| 1994 FIFA World Cup |
| World Cup '94 |
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| Tournament details |
| Host country |
 United States |
| Teams |
24 (from 5 confederations) |
| Venue(s) |
9 (in 9 host cities) |
| Final positions |
Champions  |
 Brazil (4th title) |
Runners-up  |
 Italy |
Third place  |
 Sweden |
| Fourth place |
 Bulgaria |
| Tournament statistics |
| Matches played |
52 |
| Goals scored |
141 (2.71 per match) |
| Attendance |
3,587,538 (68,991 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |
Hristo Stoichkov
 Oleg Salenko (6 goals) |
| Best player |
Romário |
The 1994 FIFA World Cup, the 15th staging of the FIFA World Cup, was held in the United States from June 17 to July 17, 1994. The United States was chosen as hosts by FIFA in July 1988. Brazil became the first nation to win four World Cup titles when they beat Italy 3-2 in a penalty shootout after the game ended 0-0 after extra-time, the first final to be decided by penalties.
The average attendance for the tournament was 69,000 while the total attendance was 3.6 million. The 1994 World Cup holds the record for the highest attendance in World Cup history. It was also the highest-attended single sport event in United States history.
Qualification
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Greece, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia qualified for the World Cup finals for the first time. Russia, competing independently for the first time after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, also qualified. The defending champions West Germany were united with their East German counterparts, representing the unified Germany for the first time since the 1938 World Cup. Due to the strong performances by African teams in 1990, Africa were given three spots for the first time, with Nigeria joining Cameroon and Morocco. On the other hand, for the first, and so far the only time, no British teams competed in a World Cup since they started to participate in the tournament in 1950.
Summary
FIFA's decision to hold the event in the United States over the bids of Morocco and Brazil surprised many due to the common perception that the United States had a relative lack of soccer fans. FIFA hoped that by staging the world's premier soccer tournament there, it would lead to America's growth of interest in the sport. (One condition FIFA imposed was the creation of a professional soccer league, as Major League Soccer started play in 1996.) Despite these misgivings, in terms of attendance the event was a rousing success. The average attendance of nearly 69,000 shattered a record that had stood since 1950, due to the bigger capacities of the American stadiums compared to those of Europe and Latin America. To this day, the total attendance for the final tournament of nearly 3.6 million remains the highest in World Cup history, despite the expansion of the competition to 32 teams in 1998. Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Belgium, Italy and the USA were seeded for the final draw that took place in Las Vegas, on December 19, 1993.[1]
The format of the competition stayed the same as in 1990: 24 teams qualified, divided into six groups of four. Sixteen teams would qualify for the knockout competition: the six group winners, the six group runners-up, and the four third-placed teams with the best records. This was the last time this format was used, due to the expansion of the finals tournament in 1998 to 32 teams. This World Cup was the first in which three points were awarded for a win instead of two. FIFA instituted this feature to encourage attacking football after the defensive display of many teams at Italia '90.
The tournament saw the end of Diego Maradona's World Cup career. Hero in 1986 as he led Argentina to the World Cup title, he was expelled from the tournament after he failed a drug test. Maradona was found to have ephedrine, a weight loss drug, in his blood. Colombia's Andrés Escobar was another tragic figure of this tournament. In a first-round match with the United States, he scored an own goal as the USA went on win, 2-1. As a result of this defeat, Colombia, billed by many as the dark horse to win this World Cup, went out in the group stage and, sadly, Escobar paid for the own-goal when he was shot to death outside a bar in a Medellín suburb only 10 days after the match.
On the field, the biggest surprise of the tournament was Bulgaria. The Bulgarians had previously never won a match in the finals but, led by the goal-scoring of Hristo Stoichkov, they made a surprising run; Bulgaria won two of their three group matches to qualify for the second round where a 3-1 penalty shoout-out win over Mexico set them up with reigning world champions, Germany, in the quarter-finals. This was the game for which this Bulgarian side would be remembered as goals from Stoichkov and Yordan Letchkov gave them a 2-1 victory. Bulgaria eventually finished in fourth place. The United States did not disappoint the home fans, as they advanced to the second round as one of the best third-place teams. There they played Brazil and despite a 1-0 defeat, the USA's performance was considered a great success.
Brazil's win over the USA helped take them to the final against Italy. While Brazil's path was relatively smooth as they defeated the Netherlands in the quarter-finals and Sweden in the semis (it was the second game between Sweden and Brazil in the tournament, the first ending 1-1), the Italians had made hard work of reaching the final game. During the group stage the Italian team struggled and narrowly advanced to the next round, despite losing 1-0 to the Republic of Ireland. Roberto Baggio, who was expected to be the shining star, had not scored a goal. During the Round of 16 match against Nigeria, Italy was trailing 1-0 in the dying minutes when Baggio scored the equalizer forcing the game into extra time. There, he scored again with a penalty kick to send Italy through. Baggio carried the Italians from there, scoring the game-winning goal in the quarter-final against Spain, and both goals in Italy's semi-final victory over Bulgaria.
The final match at the Rose Bowl was tense but devoid of scoring chances. Despite the strategies disposed by the FIFA to promote offensive play, both teams lacked the energy to produce a goal. After 120 goalless minutes, the World Cup would be decided for the first time by a penalty shoot-out. After four rounds, Brazil led 3-2, and Baggio, playing injured, had to make his kick to keep Italy's hopes alive. He missed by shooting it over the bar, and Brazil were crowned champions. The sight of Baggio standing in front of the goal with his arms at his sides in disbelief remains one of the definitive images of this World Cup.
The third-place playoff was set between Bulgaria and Sweden, the team which scored more goals than any other in this World Cup. Sweden won convincingly with a 4-0 victory, showing the world why they had come so far in this tournament. One of Sweden's World Cup profiles - Thomas Brolin - was named to the All-star team.
The tournament's Golden Boot went jointly to Bulgaria's Stoichkov and Oleg Salenko of Russia, who scored a record five goals in their match against Cameroon. Both players scored six goals in the tournament. Brazil's Romário, with five goals, won the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player.
Mascot
The official mascot of this World Cup was Striker, a dog, wearing a red, white and blue uniform with a soccer ball.
Venues
Referees
- Africa
- Asia
- Europe
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- North and Central America
- South America
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Squads
For a list of all squads that appeared in the final tournament, see 1994 FIFA World Cup squads.
Results
First round
All kick-off times local. (EDT/UTC-4, CDT/UTC-5, PDT/UTC-7)
Group A
Looking back, Group A of the 1994 World Cup will be always be remembered for two historical moments in international football. First was that the match between USA and Switzerland would be the first ever to take place indoors - having been played under the roof of Detroit's Pontiac Silverdome. The second was the horrific murder of Colombian defender Andres Escobar -shot dead on his return to Colombia, after his own goal had contributed to them being knocked out of the tournament. Though the murder itself was indeed an unforgivable and monstrous atrocity, there was no doubt that Colombia had not lived up their pre-World Cup billing at all. Outclassed 3-1 by Romania in their opening game, before a 2-1 defeat to the hosts in Pasadena condemned them to a first round exit. By the time they had beaten Switzerland 2-0 in their final Group match, it was all too little, too late. Victories against Colombia and the USA (in-front of a staggering crowd of 93,869) were enough to see Romania through as Group Winners, despite a peculiar 4-1 hammering by Switzerland in between. The magnitude of that victory would see the Swiss pip the USA to second place on goal difference, although the hosts would also qualify for the second round, as one of the best third-placed teams.
Group B
Group B produced two of the four semi-finalists of this World Cup, and was also one of the two groups in which two, rather than three, sides would progress to the second round. Neither of these facts were surprising as Brazil and Sweden proved to be far stronger than Cameroon and Russia in every department. Yet ironically, it was the match between the latter two that would go down in World Cup history for breaking, not one, but two World Cup records. Oleg Salenko of Russia became the first - and remains the only - man ever to score five goals in a single World Cup match as Russia ran out 6-1 winners against their African opponents. The goals would also ensure that Salenko finished the tournament joint-top scorer with six goals, having previously bagged one against Sweden in the game before. Cameroon however - despite a truly woeful tournament - would leave a mark too as Roger Milla, at the age of 42, became the oldest World Cup goalscorer of all-time as he grabbed his side's consolation goal in the match. The result, as impressive as it was, wasn't enough to take Russia through following heavy defeats at the hands of both Brazil and Sweden. Brazil overcame Cameroon with similar ease before a draw with Sweden confirmed top-spot. The Swedes to their credit had shown how far they had come from the side that had been beaten by Brazil in the previous World Cup and they also progressed, finishing in second place with five points.
Group C
Group C was a good from a UEFA perspective as both of its members - holders Germany and Spain - would progress to round two. However it could easily have been different as South Korea gave them a run for their money. Coming from two goals down with four minutes left to snatch an unlikely 2-2 draw against Spain, the Koreans very nearly eclipsed that feat against Germany when the came from 3-0 down to lose narrowly 3-2. In spite of these heroic comebacks, South Korea were held to a drab 0-0 draw against Bolivia in their other group match when a win would have seen them through. Instead, only two teams would progress, Spain's late implosion against the Koreans effectively deciding that it would be Germany who won the group and not them. Germany, who tamely defeated Bolivia 1-0 in the tournament's opening match, would finish on seven points. Spain had to settle for second place despite leading in all three matches whilst South Korea were left wondering what might have been.
Group D
Group D was a bizarre group indeed. Argentina had collected a maximum of six points from their opening two matches after destroying Greece 4-0 in Foxboro before coming from behind to overcome the feisty Nigerians 2-1 on the same ground four days later. Yet, incredibly, they still only finished 3rd! The match against Greece had been won in style thanks mainly to a hat-trick from Gabriel Batistuta, yet it was the other goal in the match - from Diego Maradona - that hit the headlines. An over-zealous goal celebration aroused suspicion regarding Diego Maradona's use of banned substances. This proved to be true and as a result, he was excluded from the tournament. This, in part, explained the manner in which Argentina tamely lost 2-0 to Bulgaria in their final match. Nigeria had been very impressive on their World Cup debut, and despite the narrow loss to Argentina, had emerged as group winners following comfortable victories against Bulgaria and Greece. The Bulgarians also surprised many. Having never won a single match at the World Cup finals prior to this tournament, their fortunes seemed unlikely to change in the aftermath of the 3-0 defeat by Nigeria in their first game. However a 4-0 demolition of the hapless Greeks (who had suffered the exact same fate five days earlier against Argentina) and a fine win against Argentina had seen them advance in style. Argentina had actually been winning the group going into injury-time, however a 91st minute strike from Nasko Sirakov meant that they would drop two places and ultimately finish 3rd in what was a bizarre ending to a memorable group.
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