FIFA World Cup 2014 being held at Brazil concluded on 13 July 2014 with Germany winning the coveted title for the fourth time. We hereby present brief information containing facts and stats about this World Cup.
- It was the second time that Brazil hosted the FIFA World Cup, the first being in 1950.
- The World Cup matches were held in 12 cities across Brazil. 32 teams divided in eight groups (A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H) took part in the tournament. Bosnia and Herzegovina was the only team with no previous World Cup experience. It took part in a FIFA World Cup for the first time.
- It was the first time (since the first World Cup of 1930) that all world champion teams– Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Uruguay – qualified for this competition.
- Germany won its fourth FIFA World Cup title, the other title winning years being 1954, 1974 and 1990.
- Germany’s title win marked the first time that teams from the same continent (Europe) had won three successive World Cups (following Italy in 2006 and Spain in 2010). It was also the first time that a European team won the World Cup being hosted in a South American country.
- The first goal of this World Cup was a self-goal scored by Brazil’s Marcelo against Croatia on 12 June 2014. The last goal of this World Cup was scored by Germany’s Mario Götze against Argentina in the final on 13 July 2014.
- It was for the first time that two teams from Africa (Algeria and Nigeria) reached the last-16 stage of FIFA World Cup.
- Germany qualified for the final for the eighth time with a 7–1 win over Brazil, the biggest defeat in Brazilian history since 1920.
- Overall, Brazil conceded 14 goals in the tournament; this was the most by a team at any single World Cup since 1986, and the most by a host nation in history.
- Germany scored 18 goals in the tournament, the highest in this World Cup by any team.
- Two hat-tricks were scored in this World Cup. The first was scored by Thomas Müller for Germany against Portugal. The second was scored by Xherdan Shaqiri for Switzerland against Honduras.
- It was the first time that the goal-line technology was used in a FIFA World Cup. The first country to get benefit of goal-line technology was France, which was awarded a goal through the help of this technology on 15 June 2014 against Honduras.
- Germany set a world cup record with four consecutive semi-final appearances.
- Miroslav Klose (Germany) became the highest goal-scorer in FIFA World Cups when he scored the second goal for his country against hosts Brazil in the first semi-final on 8 July 2014. His goal tally of 16 eclipsed Ronaldo’s (Brazil) tally of 15 World Cup goals.
- Miroslav Klose (Germany) also became the first player to appear in four World Cup semi-finals.
- James Rodriguez (Colombia) finished as the highest goal scorer of FIFA World Cup 2014 with 6 goals. He was awarded the coveted ‘Golden Boot’ awarded. He was followed by Thomas Muller of Germany (5 goals) and Lionel Messi, Neymar and Robin van Persie (4 goals each)
- FIFA ‘Fair Play Trophy’ was awarded to Colombia
- Lionel Messi (Argentina) was adjudged as the best player of the tournament and was awarded the ‘Golden Ball’ trophy.
- Manuel Neuer (Germany) was adjudged as the best goalkeeper the tournament and was awarded the ‘Golden Glove’ trophy.
0 comments:
Post a Comment