Ok, basically im writing a big 1,200 word article for a magazine on the World Cup, essentially its a bit of a silly magazine so its nothing too serious.

Essentially i was wondering if anyone can simply provide me with as much useless trivia as you can think of, or great sites that provide.

Things such as:

Lingo/Chants for teams/players
Funny/bizzare facts
Greatest Moments
Bad Fashion mistakes (Y)
Famous gaffes/penalty misses/own goals etc.
Anything like that, cheers guys.

There was that one guy who played for and scored for two different countries at the final (Yugoslavia and Croatia).

Prosinecki?

keep it coming lol

Cameroons run in 90 and Senegals run in 02. Englands goal line controversy in 66. If you watch the World Cup videos on the official FIFA Site they have a lot of stuff on them.

Bad fashion mistakes? That´s easy, everything Abel Xavier related.

P.s Still on the bad fashion issue, former mexican goalkeeper Jorge Campos shirts are worth mentioning too, Epileptic´s nightmare.

fashion and bad haircuts would be particularly good, e.g. Ronaldo's in WC2002.

Shock of the tournaments? (etc. France losing to Senegal)

The original Jules Rimet trophy was stolen twice, once in 1966 (later found by a dog called Pickles), and another time in 1983 in Rio (when it was melt by the thieves).

Giuseppe Meazza played in the 1938 World Cup against Brazil. When he was to take a PK, the elastic holding his shorts was broken, which meant he had to take the penalty with his left hand holding it... he still scored though (not sure about this one...)

The first player to score a goal and an own goal in the same match in a world cup is Ernie Brands (HOL), in Holland's 2-1 win against Italy in 1978

No country has ever lost their first match and go on to win the trophy

in 1978, the brazilian coach Claudio Coutinho said Brazil were the "moral champions" in that world cup, after Brazil was eliminated with no defeats (and only 2 draws). Argentina-born Quiroga, GK for Peru, later admitted there was a combined result to let the Argentineans through. (Argentina needed to beat Peru by a 4 goal margin, to be ahead of Brazil and qualify for the final... the match ended 6-0)

The 1930 final was played between Uruguay and Argentina. There was a bit of confusion, as each country wanted to play with a ball made in their home country, so the ref decided it'd be played with an Argentinean ball in the first half and an Uruguayan ball in the second. HT score: Arg 2-1 Uru. FT: Arg 2-4 Uru

ok, too lazy to find more now... I'll post later if I find interesting stuff

please do bud, they're fantastic.

biggest upsets then eh?

1966 North Korea 1-0 Italy (the tallest north korean was 169 cm tall)

1950 USA 1-0 England (the english thought it was a typo, and that England had won 10-1)

1950 Uruguay 2-1 Brazil (ok, Uruguay was not a bad team, but Brazil were playing at home, and were arguably the better side.... also, it was in the final, with almost 200,000 people in the Maracana stadium)

1994 Cameroon 1-0 Argentina

2002 Senegal 1-0 France

1974 East Germany 1-0 West Germany (west germans trying to avoid Brazil?)

1974 West Germany 2-1 Holland

1954 West Germany 3-2 Hungary

those are the ones off I can remember, maybe there are many more...

1982 - Algeria 2-1 West Germany

1982 - Argentina 0-1 Belgium (opening match)

1990 - Argentina 0-1 Cameroon (opening match)

why is 74 final an upset?

Because the team who everyone thought and deserved to win it didn't win it...

fashion and bad haircuts would be particularly good, e.g. Ronaldo's in WC2002.

It was France 98 where the romanians all bleached their hair right?

Because the team who everyone thought and deserved to win it didn't win it...

West Germany had a great team too and was playing at home... i don't think it ewas an upset.

It was France 98 where the romanians all bleached their hair right?

Yea they were all blond....looked like a bunch of Rod Stewarts out there.

Mexico is the country that has lost the most matches at the WC. :(

Have Scotland never got past the group stages?

West Germany had a great team too and was playing at home... i don't think it ewas an upset.

Good, but not as good as the team who changed or was changing football forever... :(

And it got Holland on the map of football while the Dutchies became more interested in it. For the Germans it was just one of those WC's again...

Scottish League Cup final 1971

Partick Thistle 4 Celtic(who were European Cup runners up the year before) 1

Have Scotland never got past the group stages?

Nope never

It was France 98 where the romanians all bleached their hair right?

Yeah and they lost that game to the Croatians.

West Germany had a great team too and was playing at home... i don't think it ewas an upset.

yup, world cup finals can't really be much of an upset, but the favourite team back then didn't win... just like Brazil 2-3 Italy in 82, when Brazil only needed a draw, and people here cry more about it than they do about the Maracanazo... (the day that beautiful football died, they say)

Jairzinho - only player to score in every game (Brasil 70)

the two winningest teams in WC history (Brasil & Germany) have only played once, the last final

Gerd 'Der Bomber' Muller scoring an amazing 14 goals in 13 games for Germany in WC 1970, which included a hattrick in two games in a row, is a topscorer record...

fantastic array of facts here, but anyone got any more silly ones? or silly haircuts (H)

The romanian one (Y)

The Argentina squad in 1978 was numbered in Alphabetical order!

Gerd 'Der Bomber' Muller scoring an amazing 14 goals in 13 games for Germany in WC 1970, which included a hattrick in two games in a row, is a topscorer record...

he only scored 10 in world cup 1970

The British Home Internationals was a qualifying group for the 1950 World Cup.

Winners England went to the finals. Scotland were also invited to Brazil but refused to go as runners-up, stupidly!

The 1962 quarter finals between Brazil and England was interrupted for a few moments as a black dog entered the field, "dribbled" past Garrincha and was stopped by Jimmy Greaves, who got on all fours to catch the dog...

Also in 1962, Garrincha was sent off in the semis against Chile. The report the referee Arturo Yamazaki (Peru) wrote said he didn't see the incident, the Chile players managed to get the ref to talk to assistant Esteban Marino (Uruguay), and Marino confirmed Garrincha's kick on Rojas. When the people responsible for the suspensions tried to find the assistant, he couldn't be found... he had already travelled back to Uruguay (supposedly paid by the brazilian FA, as one month after the incident, the ref was hired to work for the Sao Paulo State federation). The fact is that Garrincha wasn't suspended, and could play the final.

Garrincha's international fame was so big after the world cup that his sub, Jair da Costa, 21, was bought by Inter Milan just because he was Garrincha's sub

Gerd 'Der Bomber' Muller scoring an amazing 14 goals in 13 games for Germany in WC 1970, which included a hattrick in two games in a row, is a topscorer record...

France's Just Fontaine is the top goalscorer for a single World Cup, with 13 goals I believe, back in 50 or 54 I believe.

Gerd Müller has scored the most goals across more than one World Cup tournament, I believe.



Garrincha's international fame was so big after the world cup that his sub, Jair da Costa, 21, was bought by Inter Milan just because he was Garrincha's sub...


The first in a long-standing tradition of Inter's buying of useless players. (H)

ok, this will be long, and it only covers 1958... let me know if you want more of these, Tom, as it's a pain to translate this from Portuguese... I have these for the earlier World Cups, from 1930 to 1962, except 1934...

No brazilian refs went to Sweden, as a punishment for Mario Vianna's public display of outrage after "the battle of Bern" in 1954

In the semis between Sweden and West Germany, the ref was decisive. Schafer scored 1-0 for the germans, then Sweden equalized after Liedholm controled the ball with his arm and passed for Skoglund to score. Juan Brozzi (ARG), the ref, said the arm wasn't intentional. Just past the hour, Hamrin (SWE) and Juskowiak (GER) had fallen by the half way line... Hamrin then slapped the german, who got back by kicking the swedish player, but the ref sent only Juskowiak off... Even with 10, the germans were still dominating, when at 75 mins Parling went really hard in Fritz Walter, who then could only be on the side, making up the numbers... after that, Sweden went on to score 2 goals, and book their place in the final

Only Brazil and Sweden played with yellow shirts in the World Cup, and it's tradition that the home side plays with their away shirt if needed. As such, Brazil didn't take the blue away uniforms, but FIFA decided that in World Cups, there is not a home side, just a home country, and it ended up that Brazil would wear the away shirts (that happened in a Friday). On Saturday, the brazilian side were looking for blue shirts, and during the night, Francisco Assis (I don't know how to say his job in English, he was in charge of getting the uniforms ready) had to unnatach the logos from the yellow shirts and put them on the blue ones... The whole lot of shirts (13 in total, as subs were not allowed by then) cost 35 dollars. In Sept 2004, Pele's shirt was bought for 105600 dollars.

Mario Americo, masseur, was told by Paulo Carvalho (Brazilian FA Vice pres, and responsible for the preparation of the team) to get the ball of the final as a souvenir. After the last whistle, in the chaos of supporters getting into the field, Americo stopped taking care of Pele, who was hurt, to chase the ref (Maurice Guigue - FRA). Getting there, he touched the ball from behind, so the ref let it drop. He got the ball and ran away... Meanwhile, the players were celebrating, with the Swedish flag, and doing a "Olympic lap" around the stadium (not sure of the expression, if it exists in the English language)... Americo then realized he missed it, and it was his dream since 1950. He got to Francisco Assis, who had the swedish flag and both went for a private "Olympic lap".

Brazil had a kind of an anthem for the victory when they got back from Sweden, it's very famous in Brazil, and it goes like this:

A taça do mundo é nossa
Com o brasileiro, não há quem possa
E-Eta esquadrão de ouro
É bom de samba
É bom no couro

O brasileiro, lá no estrangeiro
Mostrou o futebol como é que é
Ganhou a Taça do Mundo
Sambando com a bola no pé
Goool!

In English, it'd be like this:

The world cup is ours
Against the brazilians, no one can (compete)
Oh, golden squad
Good in Samba
Good in leather (not a sexual reference, it refers to the ball)

The brazilians out there abroad
Showed everybody how football is (played)
They've won the World Cup
Dancing Samba with the ball at their feet
Goal!

:(

haha

bit long for a 1,200 word article though :(

just to check if this is the kind of stuff you need... of course you just choose the ones you think are better, or tell me this isn't what you're looking for...

it is, its just very long. Preferably id like shorter triva

how about some funny quotes?

"If anyone would know how to put up a wall, it would be the Chinese" - 02 World Cup during a China game while getting ready for the other team to take a free kick (can't remeber against who though). Not positive but I think Terry Venables said it.

"And England sad, sad, sadly are out!!" Brian Moore UK Commentator after Chris Waddle missed the vital penalty in the Semi final in 1990

Well, it made ME laugh :lui:

Felipe (Flamengo): "football is a box full of surprises. That's why it's called football"

Joel Santana (coach): "Football, by itself, is very hard. And hard stuff are always hard"

Vicente Matheus (Ex corinthians president): "the hard things, you know, aren't easy". Also, when Socrates was being rumoured to be sold to France: "France's best known general is General Electric"

Valdson: "it's all set with a mexican club. whenever there's a chance to play in Europe, you have to take it"

Rafael Santos: "I'm very happy with my first debut at Morumbi"

Bradock (yeah, his name is ridiculous like that): "I wouldn't reach that ball even if I had two lungs"

Ferreira (Ex Santos player): "I used to like it in Mexico. We got our salaries weekly every 15 days"

Joao Pinto: "My team was near a cliff, but took the right decision and took the step ahead"

best haircuts of the 2002 world cup: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport3/worldcup2002/hi/photo_galleries/newsid_2065000/2065185.stm

cheers

funny quotes:

Roger: "even if i had 2 lungs i would never reached that ball"

Jardel: "The hard isn't easy..."

Jardel: "I fit easily in every type of football, me and my family"

Jardel: "The balls came to my head and i scored"

Nuno Gomes: "We are humans like the people."

João Pinto (Porto): "my heart only has 1 colour: blue and white"

Futre: "My life changed completely. it had a 360 degrees turn"

TV Reporter: "Cadete are you hurt?" Cadete: "No I'm very happy"

Vampeta, celebrating the 2002 title, in the brazilian presidential office with... well... whatever you call it, it's ridiculous...

http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/especial/2002/copa/images/p_cerimonia_01.jpg

Yes, he was drunk.... very....

Speaking of Vampeta, what happened to him?

ok, some other good haircuts, though I don't know if it's related to World Cup:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/stoke/sport/2003/10/images/gallery/01.shtml

Bobby Charlton had the best haircut ever!

As for Vampeta... I was trying to find a pic of his haircut, but couldn't... his career is on a decline, after being relegated with Brasiliense last year... but I think he was bought by Goias to play the Libertadores...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/stoke/sport/2003/10/images/gallery/14.jpg
http://www.bbc.co.uk/stoke/sport/2003/10/images/gallery/22.jpg

:funny: (Y)

West Germany had a great team too and was playing at home... i don't think it ewas an upset.

The Dutch '74 team was the best team never to win a World Cup, full stop.

...and the Dutch euro 2000 team was the best never to win a European cup... :( :p

The Dutch '74 team was the best team never to win a World Cup, full stop.
I agree with you there Tom, though maybe the 54 Hungary side was a match for that, at least in expectation... after all, they had thrashed England at Wembley 3-6 in the months before the WC, and then went on to beat them 7-1 in Hungary just before the WC...

their much talked about 8-3 against Germany though is not to be considered, as Germany didn't have most of their starters, who were rested for the extra match against Turkey (weirdest World Cup group system ever)

by the way, I was watching some 1982 matches... Brazil - Argentina was great... Brazil was 3-0 up, and the argies totally lost control! Passarela hacked Zico, who had to be substituted.... Batista came on for his place, and Maradona got his studs in Batista's stomach! hehe, they totally lost their mind that match