Friday, December 04, 2009

The Friday List of Little or No Consequence #142

First and foremost...
32 'Firsts' From The World Cup's Long And Illustrious History

1. First qualifying match: Sweden v Estonia, 11 June 1933
2. First World Cup Finals match: Mexico v France, 13 July 1930
3. First goal scored at the World Cup Finals: Lucient Laurent (France) v Mexico, 13 July 1930
4. First World Cup goal scored from a penalty: Manuel Rocquetas Rosas (Mexico) v Argentina, 19 July 1930
5. First player sent off in a World Cup Finals match: Placido Galinda (Peru) v Romania, 14 July 1930
6. First player to receive a red card in a World Cup Finals match: Carlos Caszely (Chile) v West Germany, 14 June 1974
7. First coach to be sent off in a Finals match: Cayetano Re (Paraguay) v Belgium, 11 June 1986
8. First player to miss a World Cup penalty: Valdemar de Brito (Brazil) v Spain, 27 May 1934
9. First player to score a hat-trick at the Finals: Guillermo Stabile (Argentina) v Mexico, 19 July 1930
10. First player to score an own goal in the Finals: Ernst Loertscher (Switzerland) v West Germany, 9 June 1938
11. First player to score a 'golden goal': Laurent Blanc (France) v Paraguay, 28 June 1998
12. First player replaced due to injury in a World Cup match: Alex Thepot (France) v Mexico, 13 July 1930
13. First player to be substituted in a Finals match: Viktor Serebrannikov (USSR) replaced by Anatoly Puzach v Mexico, 31 May 1970
14. First World Cup Finals match to end in a draw: Italy 1-1 Spain, 31 May 1934
15. First World Cup Finals match to go to extra time: Austria v France, 27 May 1934
16. First African country to appear in the Finals: Egypt, 1934
17. First Asian country to appear in the Finals: Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), 1938
18. First Finals tournament where numbers were worn on players' shirts: 1938
19. First World Cup Finals match to end goalless: Brazil v England, 11 June 1958
20. First World Cup where drug testing was used: England 1966
21. First World Cup mascot: World Cup Willie, 1966
22. First headed goal in a World Cup Final: Geoff Hurst, 1966
23. First player to receive a yellow card in the World Cup Finals: Evgeni Lovchev (USSR) v Mexico, 31 May 1970
24. First qualifying match played on artificial turf: Canada v USA, 24 September 1976 in Vancouver
25. First qualifying match played indoors: USA v Canada, 20 October 1976 in Seattle
26. First Finals match to be played indoors: USA v Switzerland, 18 June 1994
27. First team to win a qualifying match on a penalty shoot-out: Tunisia, winning 4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw with Morocco, 9 January 1977
28. First match in the Finals to be decided with a penalty shoot-out: France v West Germany, 8 July 1982
29. First team that failed to score in a penalty shoot-out at the Finals: Switzerland v Ukraine, 2006
30. First time Europe, South America, Africa, Asia and North/Central America were represented in the World Cup Quarter Finals: 2002
31. First player to appear in three successive World Cup Finals: Cafu (Brazil), 1994-2002
32. First team to be eliminated from a World Cup Finals without conceding a goal: Switzerland, 2006 Second Round

3 comments:

P Shaw said...

Just a quick question. If there weren't qaulifiers until 1933, how did they select teams for the 1930 World Cup?

I know they asked England and they rejected but that's about it.

P Shaw said...

First (and only) player to socre a hattrick in a world cup final - Geoff Hurst 30th July 1966. Wembley, London. England v West Germany.

98,000 were there apparently and it is the most watched event in English TV history with 32.60 million people watching. How could I leave it out?

Chris O said...

Good question, Peter. Not sure if my answer's comprehensive enough, but I'll give it a try!

Many of the European teams weren't prepared to travel to South America, which effectively ruled them out. The repercussions of that were felt four years later in Italy when South America was represented by only two teams - tit for tat, you might say.

Apart from that, you have to bear in mind that FIFA's membership wasn't that large at all back in 1930, so the teams that played in the Finals were pretty the only ones that wanted to participate and were prepared to get to Uruguay.

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