The first official World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930, and was won by the host nation who defeated Argentina 4-2. Why Uruguay, you must be asking? They had won the two previous incarnations of international football tournaments in the 1920’s. The choice of Uruguay as the host presented some serious logistical problems though, especially for European sides that had to make the long and expensive trek across the Atlantic. In fact, Belgium, France, Romania and Yugoslavia were the only sides to make the trip.
The 1934 and 1938 tournaments were both held in Europe in Italy and France respectively, both won by Italy. Again, the damned Atlantic Ocean presented problems for South American teams, consequently Brazil was the only side to compete in either.
The tournament took a little hiatus in 1942 and ’46 for a little something called World War II, which was apparently a much larger tournament hosted by Europe that featured several international squads - and by “squads” I mean “militaries.”
The World Cup returned in 1950 to Brazil and was the first to feature a team of Brits, which didn’t really matter because Uruguay won again.
From 1930 to 1978 the tournament featured only 16 teams, though some had fewer than that due to withdrawals or otherwise. In 1982 the format was expanded to 24 teams then 32 in 1998, which is where it stands today. The larger format has allowed more teams from Asia, Africa, and North America to compete… and also lose.
All in all, 18 tournaments have been played with Brazil taking the most titles (5), followed by Italy (4), and Germany (3). In fact, only seven nations have even won a Cup, including England, France, and Argentina. Indeed, Europe and South America are the only two continents to even compete for the title in the final.
World Cup 2006 - Germany
The Italians are the reigning champs as they beat France in the finals in Germany in 2006 in a 5-3 penalty shootout after regulation ended in a 1-1 tie, which was memorable for many reasons, mostly unrelated to soccer. Zinedine Zidane of France, the greatest footballer to ever grace the earth, opened the scoring in the 7th minute by converting a controversial penalty kick only to have Italy’s Marco Materazzi, the slimiest footballer to ever crawl out of the earth’s ass crack, level the score 12 minutes later. Italy would score again in the 35th but was disallowed for offsides and France were not awarded another controversial penalty in the 53rd when Florent Malouda was taken down in the box by Gianluca Zambrotta. The most memorable moment of the game and the tournament occurred towards the end of the first overtime when Materazzi made an unforgiveable comment to Zidane about his mother for which Zidane rightfully planted the crown of his head into the sternum of Materazzi’s chest, simultaneously earning himself a red card to end his international footballing career in disgrace, and making Materrazi an instant star around the world, only to have his career take a deserved shit immediately following.
So what exactly did Materazzi say in order to become the most famous head-butt victim? It doesn’t matter; he’s a douche. If I saw him walking down the street right now I’d head-butt him right in the face just for being alive. Zidane, on the other hand, I’d let him head-butt my first-born child if only for a chance to be in his presence.
The Final was the most watched sporting event in the history of the universe with an audience of 715.1 million people (take that Superbowl!).
The only blemish on Italy’s run to the trophy, aside from the one left on Materazzi’s chest from Zidane’s head, was a second round draw to the United states. That game had two red cards, one for each team, and an own-goal by Italy to secure the 1-1 draw for the US. Incidentally, that was the only blemish for Italy but the only high-point for the US in an otherwise embarrassing outing (fucking Yanks).
Overall the 2006 tournament was wildly successful, even though it set the record for number of cards with 345 yellows and 28 reds. One game alone, Portugal/Netherlands, featured 16 yellows and 4 reds. Way to class it up, boys.
Qualification
Qualifying begins nearly three years before the actual Cup. In fact, qualifying is a part of the tournament as the Cup is often referred to as the Finals. A record 204 nations entered qualification for this Cup.
Qualification is conducted within each of the six Confederations. FIFA decides ahead of time how many spots will be available to each Confederation, based on the strength of the Confederation. Asia has 4, Africa 6, North/Central America 3, South America 5, Oceania 1, and Europe 13.
The host nation automatically qualifies for the tournament and prior to 2002 the reigning champ qualified.
Each Confederation handles the qualifying differently. The US’s Confederation, CONCACAF, had 35 teams competing for 3 automatic berths while the 4th place finisher played a two game playoff with the 5th place finisher in CONMEBOL for a shot at one final spot.
There were a total of four rounds. The first reduced the teams from 35 to 24, the second from 24 to 12. In the 3rd round there were 3 groups of 4 that played round-robin style matches with the top two teams in each group advancing to the fourth and final round. The US finished atop that group with Mexico and Honduras the other two teams to qualify for the finals while Costa Rica lost the 2-game playoff to Uruguay. El Salvador and Trinidad and Tobago were the final two teams in the 4th round of qualifying.
Finals – Final Draw
Once all 32 nations had qualified, FIFA broke them into 4 separate groups of 8, or Pots as they’re known, based on the world rankings at the time and the region. During the draw one nation’s name gets pulled from each Pot, and those 4 teams became a Group in the Finals. This way, the host and the top 7 nations in the world won’t face each other in the first round of the Final, and neither will teams from the same region.
Pot 1 (Host & Top 7)
South Africa
Brazil
Spain
Netherlands
Italy
Germany
Argentina
England
Pot 2 (Asia, North America, Oceania)
Australia
Japan
N. Korea
S. Korea
Honduras
Mexico
United States
New Zealand
Pot 3 (Africa, South America)
Algeria
Cameroon
Ivory Coast
Ghana
Nigeria
Chile
Paraguay
Uruguay
Pot 4 (Europe)
Denmark
France
Greece
Portugal
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Switzerland
Final - Group Stage
Each one of the 4 teams in the 8 different Groups (A-H) plays each other once. A win is equal to 3 points, a draw is 1 point for each team, and a loss is 0 points. The top two teams from each group advance to the final round of 16 Knockout stage. The 8 winners of the groups get placed in the top seeds while the runners-up get placed in the lower seeds. If two teams in one group have the same number of points after all the games have been played, the tiebreaker goes to goal difference, then greatest number of goals scored.
The first game of the Finals will be between South Africa and Mexico on June 11.
Finals - Knockout Stage
This is just like a 16-team, single-loss, bracket style tournament with 4 rounds – Round of 16, Quarters, Semis and Finals. Like I said, the winner of Group A will play the runner-up from Group B; winner from C plays runner-up from D; so on and so forth. There are no draws in the Knockout stage. If a game is tied after regulation it goes to 2 mandatory 15-minute extra periods, which is to say, there is no sudden death. If after all of that the game is still tied, it goes to a penalty shoot-out. A lo of people think it’s bullshit that a 90-minute soccer games goes to 30-minutes of extra time then gets decided by a couple players kicking the ball at the goalie in a shoot-out. Personally, I think the penalty shoot-out is the absolute most dramatic moment in any sporting event. Oh, you care to differ? Next time I see you you’ve got a head-butt coming to your throat courtesy of me.
Final
The Final will be played in Johannesburg on July 11, while the Third Place match will be held the day before in Port Elizabeth.
Trophy
The winner is awarded the FIFA World Cup Trophy that they retain until the next World Cup, at which time they are given a gold-plated replica to keep. Apparently in 1970 Brazil was given the original trophy permanently after winning their third Cup, only to have it stolen and apparently melted down (just one of many reasons I root against Brazil). So a new trophy was designed by Italian Silvio Gazzangia.
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