Football World Cup 2014 / Statistics

This article gives an overview of the records and statistics for the 2014 World Cup . Club-related data are as of the end of the 2013/2014 season.

player

Gianluigi Buffon (Italy) was in the squad for a World Cup for the fifth time. He draws level with Antonio Carbajal and Lothar Matthäus , the only players so far with 5 participations. While these players were on the field at least once in each of their World Cup appearances, Buffon was not used when he first played in 1998.
Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon) was already used at the 1998 World Cup, but only played his fourth World Cup (2006 Cameroon was not qualified).
DaMarcus Beasley (USA), Iker Casillas (Spain), Miroslav Klose (Germany), Rafael Márquez (Mexico) and Xavi (Spain) also contested their fourth world championship (after 2002, 2006 and 2010 ).
Miroslav Klose (Germany), who played 19 World Cup games before 2014, was the only participant who could have surpassed Lothar Matthäus' record of 25 World Cup games. Since Klose was not used in the first group game in Germany and in the round of 16, he is now the player with the second most World Cup games with 24 World Cup games. Klose was used in 86% of the games, while Matthäus was only used in 81% of the games. The Italian Paolo Maldini , who is now in third place with 23 games , was used in all games of the Italian team between 1990 and 2002.
Although the 2014 world championship title was the first victory of an all-German team, Toni Kroos was born and raised in the former GDR alone . With Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski , two Polish-born players became world champions for the first time.
A total of 20 players who had already won the title at a previous World Cup took part (four Italians and 16 Spaniards, which Spain increased the record set by France in 2002). All were eliminated after the preliminary round, so that no active player could become world champion for the second time.
The oldest participant was the Colombian goalkeeper Faryd Mondragón , who was born on June 21, 1971 and participated in 1998. He was substituted on in the 85th minute of his team's last group game on June 24 and at the age of 43 became the oldest World Cup player of all time.
The oldest outfield player was the captain of the Colombian team Mario Yepes at the age of 39. He was used in four games and was only absent in the last group game against Japan.
The youngest participant was Fabrice Olinga from Cameroon , who was born on May 12, 1996. But he was - as the only field player on his team - not used.
The youngest player to appear was Englishman Luke Shaw , who was 18 years and 347 days old in the last group game against Costa Rica.
Xherdan Shaqiri (Switzerland) scored the 50th hat-trick in the history of the World Cup in the last group game against Honduras .
The half-brothers Jérôme Boateng (Germany) and Kevin-Prince Boateng (Ghana) played with their teams against each other like in 2010 in the preliminary round.
Eight players completed their 100th international match during the World Cup: Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands) on June 13, Mario Yepes (Colombia) on June 19, Javier Mascherano (Argentina) and Per Mertesacker (Germany) on June 21, Sergei Ignaschewitsch ( Russia) on June 22nd, Andrés Iniesta (Spain) on June 23rd, Joseph Yobo as the first Nigerian on June 25th and Dirk Kuyt (Netherlands) in the round of 16 on June 29th 2014. The previous high was 5 at the 2002 World Cup. For Tim Howard (USA), the first group game was the 100th game counted by FIFA. The US federation already counted the game on June 7, 2014 as its 100th international match, as it also counts a game against Guadeloupe in the CONCACAF Cup , even though Guadeloupe is not a member of FIFA.
The 2013/14 UEFA Champions League winner (Real Madrid) provided two finalists: Ángel Di María (Argentina) and Sami Khedira (Germany). Neither of them played in the final.
With Germany's victory in the final, 7 players are now double world champions. In other words, they won the FIFA Club World Cup and the world championship title in Brazil with FC Bayern Munich . Manuel Neuer , Philipp Lahm , Jérôme Boateng , Toni Kroos , Bastian Schweinsteiger , Mario Götze and Thomas Müller are the reigning "double world champions". Every single one of them was on the pitch in the World Cup final.

All teams used at least one player from the domestic league, but only Russia only used players from the domestic league. The following table summarizes the number of players in the domestic league and in foreign leagues of the various continental associations for each squad (as of before the World Cup). So played z. B. 16 players from the German team in the Bundesliga, seven in other European leagues. Ten of the African teams played in domestic leagues, four in other African leagues, 99 in European and two in Asian leagues. 146 players from other European countries, 88 from South America, 40 from Asia and 37 from North and Central America played in European leagues. There were a total of 562 players active in Europe in the World Cup squad, that is 76.4% of all squad members. In 1950, at the first World Cup in Brazil, only Chile used a player from a foreign league , George Robledo , who played for Newcastle United and who had emigrated to England with his parents at the age of 5.

	Africa	Asia and Australia	Europe	North and Central America	South America	homeland
Russia Russia						23
England England			1			22nd
Italy Italy			3			20th
Germany Germany			7th			16
Mexico Mexico			8th			15th
Greece Greece			9			14th
Iran Iran		2	6th	1		14th
Spain Spain			9			14th
Netherlands Netherlands			10			13
Honduras Honduras		1	6th	4th		12
Japan Japan			12			11
United States United States			12	1		9
Costa Rica Costa Rica			11	3		9
Ecuador Ecuador		2	4th	7th	2	8th
France France			15th			8th
Portugal Portugal			15th			8th
Australia Australia		3	12	1		7th
Switzerland Switzerland			16			7th
Korea South South Korea		7th	10			6th
Chile Chile			15th		3	5
Brazil Brazil			18th	1		4th
Nigeria Nigeria			19th			4th
Argentina Argentina			19th	1		3
Belgium Belgium			20th			3
Colombia Colombia			16		4th	3
Croatia Croatia			20th			3
Cameroon Cameroon			21st			2
Algeria Algeria	1	1	19th			2
Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina		1	21st			1
Ghana Ghana	3	1	18th			1
Ivory Coast Ivory Coast			22nd			1
Uruguay Uruguay		1	16	1	4th	1

	Africa	Asia and Australia	Europe	North and Central America	Oceania	South America	homeland
Africa	4th	2	99				10
Asia and Australia		12	40	2			38
Europe		1	146				152
North and Central America		1	37	8th			46
South America		3	88	10		13	24
Total ( legionnaires )	4th	19th	410	20th	0	13	270
Sum (total)	14th	57	562	66	0	37

Most of the players (114) work for 28 clubs in England, most of them in the Premier League , some in lower-tier leagues.
The Bayern Munich and Manchester United are the most World Cup participants: each 14
The Algerian squad included players from 23 different clubs.
Of the unqualified associations, Turkey has the largest number of players: 26

Trainer

14 teams were looked after by foreign coaches.
Most of the coaches came from Germany (four), three each from Argentina, Italy, Colombia and Portugal, with the Colombian coaches only looking after other teams. Three coaches each from Argentina and Germany reached the round of 16 with their teams, all other countries only provided one coach in the round of 16. In the quarterfinals, Argentina had the most with two coaches.
No coach came from a country that had not qualified itself for the World Cup. In the round of 16, however, two coaches from countries (Bosnia-Herzegovina and Portugal) were represented, who were eliminated in the preliminary round.
The longest serving team bosses of the World Cup were Joachim Löw and Óscar Tabárez , who have been in charge of the German and Uruguayan selection since 2006. Tabárez was, however, coach of Uruguay from 1988 to 1990, while Löw had already worked as an assistant coach for the German team from 2004. Both, as well as Ottmar Hitzfeld with Switzerland, Fabio Capello with England (now Russia), Carlos Queiroz with Portugal (now Iran), Reinaldo Rueda with Honduras (now Ecuador) were already active at the last World Cup.
Two coaches ( Didier Deschamps / 1998 and Jürgen Klinsmann / 1990) were already able to become world champions as players, but were eliminated as coaches in the knockout round.
Two coaches ( Luiz Felipe Scolari / 2002 and Vicente del Bosque / 2010) were able to become world champions with their team. Vicente del Bosque would have been the first coach after Vittorio Pozzo (1934 and 1938) to defend the title, but Spain was eliminated in the preliminary round.
The oldest coach was Fabio Capello at the age of 68, making him the fourth oldest World Cup coach.
The youngest coach was Sabri Lamouchi , the Ivory Coast coach, at the age of 42.
Niko Kovač , who took office just before the playoff games, was supported by his brother Robert as an assistant coach.
In the round of 16 between Costa Rica and Greece, the coach of the Greeks, the Portuguese Fernando Santos , was relegated to the stands before the penalty shoot-out.

Gates

With 171 goals, the goal record was set in 1998 finals with 32 teams. Germany scored the most goals (18).

The highest-scoring games of the tournament:

8 goals: Brazil 1-7 Germany (semi-finals)
7 goals: Switzerland 2-5 France (preliminary round, Group E)
6 goals: Spain 1-5 Netherlands (preliminary round, Group B), South Korea 2-4 Algeria (preliminary round, Group H)
5 goals: Australia – Netherlands 2-3 (preliminary round, Group B), Cameroon – Brazil 1-4 (preliminary round, Group A), Japan – Colombia 1-4 (preliminary round, Group C), Nigeria – Argentina 2-3 (preliminary round , Group F)

For the first time, the first goal of the preliminary round fell through an own goal . It was also Brazil's first World Cup own goal.

Clint Dempsey scored the earliest goal in the 31st second of the USA's game against Ghana.

Germany scored at least four goals in their opening game for the 8th time and for the fourth time in a row.

Spain had to concede more goals (7) in the first two games than in the games of the 2010 World Cup (2) and the 2008 (3) and 2012 (1) European Championships combined.

With 14 goals conceded, Brazil received more goals than any previous host. Previous negative record: Switzerland conceded 11 goals in four games (still the worst rate with 2.75 goals conceded per game) at the 1954 World Cup .

Miroslav Klose scored his 15th World Cup goal in the German team's game against Ghana with his first contact with the ball after being substituted on, setting the record for the Brazilian Ronaldo . He scored his 16th goal in the semifinals against Brazil and became the sole record holder.

Thomas Müller (Germany) has scored at least five goals each in two consecutive World Cups. Previously only his compatriot Miroslav Klose (2002 and 2006) succeeded; In addition, the Peruvian Teófilo Cubillas scored five goals each in 1970 and 1978. Müller is also the first top scorer to score five goals in the following World Cup. Previously, only Gerd Müller (top scorer 1970), Gary Lineker (top scorer 1986) and Miroslav Klose (top scorer 2006) each scored four goals at the following World Cup.

Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) scored his 50th international goal in the last group game against Ghana

With James Rodríguez a Colombian was the first time top scorer and with Thomas Müller the top scorer of the previous World Cup received the silver shoe for the second best scorer for the first time.

18 goals were scored by players from Bayern Munich , followed by FC Barcelona with 10 and Manchester United with 9.

Comparison of nations by goals

The table below is sorted by goal difference. In the event of a tie, the team with more goals is higher up. As in the eternal table , points are distributed here for each game (and not just for the group games). Games that are decided on penalties count as a draw and are listed without the goals scored on penalties.

rank	nation	Games	S.	U	N	Gates	Goals conceded	Diff.	Points	World Cup place.
1.	Germany Germany	7th	6th	1	0	18th	4th	+14	19th	1.
2.	Netherlands Netherlands	7th	5	2	0	15th	4th	+11	17th	3.
3.	Colombia Colombia	5	4th	0	1	12	4th	+8	12	5.
4th	France France	5	3	1	1	10	3	+7	10	7th
5.	Argentina Argentina	7th	5	1	1	8th	4th	+4	16	2.
6th	Belgium Belgium	5	4th	0	1	6th	3	+3	12	6th
7th	Costa Rica Costa Rica	5	2	3	0	5	2	+3	9	8th.
8th.	Chile Chile	4th	2	1	1	6th	4th	+2	7th	9.
9.	Mexico Mexico	4th	2	1	1	5	3	+2	7th	10.
10.	Switzerland Switzerland	4th	2	0	2	7th	7th	± 0	6th	11.
11.	Algeria Algeria	4th	1	1	2	7th	7th	± 0	4th	14th
12.	Croatia Croatia	3	1	0	2	6th	6th	± 0	3	19th
13.	Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina	3	1	0	2	4th	4th	± 0	3	20th
14th	Ecuador Ecuador	3	1	1	1	3	3	± 0	4th	17th
15th	United States United States	4th	1	1	2	5	6th	−1	4th	15th
16.	Ivory Coast Ivory Coast	3	1	0	2	4th	5	−1	3	21st
17th	Italy Italy	3	1	0	2	2	3	−1	3	22nd
18th	Russia Russia	3	0	2	1	2	3	−1	2	24.
19th	Uruguay Uruguay	4th	2	0	2	4th	6th	−2	6th	12.
20th	Ghana Ghana	3	0	1	2	4th	6th	−2	1	25th
21st	Greece Greece	4th	1	2	1	3	5	−2	5	13.
22nd	Nigeria Nigeria	4th	1	1	2	3	5	−2	4th	16.
23.	England England	3	0	1	2	2	4th	−2	1	26th
24.	Brazil Brazil	7th	3	2	2	11	14th	−3	11	4th
25th	Portugal Portugal	3	1	1	1	4th	7th	−3	4th	18th
26th	Spain Spain	3	1	0	2	4th	7th	−3	3	23.
27.	Korea South South Korea	3	0	1	2	3	6th	−3	1	27.
28.	Iran Iran	3	0	1	2	1	4th	−3	1	28.
29	Japan Japan	3	0	1	2	2	6th	−4	1	29
30th	Australia Australia	3	0	0	3	3	9	−6	0	30th
31.	Honduras Honduras	3	0	0	3	1	8th	−7	0	31.
32.	Cameroon Cameroon	3	0	0	3	1	9	−8	0	32.
total		64	51	13	51	171	171	± 0	166

References

The first red card was Maxi Pereira of Uruguay in the 4th minute of added time in the game against Costa Rica.
The first yellow card saw Wilson Palacios from Honduras after 43 minutes of the game against France.
Cameroon's Alex Song received the red card in the game against Croatia. His cousin Rigobert Song received the red card in the 1994 finals against Brazil and in 1998 against Chile.

Group stage

For the first time, both the defending champions (Spain) and their predecessors (Italy) were eliminated in the group stage.
Costa Rica - drawn into a group with three former world champions - and Colombia became group winners for the first time.
Belgium and Colombia won three group stage games for the first time and four games in a row.
Greece are the first team to reach the round of 16 in second place with a goal difference of −2.

Final round

For the first time since the introduction of the round of 16 in 1986, three teams from CONCACAF and two teams from CAF reached the round of 16. As in 2010, six UEFA and five CONMEBOL teams made it to the round of 16. In contrast, all Asian teams (including Australia) were eliminated as the bottom group in the preliminary round.

For the first time there was no purely European duel in the round of 16.

For the first time there were two purely South American duels in the round of 16.

Algeria and Greece qualified for the first time for the round of 16.

Chile failed in its fourth participation in a knockout round (after 1962, 1998 and 2010) for the fourth time to Brazil.

Mexico were eliminated in the round of 16 for the sixth time in a row.

In the round of 16 Netherlands – Mexico, the game was interrupted for the first time in a soccer world championship for official cooling breaks due to heat .

Germany reached the round of the last eight teams for the 16th time in a row (uninterrupted since 1954).

Colombia and Costa Rica reached the quarter-finals for the first time.

For the first time, all group winners have qualified for the quarter-finals.

Germany was the first team to reach the semi-finals for the fourth time in a row.

Ravshan Ermatov (Uzbekistan) led his 9th World Cup game in the quarter-finals with the game Netherlands against Costa Rica and is thus the sole record referee.

For the first time, the Netherlands won a World Cup game that went into extra time. They had previously lost 4 games in overtime (1938, 1978, 2010) or on penalties (1998).

For the first time there were two duels between South America and Europe in the semifinals.

In the quarter-final match between the Netherlands and Costa Rica, a goalkeeper was substituted for the first time in a World Cup match shortly before the penalty shoot-out. Substitute goalkeeper Tim Krul saved two penalties and secured the semi-finals for the Dutch.

Brazil's 7-1 defeat in the semi-finals against Germany, also known as “ Mineiraço ”, is the biggest defeat for a World Cup host. Only one host had to concede seven goals in one game: in 1954, Switzerland lost 5-7 in the quarter-final against Austria, known as the “ Heat Battle of Lausanne ”.

In addition, the match between Brazil and Germany with eight goals is the semi-final with the highest number of goals and the first to be won with a difference of six goals. The highest semi-final victories so far came in the games Argentina – USA and Uruguay – Yugoslavia (both 1930) and Germany – Austria (1954) with 6: 1 each. Seven goals were also scored in the semifinals between Brazil and France in 1958 (5: 2) and in 1970 in the “match of the century ” Italy – Germany (4: 3 afterwards).

Brazil lost a World Cup semi-final for the first time since 1938. Since then it had only been in the game for third place in 1974 and 1978 when no semi-finals were played.

Germany and Argentina met in the final for the third time since 1986 and 1990 . There were two finals between Brazil and Italy, all other final pairings were unique.

For the first time since 1990, the team that failed in the semi-finals against the later world champion then also lost the game for third place - also back then the world champion was Germany.

Impact on the FIFA World Ranking

Thanks to its victories at the World Cup finals (including against the countries in 3rd to 5th place in the world rankings), Germany became the sole world leader again for the first time since 1994, while Spain slipped from 1st to 8th place due to its poor performance. After the World Cup, participants in the final took the first 21 places in the world rankings. With Ukraine, which just failed in the playoffs to France and was still in 16th place in June, the first team that did not qualify for the finals follows in 22nd place.

team	Place (June 2014)	Points (June 2014)	Place (July 2014)	Points (July 2014)	Change places	Change points	comment
Germany Germany	2	1300	1	1724	+1	+424	best placement since February 1997
Argentina Argentina	5	1175	2	1606	+3	+431	best placement since September 2013
Netherlands Netherlands	15th	981	3	1496	+12	+515	biggest point win of all World Cup participants
Colombia Colombia	8th	1137	4th	1492	+4	+355
Belgium Belgium	11	1074	5	1401	+6	+327	Setting the best value from October 2013
Uruguay Uruguay	7th	1147	6th	1330	+1	+182
Brazil Brazil	3	1242	7th	1241	−4	−2
Spain Spain	1	1485	8th	1229	−7	−256	worst placement since July 2007, biggest point loss of all World Cup participants
Switzerland Switzerland	6th	1149	9	1216	−3	+67
France France	17th	913	10	1202	+7	+289	best placement since May 2010
Portugal Portugal	4th	1189	11	1148	−7	−42
Chile Chile	14th	1026	12	1098	+2	+71
Greece Greece	12	1064	13	1091	−1	+27
Italy Italy	9	1104	14th	1056	−5	−48
United States United States	13	1035	15th	989	−2	−46
Costa Rica Costa Rica	28	762	16	986	+12	+224	best position since the world ranking list was created
Croatia Croatia	18th	903	17th	955	+1	+52
Mexico Mexico	20th	882	18th	930	+2	+48
Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina	21st	873	19th	917	+2	+44
England England	10	1090	20th	911	−10	−179	worst position since May 1996, biggest crash in England since the ranking was introduced
Ecuador Ecuador	26th	791	21st	901	+5	+110
Russia Russia	19th	893	23	897	−4	+3	worst ranking since September 2010
Algeria Algeria	22nd	858	24	872	−2	+15
Ivory Coast Ivory Coast	23	809	25th	850	−2	+41	worst ranking since March 2011
Nigeria Nigeria	44	640	34	664	+10	+24
Ghana Ghana	37	704	38	642	−1	−62
Honduras Honduras	33	731	40	637	−7	−94
Japan Japan	46	626	45	604	+1	−22
Iran Iran	43	641	49	563	−6	−78
Cameroon Cameroon	56	558	53	520	+3	−38
Korea South South Korea	57	547	56	501	+1	−46
Australia Australia	62	526	76	397	−14	−129	Biggest crash in Australia since the ranking was introduced, worst position since May 2004

Source of the values (figures rounded, therefore there may be deviations in the differences calculated on the basis of the unrounded values): FIFA

Others

For the first time, the two finalists of the previous World Cup, Spain and the Netherlands, met in the preliminary round. The game was won by the Dutch 5-1. This is the biggest win against a defending champion (before France – Germany 6: 3 in the match for third place in 1958 and France – Brazil 3: 0 in the 1998 final).
With England, Italy and Uruguay, three former world champions met in the group stage for the first time.
For the first time, eight countries that had already been world champions took part. Thus all previous world champions were represented at the tournament.
For the first time, five current continental champions took part. None reached the quarterfinals. Two (Spain / Europe and Japan / Asia) were eliminated in the preliminary round and three (Nigeria / Africa, Uruguay / South America and USA / Central and North America) were eliminated in the round of 16. The Oceania champions Tahiti were not qualified.
Only in 1930 more (7) South American teams participated.
In the preliminary round, only France and Switzerland met, two countries that are geographically neighbors. There was no neighboring duel in the round of 16 either. France and Germany as well as Brazil and Colombia then met in the quarter-finals.
The countries with the most experience of the World Cup that did not qualify for the final round were Sweden and Serbia (including Yugoslavia's World Cup participations) with 11 participations each.
Bosnia and Herzegovina was the only country that qualified for the finals for the first time. However, as part of Yugoslavia, the country was already represented in eight World Cup tournaments, most recently in 1990, when the current Bosnian coach Safet Sušić was in the Yugoslav squad and had five appearances.
For all other countries it was at least the third participation. Colombia, which last qualified in 1998, had the longest World Cup abstinence.
The same five countries from Africa qualified as at the previous World Cup: Algeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria. In addition, host South Africa took part at the time .
The smallest country participating in this World Cup (by area) was Belgium , the largest Russia . The two teams met in the group stage. In 2010, the smallest and largest participating countries ( Slovenia and the USA at the time ) met each other in the group stage.
The free kick spray and goal-line technology were used for the first time . The goal-line technique was used in the game between France and Honduras to decide on the second goal.
For the first time a European team won a soccer world championship held on the American continent.
For the first time, a confederation (UEFA) won the title three times in a row: after Italy in 2006 and Spain in 2010, Germany followed.
For the third time in a row, the final went into overtime.
For the first time, two European teams took place 1 and 3, two South American teams place 2 and 4.
For the first time since 23 players joined the squad after the rule change in 2002, one team, the Netherlands, has fielded all players. The last player in the squad, substitute goalkeeper Michel Vorm , came on for third place in the third minute of stoppage time in the game.
For the first time, five players who have played more than 100 internationals were used in the final : Miroslav Klose (137th game, player with the most international matches ever in a World Cup final), Philipp Lahm (113th and last international game), Bastian Schweinsteiger (108th), Javier Mascherano (105th) and Per Mertesacker (104th and last international match)
Germany played only two games (out of a total of seven in the finals) against European teams - as few as before only Uruguay in its two World Cup titles in 1930 and 1950 from four finals each.
Germany scored the most goals for the third time in a row.

Goal odds of the World Cup finals

For the first time since 1994, more goals were scored per game than at the previous World Cup.
For the first time since 1998, all participants were able to score a goal.

Individual evidence

↑ James' bang the most beautiful goal. In: fifa.com. FIFA , July 21, 2014, accessed July 22, 2014 .
↑ German Press Agency : Drinking break: Fifa bows to the heat judgment. In: handelsblatt.com. Handelsblatt , June 29, 2014, accessed on July 14, 2014 .
↑ World champion Germany takes over the top position. In: fifa.com. FIFA, July 17, 2014, accessed July 22, 2014 .

Web links

fifa.com: "Statistical overview: players"

[1] James' bang the most beautiful goal. In: fifa.com. FIFA , July 21, 2014, accessed July 22, 2014 .

[2] German Press Agency : Drinking break: Fifa bows to the heat judgment. In: handelsblatt.com. Handelsblatt , June 29, 2014, accessed on July 14, 2014 .

[3] World champion Germany takes over the top position. In: fifa.com. FIFA, July 17, 2014, accessed July 22, 2014 .