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🇺🇸 Bruce Arena. U.S. Soccer fired Steve Sampson shortly after the USA’s three-loss performance at France 1998 and replaced him with the most accomplished American coach to date: Bruce Arena, who had guided Virginia to five NCAA Division I titles and D.C. United to the first two MLS crowns.
In his first year at the helm, Arena guided the USA to its first ever win over Germany (3-0), and a 1-0 over Argentina in another friendly. En route to its runner-up finish at the 1999 Confederations Cup, Arena’s team beat Germany again (2-0).
At the 2002 World Cup, Arena guided the USA to 3-2 upset over Portugal in its opener and a 1-1 tie with host South Korea that earned it passage to the knockout stage — a feat the USA had achieved only as host in 1994 and at the inaugural 1930 World Cup.
A 2-0 round-of-16 win over Mexico sent the USA to the quarterfinals. It lost, 1-0, to eventual runner-up Germany but achieved what remains its best World Cup performance since reaching the semifinals of the 13-team 1930 World Cup.
🇲🇽 Azteca. In 1968, Mexico became the first Latin American country to host the Olympics when it held the 19th Summer Games. The 114,000-seat Azteca Stadium, completed in 1966, hosted Olympic soccer. It became the first stadium to host two World Cup finals — Pele‘s Brazil beating Italy, 4-1, in 1970 and Diego Maradona‘s Argentina defeating West Germany, 3-2, in 1986. (Rio’s Maracana has hosted the 1950 and 2014 finals.)
Mexico City sits 2,240 meters (7,400 feet) above sea level. The heart of the metropolis of 22 million people sits on what was once an island in Lake Texcoco. Many of the city’s greatest buildings sink up to 12 inches per year into landfill.
Field-level stands are 10 yards from the sidelines. Despite Azteca’s gargantuan size, all seats offer unrestricted views of the field. Credit goes to architect Pedro Ramirez Vasquez, who also designed one of the world’s greatest museums — the Museo Nacional de Antropologia.
• 2026: Now with a capacity of 83,000, Azteca will become stadium to host three World Cups — five 2026 games, including the opener and two knockout stage matches.
🇮🇹 Azzurri: The Italian national team — with a nickname from wearing House of Savoy azure blue jerseys since their 1911 debut — won the first of its four World Cup titles when it hosted the second World Cup in 1934. Italy fielded four Argentine-born players of Italian descent, known as oriundi. But its biggest star was Milan-born playmaker Giuseppe Meazza, who debuted for the national team three years earlier at age 17. He became Italy’s first world-famous soccer player after leading Italy to a 2-1 final win over Czechoslovakia.
🎥 Watch (👇): World Cup 1934 final (highlights)
Four years later in France, the Azzurri first met Norway and was booed by political exiles as the players gave a Fascist salute before the game. They squeaked by the Norwegians before beating France and Brazil to reach the final against Hungary. The inside forward trio of Meazza, Silvio Piola and Giovanni Ferrari led Italy to a 4-2 win. Whereas four years earlier it won the World Cup with four Argentines, Italy had only one oriundo, a Uruguayan.
Italy beat West Germany, 3-1, in the 1982 final in Madrid and defeated France in a shootout after a scoreless tie in the 2006 final in Berlin.
• More: 1930 World Cup Flashback
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🇺🇸 Esse Baharmast: The lone U.S. referee at the 1998 World Cup in France became the subject of major controversy for calling a penalty kick against defending champion Brazil that resulted in a 2-1 Norway win, eliminating Morocco.
“It was 36 hours of agony,” Baharmast said. “I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.” The media slammed Baharmast for a calling an infraction that none of the 16 TV cameras captured. British newspapers claimed the Iranian-born American referee didn’t have the experience for an important game.
But then a Swedish television station published a still frame showing Junior Baiano clearly pulling Tore Andre Flo’s jersey in the box.
Baharmast, who later reffed the inaugural MLS game in 1996 and the first MLS Cup, was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2022.
🎥 Watch: Esse Baharmast describe his decision to call a penalty for Norway
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🇺🇸 Walter Bahr. While a teacher at Frankford High School in his native Philadelphia, Bahr played on the USA team that beat England, 1-0, at the 1950 World Cup in Brazil. It was a ball from Bahr that Joe Gaetjens headed into England’s goal in Belo Horizonte for one of the World Cup’s greatest upsets.
Bahr scored in a 5-2 win over Cuba that qualified the USA for the World Cup in 1950 and often took charge of practices. “I was no leader,” Bahr said. “It just happened by accident that I was sometimes directing practice.” He said the USA’s first 1950 World Cup game revealed its potential: It led Spain, which would go on to finish fourth, on a 17th-minute goal until with nine minutes left the Spaniards struck three times for a 3-1 win. The USA lost, 5-2 to Chile in its final game.
Bahr, who won American Soccer League titles with the Philadelphia Nationals, captained the USA’s 1948 Olympic team. He started his illustrious college coaching career at his alma mater, Temple (1970-73), before taking charge of Penn State (1974-1988). Bahr long served as a U.S. Soccer ambassador and was its head of delegation for competitions such as the 1990 World Cup and youth World Cups.
• Family: Bahr’s sons Chris, Matt, and Casey all played in the NASL and Chris and Matt won Super Bowls as place kickers while daughter Davies Ann was an All-American gymnast.
• More: Remembering the great Walter Bahr (1927-2018)
🇧🇷 Belo Horizonte. The capital of the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais — “Beautiful Horizon” — is part of World Cup lore for two historic games.
At the 1950 World Cup, Joe Gaetjens‘ goal, set up by Walter Bahr, gave the USA a 38th-minute lead that with goalkeeping heroics by Frank Borghi held for 1-0 win over England. A team of American part-timers — Borghi was a funeral home director — had beaten “The Kings of Football.”
“If I hadn’t refereed the game myself, I would not have believed the result, no matter who had told me,” said Giovanni Galeati, the game’s Italian ref.
At the 2014 World Cup, Germany trounced host Brazil, 7-1, in the semifinals. It was 5-0 before the half-hour mark. Sixty-four years earlier, when Uruguay upset Brazil, 2-1, in Rio’s Maracana Stadium to win the 1950 World Cup, the debacle was dubbed Maracanazo, a word coined to describe a sudden catastrophe. The feeble Brazilian performance of 2014 became known as Mineirazo.
🇫🇷 Black, Blanc, Beur. The phrase “Black, Blanc, Beur” (“White, Black, North African”) was a popular slogan used to describe the host and champion French national team at the 1998 World Cup.
Les Bleus were celebrated as a symbol of a united, multicultural France at the time. In the starting lineup alone, Aimé Jacquet‘s squad included players were born in or the children of families with ties to Algeria, Armenia, Ghana, Guadeloupe and New Caledonia.
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🇺🇾 La Celeste. Uruguay, whose national team is nicknamed La Celeste (“The Sky Blue’), is per capita by far the most successful soccer nation.
Then with a population 2 million, Uruguay was named host of the first World Cup, in 1930, because it won the previous two Olympic tournaments and it offered to pay travel costs of all entrants. La Celeste beat Argentina, 4-2, in the final.
Uruguay clinched its second World Cup title in 1950 with a 2-1 comeback win over host Brazil in from of 200,000 fans. “Only three people have, with just one motion, silenced the Maracana: Frank Sinatra, Pope John Paul II and me,” said Alcides Ghiggia, who scored the gamewinner in the comeback victory.
Uruguay (current population 3.4 million) finished fourth in 1954, 1970 and 2010, and now heads its 14th World Cup. “Other countries have their history. Uruguay has its soccer,” said Ondino Viera, Uruguay’s coach at the 1966 World Cup.
🇲🇽 Color television. The first World Cup televised live worldwide via satellite and in color was the 1970 tournament hosted by Mexico.
To enable European television to air games in prime time for its audience, organizers scheduled kickoffs of some weekend games, including the final, in high noon heat. Nevertheless, this World Cup is still considered to have provided the most entertaining soccer in World Cup history, thanks much to Brazil — whose magic in bright yellow shirts and blue shorts in the green grass was finally witnessed globally in color.
Its attack-minded Samba-ball produced 19 goals in six games and a 4-1 win over Italy. The tournament’s 2.97 goals-per-game average has not been exceeded since.
(Also new at the 1970 World Cup, substitutions — two per game.)
• 1978: Argentine television was only black and white when it was named host of the 1978 World Cup. But FIFA required the Argentines to provide color broadcasts for the world feed. The host country’s residents still watched in black and white as only journalists viewing games in press centers got the color feed.
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🇸🇳 Papa Bouba Diop. Regional rivals Japan and South Korea competed so fiercely to host the first World Cup outside Europe and the Americas that FIFA settled on making them co-hosts of the 2002 World Cup.
Each country provided 10 venues. Japan got the final and the Koreans got the opening game, which pitted defending champion France against its former colony, Senegal.
Papa Bouba Diop earned the nickname “The Wardrobe” for his 6-foot-5 frame, but he scored, while on the ground, for a 1-0 Senegal win. France exited winless and goalless while Senegal reached the quarterfinals, losing to Turkey.
“I made Senegal famous,” said Bouba Diop, who died of ALS at the age of 42 in 2020.
The Lions of Teranga have qualified for the 2026 World Cup — their fourth World Cup — where they open on June 16 in East Rutherford, New Jersey, against … France.
• 2002 World Cup: Soccer America readers share their memories of the magical ride in South Korea
🇺🇸 Landon Donovan: There is a strong case to be made that Landon Donovan is the greatest player in U.S. men’s history.
He won a record six MLS titles — two with the San Jose Earthquakes (2001 and 2003) and four with the LA Galaxy (2005, 2011, 2012 and 2014) — but what sets him apart is his success with the USMNT, which includes four Gold Cup titles (2002, 2005, 2007 and 2013).
Donovan’s USMNT record includes 57 career goals (tied with Clint Dempsey for the most in USMNT history), of which a record five were scored in the World Cup (against Poland and Mexico in 2002 and against Slovenia, Algeria, and Ghana — three straight games — in 2010).
Donovan was 20 when he started all five games for the USA at the 2002 World Cup, where he won the award as tournament’s top young player. Eight years later, the USA was on the verge of exiting the tournament without a loss when he scored the most iconic goal in USMNT history, putting away the rebound of Dempsey’s shot in stoppage time to give the USA a 1-0 win over Algeria that moved it into the knockout stage.
🎥 Watch: The final 6 minutes of USA vs. Algeria
🎙️Listen: Ian Darke on his ‘Go, go USA!’ call of Landon Donovan’s goal
🎙️Listen: Landon Donovan and Tim Howard relive the Algeria goal
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🇵🇹 Eusebio. While Pele was the victim of the era’s violent soccer trend during the 1996 World Cup, Mozambican-born Eusebio (the “Black Panther”) ensured himself a place in history as one of the world’s greatest players by leading Portugal to third place.
Eusebio scored three first-round goals, including two that helped eliminate Brazil, and four goals in a 5-3 quarterfinal win over North Korea – which had upset Italy in the first round and took a 3-0 lead over Portugal. Eusebio finished with a tournament-leading nine goals.
• In the USA: After winning 11 Portuguese league title and a European Cup with Benfica, Eusebio won the 1976 NASL title with the Toronto Metros-Croatia. He also played for NASL’s Boston Minutemen and the Las Vegas Quicksilvers, and the ASL’s New Jersey Americans.
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🇫🇷 Just Fontaine: Born in Morocco to a Spanish mother, Just Fontaine began his career with USM Casablanca before moving to France, where he partnered with another French great, Raymond Kopa, at Reims.
The duo spearheaded the French offense at the 1958 World Cup, where Les Bleus rolled over opponents until falling to Brazil 5-2 in the semis.
Fontaine’s four goals in the 6-3 win over West Germany for third place gave him 13 goals in the tournament, still a World Cup record for goals in a single tournament.
His career ended in 1962 at the age of only aged 28. He had hardly played for two years after suffering a double leg fracture.
“We talk a lot about my record but I would definitely have swapped it for another five or six years, because soccer was my passion,” said Fontaine, who died in 2023 at the age of 89. “I was at the very top, and I was earning a lot of money at the time. It was not the money you see nowadays, it was five times the minimum wage, whereas now it would be more like one hundred times that.”
🎥 Watch (👇): Just Fontaine’s 13 goals at the 1958 World Cup
🇺🇸 Brad Friedel. Goalkeeping was a big part of the USA’s success during the span of 1990-2014 when it went to all seven World Cups and advanced to the knockout stage four times.
Tony Meola started in 1990 and 1998 and returned as a backup in 2002. Kasey Keller started the first two games in 1998 and all three in 2006. Tim Howard started all eight games over 2010 and 2014, ending with the memorable match against Belgium in 2014 (SA’s USMNT Report Card).
The best single tournament in goal was the work of Brad Friedel, who started all five games in the 2002 run to the quarterfinals.
Friedel was in goal for wins over Portugal 3-2 and Mexico 2-0 that saw Bruce Arena‘s boys through to the quarterfinals. He was just the second goalkeeper in World Cup history to save two spot kicks in regular time or overtime of the same tournament The first keeper: Pole Jan Tomaszewski in 1974.
Brad Friedel (World Cup 2002, saved penalty kicks)
• 74th minute on Lee Eul-yong (score: South Korea 0-1 USA; final score: South Korea 1-1 USA)
• 76th minute on Maciej Zurawski (score: Poland 3-0 USA; final score: Poland 3-1 USA.)
From now through June 8, Soccer America will publish a series of trivia quizzes, with multiple chances to win a free annual subscription.
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🇪🇸 Gijón. The northern Spain city was infamously host of a 1982 World Cup that, through no fault of its own, would be known as “The Disgrace of Gijon” and “Non-aggression Pact of Gijon.”
When West Germany, a 2-1 loser to Algeria in its opener, faced neighbor Austria in their final group game in Gijon, a 1-0 German win would see both the Germans and the Austrians through to the second round at Algeria’s expense.
After Germany went ahead in the 10th minute, the two teams spent the rest of the game hardly trying to score or even compete. The crowd of 40,000 jeered and chanted “Algeria, Algeria.” Spanish fans waved white hankerchiefs and chanted ‘Que se besen’ (“Let them kiss”). Algerian supporters waved cash at the players, and a German fan was seen burning a West Germany flag in disgust. The game indeed ended 1-0. Since then, FIFA schedules final group games at the same time to prevent collusion.
H
🏴 Geoff Hurst. At the 1966 World Cup, England coach Al Ramsey changed his team’s formation from a 4-3-3 to a 4-4-2. After starting slow with a 0-0 tie against Uruguay, the “Wingless Wonders” – inspired in attack by Bobby Charlton with a defense marshaled by Bobby Moore — reeled off wins against Mexico, France, Argentina and Portugal to reach the final against West Germany.
An 89th-minute goal by Wolfgang Weber tied the game at 2-2 and sent it into overtime. Geoff Hurst was the only player to score a World Cup final hat trick until Kylian Mbappé in 2022.
Hurst’s strike to give England a 3-2 lead was highly controversial as it hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced off the ground and back into play — with linesman Tofiq Bahramov ruling it had crossed the line. Hurst scored his third in the final minute for a 4-2 win and 93,000 fans in Wembley celebrated as Queen Elizabeth II presented Moore the trophy.
• Trivia: Hurst was one of the five 1966 World Cup final starters who played in the NASL later in their careers: Hurst (Seattle Sounders), Gordon Banks (Fort Lauderdale Strikers), Bobby Moore (San Antonio Thunder, Seattle Sounders), Alan Ball (Philadelphia Fury, Vancouver Whitecaps); Franz Beckenbauer (New York Cosmos).
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🇪🇸 Andres Iniesta. Spain, despite its rich soccer history, had one World Cup final four appearance to its name — finishing fourth in 1950 — going into the 2010 World Cup. It reached its first final, and faced the Netherlands.
The Dutch had played sparkling soccer but turned the final into an ugly affair that featured 14 yellow cards and one red card (although referee Howard Webb let Nigel de Jong stay on the field after he kung fu kicked Xabi Alonso in the chest in the first half).
Andres Iniesta’s goal with four minutes left in overtime gave Spain the 1-0 win and its first World Cup title.
🎥 Watch (👇): Andres Iniesta’s winner, from every angle
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🇧🇷 Jairzinho. Nicknamed the o Furacão (the Hurricane), Jairzinho scored in each game of Brazil’s six games during its 1970 World Cup win. Only Uruguay’s Alcide Ghiggia pulled off such a feat, but it was during the 1950 World Cup when Uruguay played only four games to win the title.
A winger who succeeded his hero Garrincha on the Seleção, Jairzinho scored twice in Brazil’s opening win over Czechoslovakia (4-1), then scored once against England (1-0), Romania (3-2), Peru (4-2), Uruguay (3-1) and, in the final, against Italy (4-1).
🎥 Watch (👇): Jairzinho’s solo golazo against Czechoslovakia
Jairzinho spent much of his post-playing career as a youth coach and is credited for discovering a 14-year-old Ronaldo while coaching São Cristóvão. Ronaldo led Brazil to its fifth World Cup title in 2002.
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🇩🇪 Der Kaiser. The Netherlands had dazzled at the 1974 World Cup with Totaalvoetbal going to the final against host West Germany, which also had a version of “Total Soccer.” Franz “Der Kaiser” Beckenbauer had revolutionized the role of the libero position. Originally an offensive midfielder, when he became a sweeper at Bayern Munich, Beckenbauer decided he could remain an offensive force with ventures forward that unsettled opponents used to man-marking. With a 2-1 win over Johan Cruyff and Co., the Germans lifted the World Cup in Munich.
Beckenbauer also starred for the Germans when they finished runner-up at the 1966 World Cup and third place at the 1970 World Cups. In 1977, while the reigning European Player of the Year, Beckenbauer joined Pele at the New York Cosmos. He played in the NASL through 1980, returned for the 1983 season, and won a total of three NASL titles.
His campaigning landed Germany the 2006 World Cup and he served as head of the organizing committee hailed for pulling off a “Summer Fairytale” tournament that included unprecedented fan festivals.
🇦🇷 Mario Kempes. Ahead of the 1978 World Cup, Argentina was one of the few world powers not to have lifted a World Cup, and Carlos Luis Menotti was charged with making it happen on home soil. Menotti advocated an emphasis on skill and his detractors mocked his style as fulibito — little soccer.
Despite Argentina’s top talent having been long been lured to Europe, he also declared he’d field a squad of domestic players. His one exception was Valencia’s Mario Kempes.
The Dutch were without Johan Cruyff, but still reached the final. There waited Argentina. Kempes scored his fifth and sixth goals of the tournament in a 3-1 overtime victory for the host, an attacked-minded team that featured three forwards and midfield motor Ossie Ardiles.
L
🏴 Gary Lineker. At the 1986 World Cup, England started with a 1-0 loss to Portugal and a scoreless tie with Morocco but reached the second round thanks to Lineker’s hat trick in a 3-0 win over Poland. Lineker struck twice in a 3-0 round of 16 win over Paraguay, which featured former New York Cosmos Julio Cesar Romero and Roberto Cabanas, to set up a quarterfinal clash with Argentina that was hyped up because the 1982 Malvinas/Falklands War.
🎥 Watch (👇): Gary Lineker’s 10 World Cup goals
Lineker scored his sixth goal to become tournament’s Golden Boot leading scorer but Diego Maradona stole the show with his “Hand of God” goal and his magnificent second in which he dribbled through half the England team.
During England’s fourth-place finish at the 1990 World Cup, Lineker won the Bronze Boot with four goals as England — one vs. Ireland, two penalty kicks against Cameroon, and a strike in England’s semifinal loss to West Germany.
M
🇿🇦 Nelson Mandela: South Africa, the first African nation to host the World Cup, had been banned, because of its Apartheid government, from international soccer from 1963 to 1992.
Nelson Mandela, who had been imprisoned for 27 years, credited South Africa’s exclusion from international sports — which also kept its rugby team, the Springboks, out of world championship play — for influencing the positive outcome in the 1992 whites-only referendum that ended Apartheid rule.
As South Africa’s first post-Apartheid president Mandela embraced sports as a way to unify and celebrate what he called the “Rainbow Nation,” and led the campaign to host in 2010.
Organizing Committee CEO Danny Jordaan said the World Cup would “strengthen our democracy … strengthen and consolidate the process of nation-building.”
Mandela, a week before his 92nd birthday, attended the 2010 final in Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg. He died Dec. 5, 2013.
🇧🇷 Maracanazo: Brazil has won a record five World Cup titles (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002) but has also experienced plenty of heartache.
Nothing compares to the national trauma surrounding the final game of the 1950 World Cup at the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro. All Brazil needed was a tie against neighbor Uruguay to clinch first place in the round-robin final round.
But Uruguay won 2-1 before 173,850 fans at the Maracanã. The loss has forever been known as the “Maracanazo” (the Maracanã blow). Considering everything surrounding the match a curse, the Seleção abandoned their traditional white kits for the now-famous yellow shirts. (It wasn’t until 2019 that they wore white again.)
Pelé was only 9 in 1950 when Brazil lost to Uruguay. He later confessed it was the first time he ever saw his father cry.
🎥 Watch (👇): Brazil vs. Uruguay, 1950 (Highlights)
🇦🇷 Diego Maradona. The Argentine dominated the 1986 World Cup as no player ever had, inspiring an otherwise unspectacular Argentine team to the title.
Maradona scored both goals in the 2-1 semifinal win over Belgium — the team that had beat up on him at the 1982 World Cup. He was hounded by Lothar Matthäus in the final against West Germany, but hit the pass that set up Jorge Burruchaga’s gamewinner in the 3-2 victory.
It was the quarterfinal against England for which Maradona will always be remembered for his “Hand of God” goal and his magnificent second in which he dribbled through half the English team.
Maradona also played at the 1990 World Cup, where Argentina lost to West Germany 1-0 on a late penalty kick, and the 1994 World Cup, where Argentina opened with a 4-0 win over Greece and 2-1 victory over Nigeria. But his international career ended when he was suspended for failing a doping test for ephedrine after the Nigeria match.
🇨🇲 Roger Milla. Cameroon became the first sub-Saharan African nation to reach the second round, where it beat Colombia in the round of 16 at the 1990 World Cup. The Indomitable Lions were led by 38-year-old Roger Milla, who scored four goals, each celebrated with a dance near the corner flag.
In the quarterfinals, the Indomitable Lions led England 2-1 with seven minutes left but paid the price for their reckless tackling and fell 3-2 in overtime on two Gary Lineker penalty kicks.
At the 1994 World Cup, Milla, at age 42, became the oldest player to score a World Cup goal in Cameroon’s 6-1 loss to Russia.
🎥 Watch: Roger Milla’s World Cup goals
🇩🇪 Miracle of Bern. West German beat Hungary 3-2 in the 1954 World Cup final played on the rainy Wankdorf Stadium field in Bern, one of the greatest upsets in World Cup history.
Hungary brought a 28-game undefeated streak into the match. It included a 6-3 win in 1953 and 7-1 win in 1954 over England and an 8-3 win over the Germans in the group stage of the World Cup.
The Germans were delighted that a rainstorm had soaked the field. They sported light-weight shoes with interchangeable screw-in studs designed by adidas founder Adi Dassler.
Watch: 1954 World Cup final (Highlights)
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🇨🇷 Keylor Navas. At the 2014 World Cup, Costa Rica was drawn into a group with three former World Cup winners and went undefeated vs. Uruguay (3-1), Italy (1-0) and England (0-0). The Ticos reached the quarterfinals for the first time in their history with a shootout win over Greece after a 1-1 round of 16 tie. Navas stopped Theofanis Gekas’ spot kick after several big saves in regulation and overtime.
The Netherlands ousted Costa Rica in the quarterfinals with a shootout win after a scoreless tie. Yet Navas was named Man of the Match, and became the first goalkeeper to take that honor in three games at a World Cup.
🎥 Watch (👇): Spectacular Keylor Navas at Brazil 2014
Now 39, Navas plays for UNAM in Mexico. He started his career with Saprissa and his time abroad included stints with Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain. Navas earned his 126th against Honduras in November 2025. He pulled off the shutout, but the scoreless tie sealed the Ticos’ elimination from the 2026 World Cup — denying Navas a fourth World Cup.
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🇮🇹 Oriundi. Italy hosted and won the 1934 World Cup with a 2-1 win over Czechoslovakia in the final.
Vittorio Pozzo’s starting lineup included three players of Italian origin — oriundi — who lived in Argentina, the 1930 World Cup runner-up that was upset at Italy for poaching its players and sent a third-string team to 1934 tournament.
The players included Luis Monti, who played for Argentina in the 1930 World Cup final (making him the only player to appear in two consecutive World Cup finals for different nations), Enrique Guaita, the outside right who scored the winning goal in the semifinal against Austria, and Raimundo Orsi, the outside right who scored the equalizer in the final.
Pozzo, who selected five oriundi on the 1934 team, famously defended his inclusion of those from the large Italian diaspora in South America, stating: “If they can die for Italy, they can play for Italy.”
P
• Panenka. The cheeky technique used on penalty kicks was introduced by Antonín Panenka to seal a shootout victory for Czechoslovakia over West Germany in the 1976 European Championship final.
The Panenka has been tried five times at the World Cup and converted four times. The USA’s 5-1 loss to Czechoslovakia in its return to the World Cup after 40 years would have been worse but for Michal Bilek‘s attempt to fool Tony Meola with a Panenka. It did not work.
The only Panenka that was attempted in a World Cup final was by Zinedine Zidane in 2006 when his shot hit the crossbar and bounced inches across the line for France’s early goal against Italy, which later won in a shootout after Zidane’s red card for head-butting Marco Materazzi.
If you were wondering where Brahim Diaz might have gotten the idea for his disastrous Panenka attempt that cost host Morocco the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations final against Senegal, teammate Achraf Hakimi chipped down the middle for the winning goal in the Lions of Atlas’ 3-0 shootout win over Spain at the 2022 World Cup.
🎥 Watch: World Cup Panenka attempts
🇺🇸 Bert Patenaude: The first World Cup hat trick was scored by Bert Patenaude, born in Fall River, Massachusetts, in the USA’s 3-0 win over Paraguay at the 1930 World Cup.
The 21-year-old forward had also scored in the opening 3-0 win over Belgium, and his four World Cup goals remained a U.S. record until Landon Donovan scored his fifth, against Ghana at the 2010 World Cup. The two wins sent the USA into the 1930 semifinals against Argentina, which thumped the Americans, 6-1.
Patenaude was inducted into the National Hall of Fame in 1971 and died in Fall River three years later, on his 65th birthday.
• More: 1930 World Cup Flashback
🇧🇷 Pele. Brazil brought a 17-year-old Pele to the 1958 World Cup. At age 9, Pele promised his father he’d help Brazil win a World Cup after seeing him cry following Brazil’s 1950 final loss to Uruguay. Pele scored the lone goal in a 1-0 quarterfinal win over Wales, a hat trick in the semifinal against France, and twice in the 5-2 final win over Sweden.
At 1962 World Cup, Pele pulled a muscle in the second game and missed the rest of the tournament that marked Brazil’s second World Cup win. At the 1966 World Cup, Pele was brutalized by Bulgarian and Portuguese defenders as Brazil exited in the group stage. He vowed afterward not to play for the Seleção again. “The only reason I decided to play in 1970 was because I was in great form with Santos,” he said. “The scars of 66 were still there though.”
At the 1970 World Cup in Brazil Mexico, Pele scored four goals — including Brazil’s first in its 4-1 final win over Italy — set up half a dozen, and won the Golden Ball. He played for the New York Cosmos in 1975-77 and significantly helped popularize soccer in the USA.
Q
🇬🇧 Queen Elizabeth II. The 1966 World Cup was the first hosted by a nation with a female head of state. Queen Elizabeth II inaugurated the tournament and handed the trophy to England captain Bobby Moore.
But the first country to host a World Cup while led by an elected female head of government — Chancellor Angela Merkel — was Germany in 2006. The second was Brazil, in 2014, with President Dilma Rousseff. The inaugural game of the 2026 World Cup takes place June 11 at Azteca Stadium in Mexico, which elected its first woman as president, Claudia Sheinbaum, in 2024 for a term through 2030.
🎥 Watch (👇): The 1966 World Cup final highlights and trophy ceremony
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🇫🇷 Jules Rimet. The Jules Rimet Trophy was named after Frenchman Jules Rimet, FIFA’s third president serving from 1921 to 1954.
As the first three-time World Cup winner, Brazil got to keep the Jules Rimet Trophy after winning the 1970 World Cup.
• More: 1970 World Cup Flashback
🇮🇹 Paolo Rossi. Two months before España 1982, the Italian forward returned from a two-year suspension for his part in a game-fixing scandal to lead the Azzurri to their third World Cup championship.
Italy managed to reach the second round without winning a game while scoring only two goals in three ties. It then — aided by the lax refereeing that plagued the tournament – defeated Argentina, 2-1, as Claudio Gentile beat up on Diego Maradona. Rossi then took over …
Rossi scored a hat trick as Azzurri booked a semifinal spot with a 3-2 victory over Brazil, the greatest Seleção – with Zico, Socrates and Falcao – not to lift the title. He scored twice in the semifinal against Poland and then scored again in Italy’s 3-1 win over West Germany in the final.
Few remember that Rossi, then 21, also starred at the 1978 World Cup, taking the Silver Ball as the tournament’s second best player, or that he went to the 1986 World Cup in Mexico only to never play due to fitness issues.
Rossi died in 2020 of lung cancer at the age of 64.
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🇯🇵 Samurai Blue. Japan had been unknown in the soccer world until it won the bronze medal at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico under German coach Dettmar Cramer, whom the U.S. Soccer Federation hired as a consultant to create its coaching education department in the early 1970s.
Japan first qualified for the World Cup 1998, and has qualified for each since. The first of the Samurai Blue’s four round-of-16 appearances came when it co-hosted the 2002 World Cup with South Korea and was knocked out with a 1-0 loss to Turkey.
At 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Japan beat former world champions Germany and Spain before losing a round-of-16 shootout to Croatia.
🎥 Watch (👇): Japan’s 2022 comeback win over Germany (highlights)
• Asian milestones: Japan became the first Asian team to beat a South American foe at a World Cup with a win over Colombia in 2018. The only Asian team more successful than Japan at the men’s World Cup is South Korea, which has made 12 appearances and finished fourth in 2002.
🇪🇸 Seville. Spain spread the 52 games out in 13 cities, including the Andalusian capital of Seville, the site of the highly dramatic and controversial France-West Germany semifinal.
The Michel Platini-led French played such entertaining soccer they were hailed as the Brazilians of Europe. But on what became known as “The Night of Seville,” the Germans took the lead through Pierre Littbarski before Platini equalized. Ten minutes into the second half, German goalkeeper Toni Schumacher charged out of his goal and flattened Patrick Battiston. German forward Karl-Heinz Rummenigge would later say, “I thought he was dead.” Battiston was stretchered off the field, but Dutch ref Charles Corver didn’t even call a foul.
🎥 Watch (👇): West Germany-France (highlights)
The French went up 3-1 in overtime but the Germans tied it with up within eight minutes of the final whistle to force the first penalty-kick shootout in World Cup history. The Germans prevailed — thanks to two saves by Schumacher, the man who should have been red-carded.
🇺🇸 Silverdome (1994). Some soccer purists around the world objected to a World Cup in a country without a great soccer history — a nation that didn’t even have a national pro league. U.S. media, on the other hand, wrote much about the violent soccer fans they expected. But it was a peaceful, friendly festival.
More than 3.5 million attended the 52 games — 1 million more than the previous best-attended World Cup and still a record today, even though the last seven World Cups had 64 games. The host USA played its first game, a 1-1 tie over Switzerland, at the Pontiac Silverdome, on natural grass crated in for the first World Cup game played in an indoor stadium.
“The crowd of 73,425 fans sweltered in one-hundred-degree temperatures and more than 80-percent humidity,” recalled Roger N. Faulkner, who spearheaded Detroit’s bid. “It was like playing in a hot dog stand,” said Switzerland’s coach Roy Hodgson.
• More: ‘You Can’t Get There from Here’: The story of the USA’s World Cup 1994 opener indoors and, after 44 years, a point! By Roger N. Faulkner
Milutin Soskic. Yugoslavia’s starting keeper at the 1962 World Cup conceded only one goal in four games on the way to the semifinals, where Yugoslavia fell, 3-1, to Czechoslovakia before finishing fourth.
“Two of our best players were afraid to fly, so they did not come,” Soskic said. “Maybe with them, we could have won it.”
In 1993, Soskic joined the USMNT as its goalkeeper coach under countryman Bora Milutinovic.
He went on to coach U.S. keepers under Milutinovic, Steve Sampson and Bruce Arena at the 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006 World Cups. Among the keepers he worked with were future Hall of Famers Tony Meola, Brad Friedel, Kasey Keller and Tim Howard.
Soskic died in 2022 at the age of 84 in Belgrade.
• More: 1962 World Cup Flashback
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🇫🇷 Lilian Thuram. At the 1998 World Cup, Lilian Thuram played right back on host France’s backline with Laurent Blanc, Marcel Desailly and Bixente Lizarazu. One of only two goals France conceded in its seven games was scored by Davor Šuker in the semifinals. Croatia had caught Thuram out of position and took a 46th-minute lead.
One minute later, Thuram stormed upfield and equalized with his first career goal for France. He scored his second in the 70th minute for a 2-1 France win. The French beat Brazil, 3-0, to win their first World Cup and Thuram won the Bronze Ball. Thuram, who finished runner-up with France in 2006, retired with a French record 142 goals — and two goals.
🎥 Watch (👇): Lilian Thuram become a national hero
Lilian’s oldest son, Marcus Thuram, was born a year before the 1998 World Cup final. He assisted on Kylian Mbappé‘s second goal in the 2022 World Cup final, which Argentina won ion PKs after a 3-3 tie. Khéphren Thuram, who is four years younger than Marcus, debuted for France in 2023 and played in three of France’s last four 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
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🇩🇪 “Uns Uwe.” At the 1970 World Cup, West German center forward Uwe Seeler became the first field player to play at four World Cups. He also became the first to score at least two goals at four tournaments, a feat matched only by Miroslav Kloese (2002-2014). The stocky 5-foot-6 Seeler was nicknamed “Der Dicke” (fatty) early in his career and became known as Uns Uwe (Our Uwe) — for his down-to-earth, man-of-the-people personality.
🎥 Watch (👇): Uwe Seeler stun England
Seeler, who spent his entire career at Hamburg SV, captained West Germany in its runner-up finish to host England at the 1966 World Cup. At the 1970 World Cup, he famously scored against England goalkeeper Peter Bonetti with a backward header — the 2-2 equalizer as the Germans overcame a two-goal deficit to win the quarterfinal, 3-2, in overtime.
V
🇧🇷 Vava. Brazil beat Czechoslovakia, 3-1, in the 1962 World Cup final to join Uruguay and Italy as two-time champions. Edvaldo Isidio “Vava” Neto, who scored Brazil’s final goal against the Czechs, had scored twice in the 1958 World Cup final victory over Sweden.
🎥 Watch (👇): 1962 World Cup final (highlights)
Vava is, along with Pele, Paul Breitner, Zinedine Zidane and Kylian Mbappé, one of five men to score in two World Cup finals.
Vava left Vasco da Gama after the 1958 World Cup for Atlético Madrid and returned to Brazil to play for Palmeiras before the 1962 World Cup. In 1968, he played a season in the NASL with the San Diego Toros at age 33 and scored five goals in 28 games.
🇿🇦Vuvuzelas. Dedicating 40,000 police to World Cup security at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa ensured a relatively trouble-free tournament in the crime-ridden nation but the din from vuvuzela horns drew universal complaints.
A study in the South African Medical Journal said fans subjected to the vuvuzela swarm were exposed to a deafening peak of more than 140 decibels, equivalent to standing near a jet engine.
In response, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said, “It’s a local sound, and I don’t know how it is possible to stop it. I always said that when we go to South Africa, it is Africa. It’s not Western Europe. It’s noisy, it’s energy, rhythm, music, dance, drums.”
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🏴 World Cup Willy. The nation that wrote the rules to the game 103 years earlier finally hosted the 1966 World Cup. And England created the first World Cup mascot — the soccer-playing lion World Cup Willy, the first in a long line of marketable World Cup icons.
• More: 1966 World Cup Flashback
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🇪🇸 Xavi. The 5-foot-7 midfield maestro was key to Spain winning the 2010 World Cup and the 2008 and 2012 European Championships. In South Africa, he led the World Cup in accurate passes and balls into the penalty area. He set up the gamewinners in Spain’s semifinal win over Germany and round of 16 win over Portugal.
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☭ Lev Yashin. The only goalkeeper to ever win the Ballon d’Or, 1963 winner Lev Yashin played for the Soviet Union at four World Cups (1954, 1958, 1962 and 1966). His acrobatic goalkeeping in dark shorts and jersey earned him the nickname “the Black Spider.”
When Eladio Rojas of host Chile scored against Yashin in the 1962 World Cup quarterfinals, he hugged Yashin: “I was in disbelief that I’d scored past the great Lev Yashin,” he said years later. “I still am. I was overcome with excitement that all I wanted to do was hug him. Scoring past Yashin was like a trophy.”
Yashin played his entire career for Dynamo Moscow and after hanging up his gloves held various positions with the club for two decades. He died of stomach cancer in 1990 and was given a state funeral.
France Football added the Lev Yashin Award for the best goalkeeper to its Ballon d’Or ceremonies in 2019.
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🇧🇷 Mario Zagalo. After winning the 1958 and 1962 World Cups as a player with Brazil, at the 1970 World Cup he became the first man to lift the World Cup as a player and coach. He coached Brazil again at the 1998 World Cup after assisting Carlos Alberto Parreira with Brazil’s 1994 World Cup-winning team.
• Trivia: The two other World Cup winners as players and head coaches: German Franz Beckenbauer (1974 and 1990) and Frenchman Didier Deschamps (1998 and 2018).
🇫🇷 Zinedine Zidane. France hosted the 1998 World Cup after failing to qualify in 1990 and 1994. Jean-Marie Le Pen, head of France’s right-wing National Front party, mocked “Les Bleus” as “artificial” because so many of its players had foreign heritage.
Playmaker Zinedine Zidane, the son of Algerian immigrants, was red-carded in France’s second game for stomping on Saudi Arabia’s Fuad Anwar. He returned from a two-game suspension to help France overcome Italy and Croatia to reach the final against Brazil. Zidane, with two first-half headers, led France to a 3-0 win and its first World Cup title.
Eight years later, at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Zidane played a tremendous knockout stage, with two goals and two assists as France dispatched of Spain, Brazil and Portugal. He gave France a 1-0 lead from the penalty spot in the final against Italy, which equalized, 1-1, on a Marco Materazzi header. Zidane was red-carded for head-butting Materazzi with 10 minutes left in overtime, and the Italians won the shooutout.
🇮🇹 Dino Zoff. The 1982 World Cup marked the fourth straight for Italian goalkeeper Dino Zoff, who was a back up in 1970 and a starter for the next three tournaments.
Italy in 1982 World Cup final (l-r) Dino Zoff (captain), Francesco Graziani, Bruno Conti, Fulvio Collovati, Gaetano Scirea, Claudio Gentile, Giuseppe Bergomi, Paolo Rossi, Gabriele Oriali, Antonio Cabrini, Marco Tardelli. (Photo: Peter Robinson/PA Images/Alamy)
At Spain ’82, Zoff, at 40 years and 133 days old, became the oldest player to win a World Cup as Italy joined Brazil as three-time winners.
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