20 World Cup facts
A few topics to make you sound cool this season.
- Every match at the inaugural 1930 World Cup in Uruguay was played in one city: Montevideo.
- Sweden’s Jan Olsson, wearing No. 2, was the defender that Dutch star Johan Cruyff famously bamboozled with his inventive “Cruyff Turn” at the 1974 World Cup in West Germany.
- Brazil’s Pele is the only player to win three World Cups: in 1958, 1962 and 1970.
- The number of players who recorded two hat tricks at the World Cup: Hungary’s Sandor Kocsis (both in 1954), France’s Just Fontaine (1958), West Germany’s Gerd Muller (1970) and Gabriel Batistuta (one in 1994 and one in 1998).
- Russia’s Oleg Salenko scored a tournament-record five goals in one game during a 6-1 win over Cameroon at the 1994 World Cup in the United States.
- Paolo Rossi was the top scorer at the 1982 World Cup in Spain with six goals, leading Italy to its third title.
- The number of days the World Cup trophy went missing when it was stolen prior to the 1966 Cup in England. A dog named Pickles, being taken out for a walk by his owner in South London, discovered the trophy wrapped in some newspapers at the bottom of some bushes a week after it was taken.
- Scotland has qualified for the World Cup on eight occasions. All eight times it failed to advance beyond the first round.
- Mexico lost a record nine straight games at the World Cup (1930, 1950-58).
- The number of minutes left in extra time of the 2006 World Cup final when France’s Zinedine Zidane head-butted Italian defender Marco Materazzi.
- Turkey’s Hakan Sukur scored 11 seconds into the game against South Korea in 2002, the quickest goal in World Cup history.
- Austria and Switzerland teamed up for the highest-scoring game in World Cup history in 1954 when they combined for 12 goals. Austria won 7-5.
- The number of teams that participated in the first World Cup in 1930 in Uruguay.
- German star Gerd Muller, regarded as one of the top strikers in the history of soccer, scored 14 career goals at the World Cup.
- The number of goals Brazil’s Ronaldo scored at three World Cups (1998, 2002 and 2006), a tournament record.
- Russian referee Valentin Ivanov brandished 16 yellow cards (tying a tournament record) in a second-round match at the 2006 World Cup in Germany between Portugal and the Netherlands.
- The age of Brazil’s Pele when he became the youngest player ever to score at the World Cup, in 1958 in Sweden.
- England’s Geoff Hurst is the only player in World Cup history to net a hat trick in the final, the first of his three goals against West Germany in 1966 coming in the 18th minute.
- Lucien Laurent scored for France in the 19th minute against Mexico in 1930, becoming the first player to score a goal at the World Cup.
- The 20th World Cup will be staged in 2014 in Brazil.
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