Association football tournament in the United States
"1994 World Cup" redirects here. For other uses, see 1994 World Cup (disambiguation).
1994 FIFA World Cup
World Cup USA '94
Making Soccer History
Tournament details
Host country
United States
Dates
June 17 – July 17
Teams
24 (from 5 confederations)
Venue(s)
9 (in 9 host cities)
Final positions
Champions
Brazil (4th title)
Runners-up
Italy
Third place
Sweden
Fourth place
Bulgaria
Tournament statistics
Matches played
52
Goals scored
141 (2.71 per match)
Attendance
3,597,042 (69,174 per match)
Top scorer(s)
Hristo Stoichkov Oleg Salenko (6 goals each)
Best player(s)
Romário
Best young player
Marc Overmars
Best goalkeeper
Michel Preud'homme
Fair play award
Brazil
← 1990
1998 →
International football competition
The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States was chosen as the host by FIFA on July 4, 1988.[1] Despite soccer's relative lack of popularity in the host nation, the tournament was the most financially successful[2][3] in World Cup history. It broke tournament records with overall attendance of 3,587,538 and an average of 68,991 per game,[4] figures that stood unsurpassed as of 2022[5] despite the expansion of the competition from 24 to 32 teams starting with the 1998 World Cup.[6]
Brazil was crowned the winner after defeating Italy 3–2 in a penalty shoot-out at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, near Los Angeles, after the game had ended 0–0 after extra time. It was the first World Cup final to be decided on penalties. The victory made Brazil the first nation to win four World Cup titles. There were three new entrants in the tournament: Greece, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia; Russia also appeared as a separate nation for the first time, following the breakup of the Soviet Union, and for the first time since 1938, a unified Germany took part in the tournament. They were also defending champions, but were eliminated in the quarterfinals by Bulgaria. It was the first World Cup where three points were awarded for a victory instead of two and also the first with the back-pass rule. This was done to encourage a more attacking style of soccer as a response to the criticism of the defensive tactics and low-scoring matches of the 1990 World Cup. This resulted in an average of 2.71 goals per match, compared to 2.21 in 1990.
^ https://web.archive.org/web/20120117104450/https://www.fifa.com/mm/document/fifafacts/mencompwc/51/97/81/ip-201_13a_fwc-host.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 17, 2012. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
^"World Cup Moments, 1994: Penalties decide low key but financially successful American tournament". The Malta Independent.
^McMullen, Paul (July 19, 1994). "U.S. Cup brimming with profits WORLD CUP 1994". Baltimore Sun.
^Brewin, John; Williamson, Martin (April 30, 2014). "World Cup History: 1994". ESPN.com. Retrieved June 25, 2020.
^"FIFA World Cup comparative statistics 1982-2014" (PDF). FIFA. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 16, 2021. Retrieved June 25, 2020.
^Das, Andrew (April 8, 2017). "U.S., Mexico and Canada Likely to Affirm Joint World Cup Bid". The New York Times. Retrieved June 25, 2020.
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Global Information
Brazil (4th title)
Italy
Sweden
Bulgaria
Oleg Salenko
Marc Overmars
Michel Preud'homme