World Cup 2014
The 20th World Cup in football was held in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July in 2014. It was the second time Brazil hosted the biggest football tournament on earth, the first time was World Cup 1950. After a qualification phase including 207 teams (the team of Brazil as host nation didn't need to qualifiy), a sum of 32 teams were participating in the World Cup final stage (Bosnia and Herzegovina did partake for the first time).
Contents
Background | Format | Cities and arenas | Tournament | Stats | Results
Official poster
Participating teams
- Algeria
- Argentina
- Australia
- Belgium
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Brazil
- Cameroon
- Chile
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Croatia
- Ecuador
- England
- France
- Germany
- Ghana
- Greece
- Honduras
- Italy
- Iran
- Ivory Coast
- Japan
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- Nigeria
- Portugal
- Russia
- Spain
- South Korea
- Switzerland
- United States
- Uruguay
1st, 2nd and 3rd places
- Germany
- Argentina
- Netherlands
Top scorers
- James Rodriguez (6 goals)
- Thomas Müller (5 goals)
- Lionel Messi (4 goals)
- Neymar (4 goals)
- Robin van Persie (4 goals)
Cities and stadiums
- Rio de Janeiro (Estádio do Maracanã)
- Brasília (Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha)
- São Paulo (Arena de São Paulo)
- Fortaleza (Estádio Castelão)
- Belo Horizonte (Estádio Mineirão)
- Porto Alegre (Estádio Beira-Rio)
- Salvador (Itaipava Arena Fonte Nova)
- Cuiabá (Arena Pantanal)
- Curitiba (Arena da Baixada)
- Manaus (Arena da Amazônia)
- Recife (Arena das Dunas)
Average attendance: 52,918
Background
The FIFA World Cup in Brazil was preceded with protests and also delays in the construction and rebuilding of stadiums.
It was the enormous sums involved in constructing and rebuilding football stadiums for the event that caused the protests – that also escalated in wild street demonstrations. The cost for the rebuilding of the Maracana Stadium landed on €335 million. The controversy were fueled by additional circumstances, such as construction workers died in accidents and that residents around the stadium and other World Cup related constructions were forced to leave their homes.
Most chocking of all was the allegations that police death patrols had operated before the tournament in order to clear out the streets from homeless people and other undesirable elements.
Format
The format was copied from the previous tournament. Meaning that a first round with a group stage consisting of eight four-team groups would proceed to a second round with a knockout phase.
Cities and arenas
The matches would be played at ten stadiums in eleven cities. The final would be played in FNB Stadium in City of Johannesburg, with the capacity of 84,490.
Tournament
Brazil as the home team had high hopes of winning another trophy, and were a favorite because the South American teams traditionally would be known to be strong playing on their own continent – no European had never won a World Cup played at the American continent. Brazil played well and especially spectacular and dangerous for the opponent teams was Neymar. But Neymar was injured after a vicious tackling in the quarter-final against Colombia. This was most probably the biggest reason that the home team in the next match would lose by with humiliating 1-7 against Germany.
Germany that seemed unbreakable forced Argentina to play defensively in the final. Argentina was well organized, but in the second part of the extra time could Mario Götze give Germany a 1-0 lead that turned out to be decisive.
Stats
FIFA World Cup 2014 would include 64 matches in which 171 goals were made (2,67 goals per match).
Results
Germany would beat Argentina in the final with 1-0, after extra time.
Group A
Brazil – Croatia 3–1
Mexico – Cameroon 1–0
Brazil – Mexico 0–0
Cameroon – Croatia 0–4
Cameroon – Brazil 1–4
Croatia – Mexico 1–3
Group B
Spain – Netherlands 1–5
Chile – Australia 3–1
Australia – Netherlands 2–3
Spain – Chile 0–2
Netherlands – Chile 2–0
Australia – Spain 0–3
Group C
Colombia – Greece 3–0
Cote d`Ivoire – Japan 2–1
Colombia – Cote d`Ivoire 2–1
Japan – Greece 0–0
Japan – Colombia 1–4
Greece – Cote d`Ivoire 2–1
Group D
Uruguay – Costa Rica 1–3
England – Italy 1–2
Uruguay – England 2–1
Italy – Costa Rica 0–1
Italy – Uruguay 0–1
Costa Rica – England 0–0
Group E
Switzerland – Ecuador 2–1
France – Honduras 3–0
Switzerland – France 2–5
Honduras – Ecuador 1–2
Ecuador – France 0–0
Honduras – Switzerland 0–3
Group F
Argentina – Bosnia-Herzegovina 2–1
Iran – Nigeria 0–0
Argentina – Iran 1–0
Nigeria – Bosnia-Herzegovina 1–0
Nigeria – Argentina 2–3
Bosnia-Herzegovina – Iran 3–1
Group G
Germany – Portugal 4–0
Ghana – United States 1–2
Germany – Ghana 2–2
United States – Portugal 2–2
United States – Germany 0–1
Portugal – Ghana 2–1
Group H
Belgium – Algeria 2–1
Russia – Korea Republic 1–1
Belgium – Russia 1–0
Korea Republic – Algeria 2–4
Korea Republic – Belgium 0–1
Algeria – Russia 1–1
Round of 16
Brazil – Chile 1–1 a.e.t. penalties 3–2
Colombia – Uruguay 2–0
Netherlands – Mexico 2–1
Costa Rica – Greece 1–1 a.e.t. penalties 5–3
France – Nigeria 2–0
Germany – Algeria 2–1 a.e.t.
Argentina – Switzerland 1–0 a.e.t.
Belgium – United States 2–1 a.e.t.
Quarter-finals
Brazil – Colombia 2–1
France – Germany 0–1
Argentina – Belgium 1–0
Netherlands – Costa Rica 0–0 a.e.t. penalties 4–3
Semi-finals
Brazil – Germany 1–7
Netherlands – Argentina 0–0 a.e.t. penalties 2–4
Third place match
Brazil – Netherlands 0–3
Final
Germany – Argentina 1–0 a.e.t.
More World Cups
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_FIFA_World_Cup