History
Germany welcomed the soccer world with open arms in 2006, staging the World Cup for the second time in the tournament’s long and illustrious history.
West Germany previously hosted soccer’s showcase event in 1974 when the dark spectre of the Munich Massacre at the 1972 Olympics was still fresh in the collective conscience, resulting in a tension-filled tournament.
Thirty-two years removed, it was a unified Germany that won universal praise and plaudits from the international community for its graciousness and hospitality during the 2006 World Cup. The competition’s official motto, “a time to make friends,” proved to be more than just a slogan – Germany created a party-like atmosphere never before seen at the World Cup by setting up fan parks and street festivals all across the country where fans could congregate and watch the games together.
Germany’s impeccable hosting of the World Cup made up for the rather dubious manner in which they won the right to stage the competition in the first place.
The vote to choose the hosts of the 2006 tournament was held six years earlier in Zurich , and South Africa had the inside track as the favourite. Oceania delegate Charles Dempsey abstained from voting at the last minute, citing “intolerable pressure” – it’s believed he was offered a bribe to vote for Germany.
In the end, Germany won the final vote 12-11. Had Dempsey cast his ballot for South Africa, as many believed he would, the vote would have resulted in a 12-12 tie. FIFA president Sepp Blatter would then have had to cast the deciding ballot, and he had already made known his desire to see South Africa stage the World Cup.
The 2006 World Cup was a tournament of many firsts, including the first where the defending champions were no longer granted automatic qualification – Brazil had to qualify like everybody else.
Italy and France faced off in the final on July 9 in a rematch of the Euro 2000 final when David Trezeguet scored a golden goal to lift Les Bleus to victory. Trezeguet would again play a prominent role in the proceedings in Berlin, but the outcome would be much different for the French.
French fans’ hearts were in their mouths when Thierry Henry crumbled to the ground after running into Italian defender Fabio Cannavaro in the opening moments of the game. The star striker looked groggy and went off the field to receive medical treatment before returning.
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In 2002 the World Cup, the biggest sporting event on the planet, conquered the final frontier: the Far East.
FIFA ushered in the new millennium by staging the World Cup in Asia for the first time in its 72-year history. In an unprecedented move, South Korea and Japan co-hosted the competition, another first for the beautiful game.
The Japan-South Korea partnership was not a match made in heaven; not at first, anyway.
Initially, both countries were direct competitors in a bitter bidding process, but at the urging of FIFA, they combined their bids and tabled a proposal to co-host the event.
Even after FIFA awarded Japan and South Korea the tournament, problems persisted, in large part due to the underlying acrimonious relationship that historically existed between the two nations.
Aside from deciding which country would host the opening match and the final, the two nations couldn’t even come to a consensus on the official name of the tournament. Following the English alphabetical order, Japan wanted its named first in the title – the “Japan-Korea World Cup.” South Korea argued to go by the French alphabet (“Corée” and “Japon”) in keeping with the FIFA’s French roots.
Going into the final in Yokohama, the match was being touted as a battle of contrasting styles: German pragmatism versus Brazilian flair. Many critics thought that the Germans, having to make do without the talented Michael Ballack, would sit back and soak up the pressure while Brazil would dominate the game with dazzling possession play.
Ironically, it turned out to be the other way around, as the Germans called the tune and dictated the pace of the game in the first 45 minutes. Germany stroked the ball around with great style and elegance, looking the more dangerous of the two sides.
Despite dominating possession, it was Brazil that produced the best chances in the first half. Kleberson fired a dipping shot that beat Oliver Kahn but bounced off the crossbar. Germany’s best chance came when Oliver Neuville had a 35-yard free kick pushed onto the post by Brazilian goalkeeper Marcos.
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In 1998, after a 60-year absence, the World Cup returned home to France, its country of birth.
Dreamt up by two noble Frenchman, Jules Rimet and Henri Delaunay, the World Cup was first staged in Uruguay in 1930 and didn’t take place in France, the country in which it was gloriously conceived, until 1938 at the third time of asking.
Over the ensuing decades, the World Cup expanded and grew in importance, prestige and popularity, so much so that the 1998 competition in France, with its worldwide television audience in the hundreds of millions and corporate sponsorships galore, bore little resemblance to the humble 1938 tournament that was staged on French soil for the first time.
Global interest and marketing aside, the biggest change was the sheer size of the World Cup: whereas 37 nations around the World competed for one of 15 spots in the 1938 finals, 174 countries tired to secure one of the 32 spots up for grabs in 1998.
The expansion from 24 teams in 1994 to 32 in 1998 meant a new format, with the field equally divided into eight groups of four and the top-two finishers in each qualifying for the second round.
The usual suspects (Brazil, Germany, Italy, England, Argentina and the Netherlands) were the hot favourites going into the tournament, as was the host team, playing in its first World Cup since 1986.
There was controversy long before a ball was even kicked on the day of the final at the new Stade de France just north of Paris, resulting in one of the biggest mysteries in World Cup history that, to this day, has yet to be properly explained.
The country celebrated in style with over a million fans dancing the night away on the Champs Elysées and singing those immortal words from the national anthem, La Marseillaise: “Our day of Glory has arrived.”
After a 68-year wait, France, the country that bequeathed the World Cup to the world, were champions of the world as the cup had finally come “home.” And somewhere, Jules Rimet and Henri Delaunay were smiling.
In 1994, the World Cup came to America.
Played out during a four-week period under scorching summer temperatures, the 1994 World Cup brought the global game to the biggest and most demanding sports market in the world for the first time in its illustrious history: the United States.
More important, fans in the U.S. witnessed the rebirth of attacking soccer at the World Cup. Thanks to the outlaw of the back pass and the introduction of three points for a victory, the defensive postures and the “afraid of losing” mentality that prevailed at the 1990 World Cup was nowhere to be found in the U.S. as teams were committed to attacking soccer and entertaining the American spectators.
The fact that so many of the game’s powers failed to qualify (England, Denmark, Portugal, France and Poland) had no bearing on what was generally regarded as an exciting and enthralling competition, the final notwithstanding.
Over 94,000 fans jammed into the Rose Bowl on July 17 to see two of soccer’s biggest superpowers, Italy and Brazil, collide in a final where the winner would claim the ultimate bragging rights as the first nation to win four World Cup titles.
It should have been a classic encounter, one that brilliantly capped off what had been, up until that point, an entertaining and thrilling competition. Instead, it conjured up the dour memories of the 1990 final between West Germany and Brazil, as FIFA’s worst nightmare was realized: a goalless World Cup final decided by penalties.
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