Football World Cup 1990
The 1990 Football World Cup was held in Italy. It was won by West Germany, who beat Argentina 1-0 in the final.
With its third title (and three second place finishes) Germany became the most successful World Cup nation for 4 years, until Brazil won their 4th Championship in 1994. German team manager Franz Beckenbauer became the second footballer, after Mario Zagallo, to become World Champion as a player (in 1974) and as team manager.
The format of the competition stayed the same as in 1986: 24 teams qualified, divided into six groups of four. 16 teams would qualify for the knockout competition: six group winners, six second place finishers, and four best third place finishers.
The World Cup began with an upset. Defending Champion Argentina fell 0-1 to Cameroon in the opening match. Cameroon went on to become the surprise team of the Championship, becoming the first African nation to go to the quarter finals and bowing there only in extra time with 2-3 to England after leading 2-1. Cameroon's Roger Milla, who came out of retirement specifically for the World Cup, became an international superstar at age 38, long after most top-level footballers typically retire.
But Argentina recovered from their defeat and went all the way to the final. On their way they defeated Brazil in the round of the last 16 and, in the semi final, were the first team in this tournament to score a goal against the hosts Italy winning through penalties after a 1-1 score after extra time.
Italian Salvatore Schillaci won the Golden Boot with six goals, scoring a goal in every game that he apeared in. Amazingly, 'Toto' only played for Italy once prior to the tournament.
Venues
- Stadio Olimpico, Roma - 81,000 [R1,R2,QF,SF,F matches]
- Stadio San Paolo, Napoli - 74,000 [R1,R2,QF,SF matches]
- Stadio Delle Alpi, Torino - 68,000 [R1,R2,SF matches]
- Stadio San Nicola, Bari - 56,000 [R1,R2,3P matches
- Stadio Artemio Franchi, Firenze - 41,000 [R1,QF matches]
- Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Milano - 75,000 [R1,R2,QF matches]
- Stadio Luigi Ferraris, Genova - 35,000 [R1,R2 matches]
- Stadio Renato Dall'Ara, Bologna - 39,000 [R1,R2 matches]
- Stadio Marc'Antonio Bentegodi, Verona - 42,000 [R1,R2 matches]
- Stadio Friuli, Udine - 38,000 [R1 matches]
- Stadio Sant'Elia, Cagliari - 40,000 [R1 matches]
- Stadio Della Favorita Palermo - 36,000 [R1 matches]
First round
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Round of sixteen
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Third place match
Final
Firsts
- For the first time, both World Cup semi-finals had been decided by penalty shootouts.
- The tournament marks the first time a World Cup tournament has ever hit such a low goals-per-game average. There were 115 goals, and, taking account of extra time when applicable, 4920 minutes of play - which means 1 goal every 42.7 minutes, or only 2.1 goals for every 90-minute game.
The final alone had several firsts:
- For the first time a team reached three World Cup finals in a row: Germany had already lost the finals in 1982 and 1986. This feat was later repeated by Brazil in 1994, 1998 and 2002 with better results: Two titles out of three finals.
- It was the first rematch of a preceding final: The World Cup 1986 already saw Argentina and Germany in the final, only with a different winner.
- It was the first World Cup final that had more than one player of a team sent off: Two Argentinian players saw the red card.
- For the first time, the losing team did not score a goal: Germany won by a penalty in the 85th minute shot by Andreas Brehme after a heavily disputed foul on Rudi Völler.
Lasts
- This would be the last World Cup in which goalkeepers were allowed to pick up direct backpasses from teammates. The backpass rule was in use from the 1994 tournament in order to make it harder for teams to time-waste.
- This was the last World Cup in which three teams' countries existed as political entities: West Germany joined with East Germany shortly after the tournament, Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and the Soviet Union split into Russia and innumerable smaller states with the fall of the Communist regime.
