(30 min. Part 1-3)
FIFA's decision to hold the event in the United States over the bids of Morocco and Brazil surprised many considering the perception that the United States had a relative lack of soccer fans. FIFA hoped that by staging the world's premier soccer tournament there, it would lead to America's growth of interest in soccer. (One condition FIFA imposed was the creation of a professional soccer league, as Major League Soccer started play in 1996.)
Despite these misgivings, in terms of attendance the event was a rousing success. The average attendance of nearly 69,000 shattered a record that had stood since 1950, due to the bigger capacities of the American stadiums compared to those of Europe and Latin America. To this day, the total attendance for the final tournament of nearly 3.6 million remains the highest in World Cup history, despite the expansion of the competition to 32 teams in 1998. The overall attendance record will not be broken until at least 2010.
The format of the competition stayed the same as in 1990: 24 teams qualified, divided into six groups of four. 16 teams would qualify for the knockout competition: the six group winners, the six group runners-up, and the four third-placed teams with the best records. This was the last time this format was used, due to the expansion of the finals tournament in 1998 to 32 teams. This World Cup was the first time in which three points were awarded for a win instead of two, as FIFA hoped to encourage attacking football after the defensive display four years before.
This tournament saw the end of Diego Maradona's World Cup career. Hero in 1986 as he led Argentina to the World Cup title, he was expelled from the tournament after he failed a drug test. One tragic story of the cup was that of Colombia's Andrés Escobar. In a first round match with the United States, he scored an own goal as the U.S. went on win, 2-1. The Colombian team was subsequently eliminated. When Escobar returned to Colombia, he was shot to death outside a bar in a Medellín suburb only 10 days after the match.
Brazil and Italy, both three-time World Cup champions at that time, met in the final. While Brazil's path was relatively smooth as they defeated the United States, the Netherlands and Sweden (it was the second game between Sweden and Brazil in the tournament, the first ending 1-1) in the knockout stage, the same cannot be said for Italy. During the group stage the Italian team struggled and narrowly advanced to the next round, despite losing 1-0 to the Republic of Ireland. Roberto Baggio, who was expected to be the shining star, had not scored a goal. During the Round of 16 match against Nigeria, Italy was trailing 1-0 in the dying minutes. With three minutes left in regulation, Baggio scored the equalizer forcing the game into extra time. He then scored again on a penalty kick in extra time. He scored another game winning goal in the quarter-final against Spain, and both goals in Italy's victory over Bulgaria in the semi-finals.
The final match at the Rose Bowl was tense but devoid of scoring chances. Despite the strategies disposed by the FIFA to promote offensive play, both teams lacked the energy to produce a goal. After 120 goalless minutes, the World Cup title would be decided for the first time by penalty kicks. After four rounds, Brazil led 3-2, and Baggio, playing injured, had to make his kick to keep Italy's hopes alive. He missed by shooting it over the bar, and Brazil were crowned champions. One of the most famous moments of the World Cup was Baggio standing in front of the goal with his arms at his sides in disbelief.
The third place-playoff was set between Sweden, the team which scored more goals than any other, in this world cup, and Bulgaria, with their top goalscorer Hristo Stoichkov. Sweden won convincingly with 4-0, showing the world why they had come so far in this tournament. One of Sweden's World Cup-profiles - Thomas Brolin - also got in the Allstar-team.
The tournament's Golden Boot went jointly to Hristo Stoichkov of Bulgaria, who was instrumental in leading the team to an upset win over defending champions Germany, and Oleg Salenko of Russia, who scored a record five goals in their match against Cameroon. Both players scored six goals in the tournament. Brazil's Romário, with five goals, won the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player.
