The first decisive factor for the order according to FIFA criteria is the round reached (winner, finalist, third, semi-finalist, quarter-finalist, round of 16, participants in the preliminary round). If the round reached is the same, the number of points, the goal difference, the number of goals scored and the direct comparison decide in turn.
Decisions after penalty shootouts are counted as a tie in this statistic. As in all statistics, the hits scored on penalties are not counted as goals.
player
The youngest player was the Dane Christian Eriksen (born February 14, 1992) at 18 years and 130 days , he was used once.
The oldest was the goalkeeper David James (born August 1, 1970) from England at the age of 39 .
The tallest player was Nikola Žigić (Serbia) with 2.02 m , the smallest Aaron Lennon (England) with 1.65 m.
The last day of group D saw the first duel between two brothers at a world championship. Kevin-Prince Boateng (Ghana) met his younger half-brother Jérôme Boateng (Germany).
With Wilson , Jerry and Johnny Palacios (all Honduras), three brothers stood together in a World Cup line-up for the first time. However, Johnny, the youngest of the brothers, was not used.
With his substitution in the last group game Rigobert Song (Cameroon) was used as the first African player at four world championships. Song played for Cameroon at the 1994, 1998 and 2002 World Championships; In 2006 he was missing because Cameroon did not qualify. Their fourth World Cup (after 1998, 2002 and 2006) also played Fabio Cannavaro (Italy), Thierry Henry (France) and Denis Caniza (Paraguay). Goalkeepers Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi and Seigō Narazaki (both Japan) and Lee Woon-jae (South Korea) were also in a World Cup line-up for the fourth time, but without having been used at every World Cup .
A total of 14 players who had already won the title at a previous World Cup took part (nine Italians, four Brazilians and one French).
Two players played their 100th international match at the World Cup: Giovanni van Bronckhorst (Netherlands, in the group game against Denmark) and Miroslav Klose (Germany, in the quarter-finals against Argentina). A total of 14 players were used who have played at least 100 international matches.
The Mexican Cuauhtémoc Blanco has risen to become the third-oldest goal scorer in World Cup history at the age of 37 years and 151 days thanks to his penalty goal in the preliminary round match against France. Blanco (born January 17, 1973) was also the oldest field player in the tournament.
Only three teams only used players from domestic leagues. In contrast, there were only players in the Nigerian squad who play in foreign leagues. The following table summarizes the number of players playing in the foreign leagues of the various continental associations and the domestic league for the World Cup participants (as of before the World Cup).
Vicente del Bosque surpassed 59 years as coach of Spain 's record of Helmut Schoen in 1974 58 years and 295 days old as the oldest coach of a world champion.
Twelve teams were looked after by foreign coaches.
Most of the coaches came from Argentina and Germany (three each), two each from Brazil, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and Serbia.
The coaches from Colombia (Honduras) and Sweden (Ivory Coast and Nigeria) were the only ones whose home countries did not qualify for the tournament.
Carlos Alberto Parreira , coach of South Africa, experienced his sixth World Cup as head coach. So far he has looked after five different countries at world championships (first Kuwait 1982); with Brazil he became world champion in 1994.
The longest- serving team boss at the World Cup was Morten Olsen , who has been in charge of the Danish selection since July 2000.
Two head coaches ( Diego Maradona for Argentina, Carlos Dunga for Brazil) had already become world champions as players. Both were eliminated with their teams in the quarter-finals.
Only two countries competed with the same head coach as they did in Germany in 2006: World Champion Italy with Marcello Lippi and Vice World Champion France with Raymond Domenech . Both countries failed in the preliminary round.
A total of eleven coaches took part who had already acted as head coach at at least one previous World Cup.
Eight coaches were previously used as players at a World Cup.
The first penalty kick was taken in the match between Serbia and Ghana . Asamoah Gyan converted to 1-0 for Ghana.
Ghana are the first team to reach the knockout round of a World Cup with only penalty goals. In the quarter-finals against Uruguay , however, she was eliminated on penalties, which Gyan could have prevented if he had converted a penalty shortly before the end of extra time.
In the quarter-final game Paraguay - Spain there was a penalty for both teams within two minutes, but they could not be converted.
The penalty missed by David Villa in the game against Honduras was the first to be missed for Spain at a World Cup.
With his penalty saved against Paraguay, Iker Casillas is the first goalkeeper to save a penalty in 2 World Cup tournaments. He had previously saved a penalty against Ireland in 2002 .
John Heitinga was the second player to receive a yellow-red card in a World Cup final and first in extra time in a final. The first had Marcel Desailly received in 1998 in the regular season.
Argentina and Portugal scored the most goals in the preliminary round (7 each), Portugal all in the same game (against North Korea).
The highest-scoring games of the tournament: Portugal – North Korea 7-0 (preliminary round); Argentina – South Korea 4: 1 (preliminary round); Slovakia 3-2 Italy (preliminary round); Germany – England 4: 1 (round of 16); Uruguay 2-3 Netherlands (semi-finals); Uruguay-Germany 2-3 (game for 3rd place); Argentina-Germany 0-4 (quarterfinals).
Six preliminary round matches - including two with Portuguese participation - ended 0-0; also the round of 16 Paraguay – Japan, which was won on penalties after Paraguay went 0-0 after extra time.
Siphiwe Tshabalala scored the first goal of the World Cup in the 55th minute of the opening game . It was also the first ever World Cup goal on African soil.
Portugal and Uruguay were the only teams to survive the preliminary round without conceding a goal. Both had to accept a goal in the round of 16, which meant the elimination for Portugal.
Algeria and Honduras were eliminated from the tournament without scoring a goal.
The average of 2.2 goals per game after the round of 16 was just below the negative record of 2.21 goals per game in the 1990 World Cup. The quarter-finals increased the average to 2.22 and the semi-finals to 2.24 goals per Game. Through the final games, especially the game for 3rd place in which 5 goals were scored, the average was raised to 2.27. It is the second worst in World Cup history.
Goal odds at the World Cup tournaments
The 1: 1 by Dimitrios Salpingidis in the second group game of the Greeks against Nigeria in the 44th minute was the first Greek World Cup goal.
The latest goal (without extra time) was scored by Álvaro Pereira (Uruguay) when he scored 3-0 in the fifth minute of added time in the second group match against South Africa. The latest decisive goal was achieved by Winston Reid (New Zealand), who equalized 1-1 in the first group game against Slovakia in the third minute of stoppage time.
For the first time since the round of 16 took place after the group stage, a team with Germany managed to score a total of 8 goals in the round of 16 and quarter finals. The previous record was 7 goals (Brazil, 1998).
With 16 goals Germany was the most dangerous team in the tournament.
In absolute and relative terms, Spain had the fewest goals of all previous world champions: 8 goals in 7 games = 1.14 / game. The previous negative record was 11 goals (Italy / 1938, England / 1966 and Brazil / 1994) and 1.57 goals / game (Brazil / 1994).
Overall (excluding penalty shoot-outs) only 2 fewer goals were scored than at the last World Cup.
Draw games
The draw against Slovakia brought New Zealand its first point win at a World Cup.
Italy increased the record of draws at World Cups to 21, previously Italy and Germany held the record together with 19 draws.
The 1-1 draw against Australia was Ghana’s first draw at a World Cup.
The 2-2 draw against the USA was the first Slovenian draw at a World Cup.
The 0-0 draw against Portugal was the first draw for the Ivory Coast at a World Cup.
Victories
Argentina and the Netherlands were the only teams to win all three preliminary round matches.
Portugal's 7-0 win against North Korea is Portugal's greatest World Cup victory.
The 2-1 win against Nigeria was the first Greek victory at a World Cup.
The 1-0 win against Algeria was Slovenia's first ever World Cup victory.
In Group D, all four teams (Germany, Ghana, Australia and Serbia) managed at least one victory, Germany won two games.
Defeats
The 0: 7 North Korea against Portugal is North Korea's biggest defeat.
England's 4-1 defeat against Germany is England's biggest World Cup defeat.
Argentina’s 4-0 defeat against Germany is Argentina’s biggest defeat against Germany and Argentina’s second highest at a World Cup.
In Group D, all four teams lost at least one game, Serbia lost two games.
Mexico increased their own record defeats to 24 (previously 22) and were eliminated in the round of 16 for the fifth time in a row.
Brazil and Argentina were eliminated from the tournament twice in a row in the quarter-finals; Argentina both times against the eventual World Cup third Germany (both 2006 and 2010), Brazil against the eventual World Cup second (2006 France, 2010 Holland).
Out in the preliminary round
With Italy , the reigning world champion was eliminated in the preliminary round for the fourth time, Italy met it for the second time after 1950.
New Zealand was eliminated unbeaten after three draws as third in the group. If the two-point rule applied earlier (up to and including the 1990 World Cup), New Zealand would have reached the round of 16. Since the world champions Spain had lost their preliminary round match against Switzerland, New Zealand remained the only undefeated team in the tournament.
The Ivorian team scored four goals in the preliminary round and yet they did not reach the last sixteen. The teams from England and Ghana , on the other hand, had two goals , Mexico and Chile only three goals. Already in 2006 the Ivory Coast had only finished third in the group although they scored more goals than other teams.
With South Africa , the hosts were eliminated for the first time in the preliminary round.
With France and Italy, both finalists of the previous World Cup were eliminated in the preliminary round for the first time. Defending champion Uruguay did not take part in 1934, and finalist Argentina were eliminated in the first round.
Denmark was eliminated for the first time in the preliminary round of a football World Cup, they always survived the preliminary round in their last three finals in 1986, 1998 and 2002.
Knockout round
A negative goal difference was enough for South Korea (5: 6) and Slovakia (4: 5) to make it into the round of 16, while the Ivory Coast did better with 4: 3.
With Argentina , Brazil , Paraguay and Uruguay , four South American teams reached the quarter-finals for the first time. The previous record was three teams (1970 and 1978). With 5 teams in the round of 16, the South American teams also set a new record for CONMEBOL . This made the South American association the only one whose representatives completely survived the preliminary round. The South Americans only managed this in 1978 with 3 teams, in 1986 with 4 teams (with Uruguay as one of the best group thirds), in 1990 with 4 teams (with Argentina, Colombia and Uruguay as three of the best group thirds), Central and North America in 1994 with 2 Teams (including the USA as one of the best third party), the Asians in 1966 with the North Koreans and Oceania in 2006 with Australia (meanwhile a member of the Asian Association).
Mexico was eliminated for the fifth time in a row in the round of 16 of a World Cup tournament.
With Germany , the Netherlands and Spain only three European teams reached the quarter-finals for the first time. The previous negative record was 4 teams (1970 and 2002). However, all 3 European teams were able to reach the semi-finals, while of the four South American representatives only Uruguay reached the semi-finals. The maximum number of eight was reached in 1934.
The teams from Ghana and the USA played the first extra time . Ghana prevailed here with a goal from Asamoah Gyan in the 93rd minute.
The first penalty shoot-out at this World Cup took place in the round of 16 Paraguay - Japan , which Paraguay won 5-3.
With Ghana, an African team reached the quarter-finals for the third time (after Cameroon in 1990 and Senegal in 2002 ).
For the second time since 2002, teams from different continents met each other in all quarter-finals. In 2002 4 European representatives met representatives from 4 different continental associations (Africa, Asia, North and South America), in 2010 there were 4 South American teams who met 3 European teams and 1 African team.
For the first time, no South American team was in a final outside of Europe.
Spain is the first world champion to be satisfied with four 1-0 wins in the knockout round and the first world champion after a defeat in the first game.
Spain are the first European team to claim the title outside of Europe.
referee
Jorge Larrionda set the record for Joël Quiniou with the game Germany - England , who was the first to lead a total of eight games in three World Cup tournaments between 1986 and 1994. Larrionda only needed two World Cup tournaments for this. With the game for 3rd place, Benito Archundia also set the record, for which he also only needed two tournaments.
Ravshan Ermatov set the record of five games at a World Cup set by Benito Archundia in 2006.
Howard Webb set a new record for cautions in the final: With 13 yellow cards (8 for the Dutch and 5 for the Spaniards) he beat the record from the Argentina - Germany final at the 1986 World Cup (4 yellow cards for Argentina, 2 yellow cards for Germany). He also showed John Heitinga the yellow-red card.
General
Mexico set a new record with its 5th participation in the opening game after 1930 (unofficial), 1950 , 1958 and 1970 .
During the entire preliminary round there was not a single game between two countries that are geographically directly adjacent. It wasn't until the round of 16 that two neighboring countries met with Spain and Portugal.
The countries with the most experience of the World Cup, which could not qualify for 2010, were Belgium and Sweden (11 participations each). Sweden could not qualify for 2014 either, while Belgium is participating for the 12th time in 2014.
North Korea qualified for the first time after 44 years of abstinence from the World Cup. Only Egypt (56 years from 1934 to 1990), Norway (56 years from 1938 to 1994) and Turkey (48 years from 1954 to 2002) needed more time between two World Cup participations .
The smallest country participating in this World Cup (by area and population) was Slovenia , the largest was the USA . Both teams met in the preliminary round and parted 2-2.
Spain became the first European team to win the World Cup outside of their own continent.
With six games in which both teams spoke Spanish , a new World Cup record has been set for games in which both teams speak the same language. The previous maximum number of five games was also set up for Spanish at the first World Cup in 1930. The total number of matches in the same language was ten, surpassing the record of 2006 (nine matches). In addition, a new record for participants with a common official language was set with eight countries in which English is the official language or one of the official languages. The previous record of seven Spanish-speaking countries was also set at the first World Cup in 1930, and was set by English-speaking countries in 1998 and Spanish-speaking countries in 2002. In 2014, the record was again surpassed by the participation of nine Spanish-speaking countries.
Additional
The 2010 World Cup was the first World Cup on the African continent.
Germany presented with Miroslav Klose ( 2006 ) and Thomas Müller ( 2010 ) became the first country twice in a row the top scorer and won for the second time, awarded for the first time at the World Cup finals in 2006 award for the best young players: Thomas Müller followed Lukas Podolski who received the award in 2006 .
The German national soccer team was also the first team to successfully repeat this placement at world championships with their third place (Germany also took third place at the 2006 home World Cup). In addition, the match between Germany and Uruguay was the first time in the match for third place to repeat a pairing that had already existed at an earlier World Cup ( 1970 in Mexico ). In both cases, Germany just won.
Thomas Müller
David Villa
Wesley Sneijder
Diego Forlan
Gonzalo Higuaín
Róbert Vittek
Landon Donovan
Luís Fabiano
Asamoah Gyan
Tiago
Keisuke Honda
Spain
Netherlands
Germany
Uruguay
Argentina
Brazil
Ghana
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Paraguay
Japan
Chile
Portugal
United States
England
Mexico
South Korea
Slovakia
Ivory Coast
Slovenia
Switzerland
South Africa
Australia
New Zealand
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Serbia
Denmark
Greece
Italy
Nigeria
Algeria
France
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Honduras
Cameroon
North Korea
