FIFA World Cup History - Part 1 Quiz

Answer: 1978

As it was the case with Italy in 1934, Argentina's staging of the 1978 World Cup remains highly controversial due to its political use. Two years prior, a military coup had taken place in the country, and the de facto leaders intended to use the competition to try and raise their public image.

The format from the previous World Cup was retained, and the first group match saw a new tournament first: Tunisia, making their debut in the World Cup, became the first African team to win a match, when they defeated Mexico by 3-1, althought they did not progress to the next stage. In another curious note, France, despite being eliminated at the first round, managed to use their entire 22-man squad during the three games played, making it the first time that a team used their full roster during the tournament.

The Netherlands, sans Johan Cruyff, reached the final match for the second time in a row, but lost again, this time to Argentina 3-1 after extra time (they were beaten 2-1 by West Germany in the 1974 Final). The host nation celebrated their first title but it was, however, marred by suspicions of match-fixing, corruption, and the arranging of the match schedules to give them the advantage of knowing where they stood in anticipation of their own matches.

Answer: 1954

The fifth World Cup, held in Switzerland, was a goal festival: a number of scoring records were set in this edition. Among those, the 1954 Cup saw a total of 140 goals in 26 matches, making for an average of 5.38 goals per game. This was in part thanks to a notable quarter-final match between Austria and Switzerland, which ended with a score of 7-5, the highest scoring World Cup match (total of 12 goals). Six days earlier, Hungary had beaten West Germany 8-3.

The team that was also greatly responsible for the high goal count is Hungary, scoring 27 goals in their 5 matches. They took part in the two matches hinted at in the question: the quarter-final match against Brazil ("The Battle of Bern"), one of the most violent matches in WC history) and the final against West Germany, another shocking result, as Hungary, the favorites, saw a 2-0 lead turn in to a 2-3 defeat, giving the Germans their first title. The match is known in Germany as "The Miracle of Bern".

Answer: 1930

The inaugural staging of the FIFA World Cup took place in Uruguay in 1930. Jules Rimet, the president of FIFA back in that year, chose the South American country as it had emerged victorious in the previous two Summer Olympics, being regarded as a powerhouse in football. Plus, the country was celebrating the centenary of its first constitution (which is why the main stadium, built for the ocassion, was called "Centenario").

Many European nations were invited to take part, but most of them declined, citing the high cost of the travel to South America, which was mainly by water at the time. In the end, only four European teams attended the competition (Belgium, France, Romania and Yugoslavia), being an all-time low in this matter. At the same time, it was the tournament with the most teams from South America (7: Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay). The other two contestants were Mexico and the USA.

The final match was a thrilling 4-2 in favor of Uruguay against Argentina, making them the first recipients of the Jules Rimet Trophy. Being the first edition, it obviously holds a lot of "first" records, so I chose to highlight a different topic.

Answer: 1962

The competition returned to South America in 1962, being hosted by Chile. Despite losing Pele in their second match to an injury, Brazil went on to beat Czechoslovakia 3-1 and retain the title, being the second team to do so after Italy (who won in 1934 and 1938).

This edition was marred by very violent matches, with the clash between Italy and the hosts, dubbed "The Battle of Santiago", being the most infamous of all. But there were also some less dreadful marks as well, that are mentioned in the question text.

On one hand, this tournament was the first to have 6 joint top scorers, with 4 goals each (Garrincha and Vava from Brazil; Leonel Sanchez from Chile; Florian Albert from Hungary; Valentin Ivanov from the USSR; and Drazan Jerkovic from Yugoslavia), and on the other, this tournament featured a rare Olympic goal (i.e. a goal scored straight from a corner kick, with no other players touching the ball), the first in the history of the WC. It was scored by Colombian player Marcos Coll, in a 4-4 draw against the USSR.

Answer: 1970

Mexico's first hosting of the World Cup was witness to two important new rules of play, which became part of the essence of the sport. First of all, teams were allowed to make in-game substitutions, which was not contemplated in the previous stagings. Second of all, referees could now issue yellow and red cards to caution or send off players, respectively. This was due to the need of using a universal method of sanctioning players that was easy for everyone to understand. In this tournament, however, no red cards were shown, with the first red-card dismissal happening in the following edition (1974, Carlos Caszely of Chile vs. West Germnay).

This 1970 edition is ranked as one of the best tournaments by many fans and the media, with memorable games and strong offensive play by most teams. A historic match was the thrilling semi-final between Italy and West Germany, that saw the Italians win 4-3 after two overturns in the score, and 5 goals scored in extra time, a feat unlikely to be repeated -- it was 1-1 at full time, after West Germany equalised in the 90th minute. West Germany took the lead in the 94th, Italy equalised in the 98th and then took the lead back in the 104th. Germany then equalised, again, in the 110th! Italy scored the winner in the 111th.

The most eye-catching team of all was Brazil. With a squad that is considered by many as the greatest World Cup team of all time, they won the championship in style, by winning every single one of their matches, and with their striker Jairzinho scoring goals in each of them. This was Brazil's (and Pele's) third World Cup title, and as the rules stipulated, they earned the right to permanently keep the Jules Rimet Trophy.

Answer: 1934

The second World Cup, held in Italy, was the first edition that required qualification rounds to define which teams would compete in the final stage. This is because the teams that played the 1930 edition were all formally invited to do so, without the need for qualifying.

Italy 1934 was one of only two editions (1934 and 1938), to not feature a group stage: the 16 teams (which included the first African participant, Egypt) were paired up in a knockout fashion, meaning that the finalists only played a total of four matches. Uruguay, the reigning champions, declined to participate, being the only time in history that the previous winner did so.

This tournament was also infamous for its heavy political use by the Fascist regime that ruled Italy. The host team took home the trophy after beating Czechoslovakia 2-1 in the final.

Answer: 1966

1966 saw the World Cup returning to European hands, after England managed a 4-2 win against West Germany after extra time, to lift the trophy on home soil, the first country to do so since Italy in 1934.

The final match at Wembley Stadium featured two "firsts". It was the first final that required extra time to be played, since the score was tied at 2-2 at the end of the regulation time and, also, it was the first time that a player scored a hat-trick in the final. This honor goes to England's Geoffrey Hurst, although one of his goals is still subject to some controversy, as it is not totally clear that the entire ball actually crossed the goal line after his shot bounced back down off the cross-bar. The cross-bar is now on display at Wembley Stadium.

Another notable fact from this World Cup were the surprising performances of two newcomers. One of them, North Korea, progressed from the group stage at the expense of Italy, and became the first Asian nation to reach the knockout phase in a FIFA WC. They could have gone even further, as they were leading their next match 3-0, but they were facing the other surprise of the tournament, Portugal who, led by their star Eusebio, turned back the score and won 5-3. The Portuguese would end up winning the bronze medal, with Eusebio being the tournament's top scorer. In a non-related topic, this edition saw the inclusion of the first mascot of the event: a lion named "Willie" dressed with a Union Jack jersey.

Answer: 1938

The third edition, held in France in 1938, was planned as an all knockout stage tournament just like the previous edition. Austria was one of the teams that qualified, but before the start of the tournament, the country was annexed by Germany and its players were asked to join the German team. Sweden, which was to play Austria at their first match, had a walkover to the quarter-finals due to their withdrawal.

Breaking a trend from the first two editions, the host team failed to take the trophy: France was eliminated at the second match by Italy, who would go on to secure their second title in a row after beating Hungary 4-2. For the first time, an Asian team entered the competition: the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) played their first ever World Cup, but exited early after a heavy 6-0 defeat against Hungary.

Answer: 1950

Finding a country to host the first post-war World Cup was almost as difficult as organizing it altogether. European countries weren't interested on hosting the tournament due to the devastation caused by the war. Brazil was originally bidding for the hosting rights for the 1942 edition, so they presented a similar bid, which was almost immediately accepted by FIFA.

There were also considerable difficulties during the preparation, since several qualified countries withdrew days before the competition started. In the end, there were a total of 13 teams (6 from Europe, 5 from South America, 2 from North America) -- and the last minute changes produced oddities such as a group with only two teams!

For the first and only time, the world champion was decided through a final group of four teams in a round robin format. By pure chance, it turned out that the last scheduled match was played between the only two teams that still had chances of finishing top of the group: Uruguay and Brazil. Due to their previous results, Brazil only needed a draw to win the cup, but Uruguay managed a shocking 2-1 victory and deprived the Brazilians of the chance to lift the trophy on home soil. The match is remembered as the "Maracanazo" (The Maracana Smash). It was played in the Maracana Stadium with an attendance of 199,854 (an all-time record for a WC or non-WC football match, which will probably remain unbroken).

Answer: 1958

Sweden was host to the 1958 edition, which is best remembered for being the debut tournament of Brazilian superstar Pele, who at only 17 years of age, helped his team win the cup for the first time and become the first American country to win the trophy in Europe. Brazil also played the first ever goalless match of the cup's history, against England.

On the other side of the goal spectre, the 1958 tournament set the record for the most goals scored by a single player in one edition, achieved by Just Fontaine from France with 13 goals. However, there is a little known fact that makes this edition truly unique: it was the first time that every single team managed at least one point. Even the 3 bottom ranked teams (Scotland, Austria and Mexico) held one of their games to a draw in the group stages.

Answer: 1974

The tenth edition of the World Cup was hosted by West Germany, and introduced the new trophy, designed by Italian artist Silvio Gazzaniga. The trophy is still in use, as it no team is eligible to keep it permanently, as was the case with the Jules Rimet Trophy, but any team can be allowed to keep a gold-plated replica if they win it three times (until then, the holders must return the replica to FIFA at the start of the following tournament).

In a change from the previous four formats, a new system, consisting of two group stages and one final match, was introduced in 1974. The first round consisted of four groups of four teams each, of which the top two would progress to the next stage. The eight qualified teams would then be placed in two new groups of four. The two group winners would then face each other in the final match, and the two runner-ups would play the third place match.

West Germany became champions for the second time (1954 was their first), after defeating a memorable Netherlands' team in the final. Even though they failed to win the title, that Dutch team is considered one of the best squads in history, with players such as Johan Cruyff, Ruud Krol, Johan Neeskens and Johnny Rep among others, and a creative and revolutionary style of play. The final goal of the 2-1 German victory was scored by Gerd Muller, being his 14th goal in World Cups and making him the all-time top scorer of the tournament's history at the time, a record he would hold for more than 30 years.

As a final curious fact, this cup was the only one to which both East and West Germany qualified. They even got to face each other at the first group stage, with East Germany winning 1-0.