There was a first stage which consisted of group stage play then two teams from eight groups would advance on to play in the knockout phase which consisted of four rounds. These fours rounds in the knockout phase was made up of  a round-of-16 stage, a quarter-final stage, a semi-final stage and a final stage (the final consisted of a third place playoff match and the World Cup final match).

 The matches would be played in ten stadiums in South Korea and ten stadiums in Japan. The final would be played at the International Stadium Yokohama (pictured above) in the Japanese city of Yokohama. This was also the stadium with the largest capacity (70,000). 

  The French team which had won both the previous World Cup in 1998 and the 2000 European Championship had arrived as one of the favorites. However, France was inflicted by injuries on their two key players: Zinedine Zidane (although he would join the team in the third game) and Robert Pires. The road for another World Cup triumph would turn into a nightmare for the French team. It began in the first match against Senegal – a former French colony whose national team consisted of players which played in French clubs with some of these players even playing in the French second division. Senegal won the match in a dramatic and monumental fashion. France would be placed last in the group with only one point and no goals scored.  

  The French failure was one of many great failures in FIFA World Cup 2002 (It also gave birth to what has become known as the "Champions' Curse" in the World Cup). Argentina were perhaps the biggest favorites before the tournament, Argentina but they didn't go through to the knockout stage. Although the analyses did conclude that Argentina had more possessions and more corners than any other team. The Argentines managed only to score twice. This may have been because they used a  tactical formation which made them easy to defend against. 

 Portugal would meet the same fate as Argentina whilst Italy would be eliminated directly in the knockout stage against South Korea. 

 South Korea would be the surprise package of the tournament. After defeating Italy, they eliminated Spain in the Quarter-finals. Ultimately, the road would end for them with a  0-1 defeat in the Semi finals against Germany. The marvelous success achieved in this tournament by this completely unknown Asian team at the time would be critically questioned for so many controversial reasons. Some people felt that the team had been favored by the referees throughout particularly during the game against Spain. Spain had two goals rejected by controversial refereeing decisions.

  The final match would be played by the two superpowers in the game: Brazil and Germany. Until that point both teams strangely enough had never had faced each other before in a World Cup match. Germany was once again in a final without particularly impressing much in the tournament so far. Furthermore, one of their most important players, Michael Ballack, was excluded in the final match.

Looking back at the 2002 World Cup, it is obvious that most of the great teams and the great players failed to perform at their expected levels. One plausible reason was because many of them were already tired and they were experiencing fatigue before the start of the tournament. The number of matches in the World Cup qualifications and also in the big European club competitions had increased. The reason behind this increase was essentially because money could be made from matches for media companies and other organizers involved but at the expense of the players' health. When it was time for the biggest sporting event on earth to take place the main attractions (i.e. the star players) were unfortunately not always in the best physical shape to play. Sadly, this problem continues to persist even today in the world of football and keeps getting worse with each passing year and football seasons.

     The 2002 FIFA World Cup was made up of 64 matches in which 161 goals were scored (2,52 goals per match). 

Brazil would defeat Germany by 2-0 in the match. They had an amazing group of legendary players such as Ronaldinho, Cafu, Roberto Carlos, Kaka, Lucio, Ronaldo (R9), Gilberto Silva, Rivaldo, Denilson, Kleberson, Edmilson, Dida and Juninho. Whilst the Germans had an outstanding striker in the form of the great Miroslav Klose. This triumph gave the Brazilians the opportunity to reclaim not only their lost World Cup title from 1998, but their fifth title as the dominant football nation on the planet. It would also be the perfect match for Ronaldo (R9)' s redemption story to be completed as he sought to erase the tragic memories of the events which he experienced from the last 1998 World Cup final match and not even Germany's Legendary Goalkeeper and Captain Oliver Kahn (the best Goalkeeper in the world at the time) could stop him from achieving his destiny. Ronaldo also introduced an iconic haircut look for this edition of the world cup which would go on to become part of his brand identity and player image in connection to popular football culture.   

Participating Teams: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, Ecuador, England, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Senegal, Slovenia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, United States of America (USA) and Uruguay. 

Cities and Stadiums: Seoul (Seoul World Cup Stadium), Daegu (Daegu World Cup Stadium), Busan (Busan Asiad Stadium), Incheon (Incheon Munhak Stadium), Ulsan (Ulsan Munsu Football Stadium), Suwon (Suwon World Cup Stadium), Gwangju (Gwangju World Cup Stadium), Jeonju (Jeonju World Cup Stadium), Daejeon (Daejeon World Cup Stadium), Jeju (Jeju World Cup Stadium), Yokohama (International Stadium Yokohama), Saitama (Saitama Stadium 2002), Shizuoka (Shizuoka Stadium), Osaka (Nagai Stadium), Miyagi (Miyagi Stadium), Ōita (Ōita Stadium), Niigata (Niigata Stadium), Ibaraki (Kashima Soccer Stadium), Kobe (Kobe Wing Stadium) and Sapporo (Sapporo Dome).  

  Average World Cup Match Attendance: 42,269

Top Scorers: Ronaldo (8 goals), Miroslav Klose (5 goals) and Rivaldo (5 goals) 

1st, 2nd and 3rd Places: Brazil (Winner), Germany (Runners' Up) and Turkey (Third Place)

Source Information: https://www.footballhistory.org/world-cup/2002-korea-japan.html

At 11 v 11 Football Channel, we are dedicated to providing high-quality sports equipment and apparel to athletes of all levels. Our mission is to empower athletes to achieve their full potential through our products and services.

What's a product or service you'd like to show.

What's something exciting your business offers? Say it here.

The 19th World Cup was played in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July. After a qualification phase which included a total of 204 national teams (a record), 32 teams would be given a place in the final tournament which included the automatically qualified host nation South Africa. Slovakia and Serbia would make their first appearances in this edition of the tournament. 

  The 2010 FIFA World Cup would be historical in terms of the location. It was the first time ever that the tournament was played in Africa (Morocco had been the closest to being the hosts in 1994 with 7 votes against and 10 votes for USA). But this time it was decided that the tournament would take place in Africa and consequently only African countries were allowed to be candidates for the hosting rights for the 2010 World Cup – Egypt and Morocco were the closest in the bidding process after South Africa. 

 The football audience which had followed the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup on television had been acquainted with the brass instrument named the Vuvuzela. It filled the stadiums with a high and monotonic sound during the games. Since the appearance of Vuvuzelas disturbed a part of the spectators and conceivably the players as well. There was a debate concerning the prohibition of the Vuvuzelas before the tournament. However, no official ban took place.

 The format for this tournament was copied from the previous tournament. This meant that there was a first round which was made up of a group stage phase consisting of eight groups of four teams. The top two teams from each group then proceeded to a second round which was made up of a knockout stage phase.  

  The matches would be played in nine cities and in ten stadiums. Soccer City Stadium, which is also known as FNB Stadium (National Bank Stadium), was the main stadium of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. It is located in the Soweto district southwest of Johannesburg, adjacent to the South African Football Association and the FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee. It hosted both the opening game of the 2010 World Cup and the final. The stadium has the shape of an African pot. The designer integrated many African elements into the stadium architecture to emphasize the significance of the occassion being in Africa.  In addition, it also hosted four other group stage matches, a quarter-final match and a semi-final match. Nelson Mandela appeared at the Soccer City Stadium for the closing ceremony, which was his last public appearance. On December 10, 2013, Mandela's memorial service was also held at the stadium. Soccer City Stadium expanded its capacity from its original 80,000 to 94,700 for the 2010 World Cup. It was built exclusively for football.  

 Brazil, Germany, Spain and Argentina were four of the biggest favorites before the start of the tournament. Argentina had the spectacular duo of Diego Maradona as their coach and Lionel Messi as their star player on the pitch. After some  impressive performances by the Argentinian side, they would be stopped from advancing by a 0-4 loss against Germany in the Quarter-finals. Brazil would also be eliminated in the Quarter-finals by the Netherlands. Spain and Germany, the other two great favorites, would meet in one of the Semi-finals and the result would be a reprise on the Euro 2008 final between the two teams. 

The once lesser known football nation of Ghana had emerged as the dark horses of the tournament. At the start of the tournament no one had ever imagined or predicted that the Black Stars (the nickname for the Ghanaian Men's Senior National Team side) would rise to the occassion of representing the African continent and put up such sensational performances throughout the World Cup. At one point in time some had even regarded them as potential favorites to shock the football world and actually do the impossible act of becoming the first African country to win the FIFA World Cup on the African Continent! The Ghanaian team kept growing from strength to strength as they kept on advancing further into the later stages of the tournament. They made history by becoming the third African country (after Cameroon in 1990 and Senegal in 2002) to make the quarter-finals of the World Cup. Sadly, it would all end in tragedy and tears on the night that they faced Uruguay in what some still consider today to be one of the most dramatic and heavily contested quarter-final matches in the history of the tournament. Ultimately, Ghana would be defeated on penalty shoot-outs by Uruguay.  However,  the controversial actions of Uruguay's Luis Suarez's handball which was provocatively committed through his attempted save of the ball from entering into the net of Uruguay's goal still stirs up bitter memories in the hearts and minds of Ghanaians. Even till today many still wonder what could have been and what Ghana could have possibly gone on to achieve in the semi-final and final if he had just let the ball go into the back of the goal net. Although some still point to the fact that Ghana's star player at the time (Asamoah Gyan) missed the penalty given to him by the referee from Suarez's distasteful action. It still does not negate the fact that the penalty would not have been necessary if Luis Suarez had not chosen to be a 'secondary goalkeeper' on that night and stopped the ball from going into the goal with his hands to save his country from defeat at the hands of an African team which they considered to be inferior to them in terms of football. 

Anyone who refers to this gross misconduct by Luis Suarez as a 'Second Hand of God' does so out of ignorance and without realizing that this is an insult to the brilliance of the original 'Hand of God' goal orchestrated by the great Diego Maradona back in 1986. In fact one should consider that this goal by Suarez ought to be referred to instead as one given by the 'Hand of the Devil'. Nevertheless, many people would have done what Suarez did if it meant the chance of advancing into the final to win the World Cup and we can't hold that against him. However, for Ghanaians this match was both a blessing and a curse, Ghana as a football nation is still trying to recover back it's fallen football identity in the hope of one day advancing further in the World Cup because in spite of the fact that this tournament did cement the country's image as a formidable force both on the continent and in the football world. Many Ghanaians would argue that chronic corruption, political mismanagements, poor infrastructure, poor leadership, limited resources, attention and investment by the Ghana football Association (GFA) has led to the team being a shadow of its former self in all football competitions. It really is a sad fall from grace for such a football powerhouse on the African continent.

     On the other of the Semi-finals bracket, the Netherlands would defeat Uruguay in a somewhat brutal game. The brutality which escalated from the Netherlands side in the final should have resulted in two red cards.

  When Andrés Iniesta scored the only goal in the game for Spain on extra time against the Netherlands in the final match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It felt morally deserved for Spain. They were the reigning European champions at the time and they had managed to win the World Cup as well. West Germany were the only other team before them to accomplish this historic feat. Germany would defeat Uruguay in the third place playoff match to claim the bronze medals.  

 The 2010 FIFA World Cup was made up of 64 matches in which 145 goals were scored (2,27 goals per match). 

 Spain would beat the Netherlands in the final by 1-0, after extra time. 

Participating Teams: Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Honduras, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, North Korea, Paraguay, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, United States of America (USA) and Uruguay.

 Cities and Stadiums: Johannesburg (Soccer City, FNB Stadium), Johannesburg (Ellis Park Stadium), Cape Town (Cape Town Stadium), Durban (Moses Mabhida Stadium), Pretoria (Loftus Versfeld Stadium), Port Elizabeth (Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium), Polokwane (Peter Mokaba Stadium), Nelspruit (Mbombela Stadium), Bloemfontein (Free State Stadium) and Rustenburg (Royal Bafokeng Stadium).  

 Average World Cup Match Attendance: 49,669  

Top Scorers: Thomas Müller (5 goals), Wesley Sneijder (5 goals), David Villa (5 goals) and Diego Forlan (5 goals) 

    1st, 2nd and 3rd Places: Spain (Winners), Netherlands (Runners' Up) and Germany (Third Place)

 Source Information: https://www.footballhistory.org/world-cup/2010-south-africa.html

Source Information: https://knowsize.com/soccer-city-stadium-size/article

At 11 v 11 Football Channel, we are dedicated to providing high-quality sports equipment and apparel to athletes of all levels. Our mission is to empower athletes to achieve their full potential through our products and services.

At 11 v 11 Football Channel, we believe that sports have the power to bring people together and create positive change in the world. Our vision is to inspire and empower athletes of all levels to achieve their goals and reach their full potential.

What's something exciting your business offers? Say it here.