To this day, the total attendance for the final tournament of nearly 3.6 million remains the highest in World Cup history, despite the expansion o…
Norway would ultimately pay a price for their inability to take advantage of Pagliuca's dismissal. Spain's late implosion against the South Koreans effectively decided that it would be Germany who won the group and not them.Teams were selected following usual FIFA rules with 22 players. Sweden's 3–1 victory over Russia was the nation's first World Cup victory since July 3, 1974. In spite of these comebacks, South Korea was held to a 0–0 draw against Bolivia in their other group game when a win would have seen them through.
They consisted of the 1991 Ballon d'or winner Jean Pierre Papin, Eric Cantona, Marcel Desailly and Didier Deschamps. Some teams in Groups A and B had to travel from Los Angeles or San Francisco all the way to Detroit and back again, covering 2,300 miles (3,700 km) and three time zones one way.
The magnitude of that victory allowed Switzerland to move ahead of the United States on goal difference, although the hosts qualified for the second round as one of the best third-placed teams.Just as happened to Argentina in Group D, Belgium endured the same fate in Group F. Despite winning both of its first two matches 1–0 against Morocco and neighbors Netherlands, Belgium finished third as, in an upset, it lost to tournament newcomers Saudi Arabia 1–0 in the third game. Germany, who defeated Bolivia 1–0 in the tournament's opening game, finished with seven points. Russia failed to progress to the second round for the second time, while Cameroon failed to repeat their surprise performance from the previous tournament.During the previous day at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, Italy's World Cup hopes seemed to be diminishing fast as goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca was sent off with the game still at 0–0. With Ireland and Italy also progressing having finished with identical records, the Irish team qualified as second place as a result of their victory against the Italians. Despite the controversy, the U.S. staged a hugely successful tournament, with an average attendance of nearly 70,000 breaking a record that surpassed the 1966 FIFA World Cupaverage attendance of 51,000, thanks to the large seating capacities the stadiums in the United States provided for the spectators in comparison to the smaller venues of Europe and Latin America. Greece, Italy, Saudi Arabia, and Spain were the only countries that had all their players coming from domestic teams, while the Republic of Ireland and Nigeria had no players from domestic teams. Football statistics of the country France in the year 1994. Nigeria had been very impressive on their World Cup debut, and despite the narrow loss to Argentina, had emerged as group winners following victories against Bulgaria and Greece, the latter in which Nigeria doubled its lead late on a goal from Daniel Amokachi – a goal that would allow Nigeria to top its group. Spain had to settle for second place despite leading in all three games.Those results meant that Mexico won the group on goals scored, with three in the group. Saudi Arabia were the only team with no players from European clubs.
A few teams, such as Cameroon and Italy, did not have to travel great distances to cities to play matches.
With the four teams level on points, the final two group games would each have to finish as draws for things to stay that way. Maradona only played with Argentina during their first two games, both in Foxborough (playing Greece and Nigeria and scoring his last ever World Cup goal against the former); he was thrown out of the tournament after testing positive for ephedrine.Despite Bolivia finishing last in the group, Erwin Sanchez made team history after scoring the nation's first World Cup goal in a 3–1 loss to Spain. United Kingdom World Cup 1994 Yugoslavia World Cup 1994 Austria-Hungary 1954 France had a good side in 1994. The win gave France their first World Cup title, becoming the sixth national team after Uruguay, Italy, England, West Germany and Argentina to win the tournament on their home soil.
Yet despite this, Italy was still able to salvage an important 1–0 victory. Prior to 1994, Bolivia had never scored in either of their previous appearances at the 1930 and 1950 World Cups.The Group A game between the United States and Switzerland was the first to take place indoors, played under the roof at the Pontiac Silverdome.As was the case with Group B, Group C would only send two teams into the Round of 16 as Spain and defending champions Germany progressed to round two. Saudi Arabia was the only team with no players from European teams.The Swedes also progressed, finishing in second place with five points. They were on the edge for a qualification to the 1994 World Cup Finals in the USA. A total of 39 UEFA teams entered qualification for the 1994 FIFA World Cup.However, Liechtenstein withdrew before the draw was made.