FIFA World Cups

Archive for December, 2010

The top goal scorer at any individual World Cup is Just Fontaine from France, who in 1958 at the World Cup in Sweden scored 13 goals in six games. It is easy to work out the mathematics that this is an average of more than two goals per game and Fontaine scored 3 in his first match against Paraguay and then four in his last match, the third and fourth play off against Germany. Scoring in every match that France played at the tournament, Fontaine and his French team mates were unfortunate to come up against Brazil in the semi finals that were coming to the peak of their powers. Fontaine scored in the 9th minute to level the game at 1-1 but Brazil triumphed 5-2 with an emerging starlet scoring a hat-trick in 23 second half minutes. Fontaine was outshone by a player who would go onto eclipse virtually every other football who ever lived, Pele. The 1958 World Cup is probably most remembered for the debut of Pele on the world soccer scene but the 13 goals sees Fontaine standing third in the list of all time World Cup goal scorers, no mean feat for just one tournament.

Second top goal scorer was the West German goal grabber supreme Gerd Muller, who bagged 14 goals in two tournaments. Muller, otherwise known as ‘Der Bomber’ was the top scorer in Mexico 1970 when 10 goals, including two hat tricks saw Germany take third place after an agonising extra time Semi-final defeat to Italy. Muller bounced back in 1974 when West Germany hosted the tournament and won the trophy for the second time. Football had changed in the four years and goals were notably tighter to come by at the 1974 World Cup. Muller had to settle for four strikes this time around but given that the fourth strike was the one which gave West Germany a 2-1 victory over Netherlands, Muller would not have been upset about not being top goal scorer.

The only soccer player who has scored more goals at World Cups that Gerd Muller is Ronaldo from Brazil, who was top scorer when Brazil triumphed in 2002. Ronaldo has scored fifteen goals in a total of four World Cups but his tally of 8 in Japan and South Korea, with a goal in every game apart from the quarter final has been most impressive. There were major doubts about Ronaldo’s fitness and health amidst the controversy over his appearance at the France 1998 World Cup final but the two goals that defeated Germany 2-0 gave Ronaldo his place at the forefront of world soccer once again.

The road to the 2010 World Cup is well underway and you can guarantee that many players around the world will be carrying dreams of finishing the top goal scorer at South Africa. Winning the Golden Boot for World Cup goals is a tremendous achievement but most players would swap it all for their nation to life the World Cup.

Of course the biggest prize at any FIFA World Cup competition is to get the honor of holding the golden champions’ trophy aloft. There are however individual awards for notable players at each tournament, and these do not always go to members of the team who are eventually triumphant.

The Golden Ball Award

The Golden Ball award, or the Adidas Golden Ball award as it is now officially known, has been awarded at each of the FIFA World Cup competitions since 1982. The award goes to the player deemed the best in the entire tournament as chosen by a committee of FIFA officials and members of the media.

The Golden Shoe Award

The Golden Shoe has been awarded to at least one player in each of the Cup competitions ever played going back to the first tournament in 1930. The first winner was Argentina’s Guilermo Stabile at the 1930 Cup, despite the fact that the eventual winners of the tournament were host country Uruguay. The Golden Shoe award is also now sponsored by Adidas. The winner is usually the man who scores the most goals during the course of the tournament.

The Yashin Award

Named after legendary Russian goalkeeper Lev Yashin, this award goes to the man considered the best goalkeeper of the entire competition. It was first awarded at the 1994 Cup held in the United States

FIFA Fair Play Trophy

The FIFA Fair play trophy was first awarded in 1970 and usually goes to the team with the fewest yellow or red cards during their time in the competition. Only teams who make it to the second round and beyond are considered.

Most Entertaining Team

A fairly new award, it goes to the team voted by the judging committee to have provided the best all around entertainment value during the competition.

Gillette Young Player Award

A brand new award first introduced at the 2006 World Cup in Germany. So far the sole recipient was then 21-year-old German Lukas Poldoski.

This year, people are also watching the World Cup online and on mobile phones, potentially adding to the overall audience. Univision said that 283,000 unique video players—used in Web browsers to watch video—tuned in to live streams of Friday’s games on Univision’s Web site, where they are available free with ads. ESPN said its ESPN3.com service, which streams games live to subscribers, had delivered 61 million minutes of World Cup content since Thursday. That`s a score!

The viewing data provide only a limited snapshot of the World Cup’s U.S. popularity, however, because they don’t take into account people who watch on TVs at work or in other public places, such as bars. Because the games often air during the dayinstead of in the evening like marquee U.S.-based events, that can be a significant slice of viewers.

Since 1994, the most-watched World Cup game on ABC was 1999′s Women’s World Cup final, played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., according to ESPN. That game, in which the U.S. beat China on penalty kicks, was watched on ABC by 18 million people.

Viewing in the opening days was also likely boosted from 2006 in part because of the tournament schedule, which had two North American teams playing in the first two days. In 2006, Mexico didn’t play its first game until the first Sunday, and the U.S. didn’t play until Monday. Sunday’s viewing numbers aren’t expected to be available until Monday afternoon. I wish that was really something. But it is.