MEXICO CITY, Mexico.- The 2022 soccer World Cup in Qatar begins today, November 20, with the duel between the host country and Ecuador at 11 in the morning, Cuba time.
After four years of waiting, the most important football competition has everything ready. Thirty-two teams will get the ball rolling until December 18, when we will find out who will be the new champion to enter the select club of the eight countries that have won the World Cup (if any of them does not repeat the victory).
soccer world cup is full of surprising statistics throughout the 21 editions that have been held so far. To celebrate the biggest football party in the world, Cubanet has prepared this summary of curious facts about this and previous editions of the tournament.
1. World Cup in winter
The world Cup Qatar 2022 totally changed the traditional calendar of this competition that is usually played in summer. However, for this edition, they decided to hold the event in winter, in order to avoid the high temperatures that are reached in the Asian country.
2. The World Cup of Corruption
The choice of Qatar as the host country has caused great controversy for the accusations of corruption that began in 2010 and that were subsequently investigated by the press and authorities.
As they have revealed, Qatar achieved the first Arab World Cup after millionaire bribes to different members of the FIFA Executive Committee.
The investigations of the European press revealed that the president of the Qatari Federation and also head of the Asian Football Confederation, Mohammed Bin Hamman, paid up to 3.6 million to 30 FIFA members to ensure a favorable vote for Qatar.
an article of Guardian indicated that the country spent almost 200 million dollars in the contest.
3. Ages and records
German striker Youssoufa Moukoko is the youngest player in the 2022 World Cup at 18 years old. On the other hand, Alfredo Talavera, Mexican goalkeeper for FC Juárez, will be the oldest in this Cup. In September he turned 40 years old.
the famous Pele He is the youngest player in history to score a goal in a World Cup, when he was 17 years old. Brazil beat Wales in the quarterfinals thanks to that score. Later Edson Arantes do Nascimento, or simply Pelé, also became the youngest two-time champion and the only footballer to have won three world titles.
4. 22 World Cups in more than 90 years
With the exception of 1942 and 1946 due to World War II, since 1930, every four years, the universe of soccer has been paralyzed.
The first contest was held entirely in Montevideo, the Uruguayan capital. Among the curious details that stand out about this quote FIFA’s page They are that four teams arrived in the same boat, they played in a stadium that was still under construction and a one-armed footballer scored in the final. Uruguay became the first world champion after beating neighboring Argentina 4-2.
5. The highest scorer
During 24 games that he played in the World Cups, Miroslav Klose scored 16 goals (none from penalties and seven from heads). The player who, although he was born in Poland, made history with the German team, retired in 2014 when his team was crowned champion.
His last goal in a World Cup event was in the aforementioned one in 2014, where he participated in the historic win against Brazil 7-1 in the semifinals.
6. The player with the most finals played is…
In this statistic there is not a single name but five. There are five footballers who have reached the World Cup final three times. Of them, three are Brazilian, while the other two are German.
In the case of two of the Brazilian soccer players, Cafú and Ronaldo, they did it in the same editions: 1994, 1998 and 2002, while Pelé had already achieved it in 1958, 1962 and 1970, winning in all of them.
On the other hand, the Germans Lothar Matthäus and Pierre Littbarski reached the finals of 1982, 1986 and 1990.
7. The biggest wins in history
The biggest win in history was in the 1982 World Cup in Spain, where Hungary beat El Salvador 10-1. Laszlo Kiss scored three goals in seven minutes. One of them was the only hat trick scored in the World Cup by a substitute.
Another of the most unbalanced parties was led by our country. It was in 1938 when Sweden swept Cuba 8-0, in Cuba’s only World Cup appearance.
Other markers that have remained for history were: Hungary 9-0 South Korea (1954); Uruguay 8-0 Bolivia (1950); Yugoslavia 9-0 Zaire (1974); Germany 8-0 Saudi Arabia (2002).
Finally, although this does not classify in the 10 biggest wins in history, it is probably one of the most remembered for the quality of both opponents. We are talking about the defeat of Brazil, two editions ago, when Germany buried them 7-1 in the semifinals.
8. The quickest sending off and the players they took out of the final
In the history of the World Cups, there is a footballer who saw the red card before the first minute of play, and that, of course, is an absolute record. It is about the Uruguayan José Batista, who saw the red card in the second 56 of the game in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.
Batista went against the Scotsman Gordon Strachan which earned him the expulsion, despite the claims that did not take effect.
On the other hand, at least four players have lost the opportunity to play a final due to the red card. The list is headed by Pedro Monzón, who was the first player expelled from a Final in the history of the World Cup when Argentina faced Germany in Italy 1990. The same team lost a second player when Dezotti pulled Jürgen Kohler by the shoulder. .
Other players expelled in the World Cups were: Marcel Desailly (France vs. Brazil, 1998); Zinedine Zidane (Italy vs France 2006); John Heitinga (Spain vs Holland, 2010)
9. Match with the most sanctions
The game with the highest number of sanctions was Portugal vs. the Netherlands in the 2006 World Cup in Germany with 20 cards, including yellow and red, and the expulsion of four players.
10. First times
-In Italy 1934Egypt became the first African country to play in a World Cup.
-The author of the First Goal of a Soccer World Cup was the Frenchman Lucien Laurent. It happened in one of the two opening games of the Uruguay World Cup 1930, which were played on July 13. The goal came in the 19th minute, just 4 minutes before the next one. France won 4-1.
Receive information from CubaNet on your cell phone through WhatsApp. Send us a message with the word “CUBA” on the phone +525545038831, You can also subscribe to our electronic newsletter by giving click here.
