GOLD AND DUST - World Cup Records
By Richard Pedler
GOLD . . .
JAKARTA (JP): Pele was the first man to appear on three World Cup winning sides. He scored 12 goals in 14 matches. He is also the youngest player to score in the World Cup finals and he scored in each of his four tournaments.
Brazil is the only nation to have taken part in all 14 finals, and have won the most games and scored the most goals. They were also undefeated for eight years (1958-66).
The 1954 Switzerland tournament witnessed a record 140 goals - an average of 5.38 per game. Hungary scored 27 of these.
Mexican goalkeeper Antonio CARBAJAL appeared in five consecutive tournaments between 1950 and 1966. But Uwe Seeler (Germany) and Wladyslaw Zmuda (Poland) jointly hold the record of 21 finals appearances.
In 1962 Brazil used only 12 players in winning the tournament, Pele being injured against Czechoslovakia.
The oldest man to win a World Cup medal was Dino Zoff, the 40- year-old keeper who captained Italy in 1982. His compatriot Walter Zenga holds the clean-sheet record, playing 517 minutes before conceding a goal, in 1990.
German Gerd Muller scored a record 14 World Cup goals (10 in 1970, four in 1974). Just Fontaine scored his 13 goals in one tournament for France in 1958.
Mario Zagalo became the first player and manager of a World Cup-winning side when Brazil won the Jules Rimet Trophy outright in 1970. The first to captain and then coach the winners was Franz Beckenbauer.
Peru captain Mario de Las Casas was the first player sent off, in 1930. Since then only the 1950 and 1970 tournaments have been free of send-offs. The first red card was shown in 1974 to Chile's Carlos Caszely, for kicking Berti Vogts.
Diego Maradona was the most-fouled player at Italia '90, being on the wrong end of 53 unfair challenges.
The first penalty miss in the Final was taken by Italy's Antonio Cabrini in 1982.
Sixty players have been sent off in the World Cup finals, 25 from South America. Brazil and Argentina have each had seven men sent off.
The biggest humiliation in the finals was suffered by El Salvador, losing 10-1 to Hungary in 1982. Mexico has lost a record 17 finals matches.
Finally, Bulgaria has not won any of their 16 World Cup matches.
THE 24 QUALIFIERS
Nation P W D L GF GA T
GERMANY (West) 68 39 15 14 145 90 12 BRAZIL 66 44 11 11 148 65 14 ITALY 54 31 12 11 89 54 12 ARGENTINA 48 24 9 15 82 59 10 SPAIN 32 13 7 12 43 38 8 SWEDEN 31 11 6 14 49 52 8 RUSSIA (USSR) 31 15 6 10 53 34 7 MEXICO 29 6 6 17 27 64 9 BELGIUM 25 7 4 14 33 49 8 HOLLAND 20 8 6 6 35 23 5 SWITZERLAND 18 5 2 11 28 44 6 BULGARIA 16 0 6 10 11 35 5 ROMANIA 12 3 3 6 16 20 5 USA 10 3 0 7 14 29 4 SOUTH KOREA 8 0 1 7 5 29 3 CAMEROON 8 3 3 2 8 10 2 MOROCCO 7 1 3 3 5 8 2 COLOMBIA 7 1 2 4 9 15 2 IRELAND 5 0 4 1 2 3 1 BOLIVIA 3 0 0 3 0 3 2 NORWAY 1 0 0 1 1 2 1 GREECE 0 NIGERIA 0 SAUDI ARABIA 0
KEY: T=Total Tournaments; P=Played; W=Won; D=Drawn; L=Lost; GF=Goals For; GA=Goals Against;
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