FROM DROUGHT TO GOALS GALORE
FROM SHOCKS TO STALEMATES, THROUGH A SERIES OF UNFORGETTABLE CONTESTS, A HISTORY OF WORLD CUP OPENING MATCHES
TIGHT, tetchy and conservative. That would describe a typical opening World Cup fixture, right? Maybe once upon a time. But not any longer, not with a fivestar showing from Russia fresh in the memory. Nor when we have to cast our minds back only as far as 2006 to remember Germany and Costa Rica engaging in a compelling tug of war. There was the drama of Brazil trailing Croatia in front of 62,000 stunned natives before recovering to win in 2014, too. When the curtain comes up on the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 on Sunday, the hosts and Ecuador will take their turn to try to conjure a contest that is bracketed among the great World Cup occasions. Because of all the group stage fixtures, it is often the first of the lot that’s remembered besides finals and high-drama knockout ties.
Not always, because this is football and nothing is predictable. For four straight competitions from 1966, the World Cup began with a scoreless draw. The 95,000 inside Barcelona’s Camp Nou for the start of the 1982 World Cup feasted on relative riches, then, when Belgium surprised defending champions Argentina 1-0. Returning to the capacity of the opening fixture to share the headlines from a World Cup, think about 1990. Andreas Brehme scored the only goal in the final. But is the Germany left-back’s feat recalled any more readily than Francois Omam-Biyik’s strike for Cameroon to shock Argentina – and the world? Likewise, Ronaldo’s redemption double for Brazil in the 2002 final is rivalled in many observers’ memories by Senegal overcoming France courtesy of Papa Bouba Diop’s close-range prod.
Here, FIFA+ details the potted history of the World Cup’s opening fixture.
1930: France 4 Mexico 1, Estadio Pocitos, Montevideo, Uruguay
The World Cup was a newcomer on the sporting scene 92 years ago and garnered none of the attention the 32 teams in Qatar can expect over the next month. There’s a nice symmetry, nonetheless, in France scoring four times, just as they did in the most recent World Cup fixture, when Didier Deschamps’ side defeated Croatia in the 2018 final. The victory – earned after racing into a three-goal half-time lead – was as good as it got for the French. They lost their subsequent two fixtures, while Mexico finished pointless, in a tournament won by hosts Uruguay.
1934: Italy 7 USA 1, Stadio Nazionale PNF, Rome, Italy
The notion of the first match as a stuffy affair, with the avoidance of defeat a priority, hadn’t entered anybody’s thinking when Italy began their home tournament with a drubbing of USA. This 1934 World Cup was played as a straight knockout among the 16 entrants. Italy advanced in large part due to a hat-trick from Angelo Schiavo – and the hosts would be back in the same capital stadium a fortnight later to beat Czechoslovakia in the final following Schiavo’s extratime winner.
1938: Switzerland 1 Germany 1, Parc des Princes, Paris, France
Another sudden-death competition when one defeat signalled the end of a country’s World Cup hopes. Switzerland and Germany couldn’t be separated over 120 minutes in the French capital after Andre Abegglen levelled Josef Gauchel’s opener for the Germans. Switzerland won the replay 4-2 but would exit in the quarter-finals following a 2-0 loss to Hungary.
1950: Brazil 4 Mexico 0, Maracana Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
It would be another eight years before Brazil claimed the first of their record five world titles. But the South Americans were beginning to make an impression on the global game. They finished third in 1938 and, as hosts, started the 1950 party in characteristically flamboyant style, putting Mexico to the sword 4-0. The tournament would end in heartbreak when Uruguay toppled Brazil in front of close to 174,000 in the Maracana to smuggle the Jules Rimet Trophy to a different corner of the continent.
1954: Yugoslavia 1 France 0, La Pontaise, Lausanne, Switzerland
The first of the cagey opening affairs of popular legend was settled by Milos Milutinovic’s 15thminute goal. Yugoslavia’s victory ultimately earned their progress at the expense of France by one point but eventual champions West Germany knocked them out in the last eight.
1958: Sweden 3 Mexico 0, Rasunda Stadium, Solna, Sweden
A third World Cup opening match for Mexico and a third comprehensive loss. The story, here, however, was Sweden, the host country, who laid the platform for a run to the final, where they came unstuck against Brazil and the South American’s 17-year-old sensation, Pele.
1962: Chile 3 Switzerland 1, Estadio Nacional, Santiago, Chile
A hush descended over 65,000 boxed into Chile’s national stadium when Switzerland’s Rolf Wuthrich scored after six minutes. Relief all round following an equaliser from Leonel Sanchez 60 seconds before halftime. And Sanchez completed the scoring on 56 minutes after Jaime Ramirez turned the game on its head following the break. Chile would reach the semi-finals where coach Fernando Riera’s team and the partisan locals were no match for a Brazil team that successfully defended its title against Czechoslovakia in the final.
The fallow years: 1966-1978
Arguably the period when the reputation of the safety-first World Cup opening match was born.
England’s 1966 champions gave no indication of what was to follow in a scoreless Wembley draw with Uruguay. Mexico broke their first-match curse, at least, when they drew with Soviet Union in the crackling Estadio Azteca four years later.
The legendary Brazil of 1970 began their ultimately failed title defence by sharing a stalemate with Yugoslavia in Frankfurt’s Walstadion. And the drought extended to a fourth tournament when holders West Germany drew 0-0 with Poland in Buenos Aires.
1982: Belgium 1 Argentina 0, Camp Nou, Barcelona, Spain
Erwin Vandenbergh became the first man to score in the World Cup’s opening fixture since Switzerland’s Wuthrich 20 years earlier when an unusually generous Argentina defence granted the Belgian forward the freedom of Camp Nou to drill home a low finish and spark tremendous celebrations. Both teams would eventually progress – but between them didn’t put a single point on the board in the second group stage.
1986: Italy 1 Bulgaria 1, Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, Mexico
How Mexico must have wished they’d had the opportunity to make it fifth time lucky in an opening match back on their own soil, given the hosts started with a 2-1 victory over Belgium. In the event, defending champions Italy were held to a draw by Bulgaria after Nasko Siarkov equalised with five minutes remaining following Alessandro Altobelli’s opener.
1990: Cameroon 1 Argentina 0, San Siro, Milan, Italy
Perhaps the most famous opening game of them all. It is sometimes lost with the passage of time that Cameroon got as far as the quarter-finals. Likewise, the fact Argentina reached the final. This one-off game eclipsed all of that. Francois Omam-Biyik’s header squirmed beyond goalkeeper Nery Pumpido and, despite red cards for Andre Kana-Biyik and Benjamin Massing either side of the goal, the Africans secured one of the great World Cup victories.
1994: Germany 1 Bolivia 0, Soldier Field, Chicago, USA
No such drama four years later. Jurgen Klinsmann scored the only goal for the Europeans, who looked set for another strong tournament until a shock quarter-final defeat by Bulgaria.
1998: Brazil 2 Scotland 1, Stade de France, Saint-Denis, France
John Collins’ penalty briefly threatened to stall the favourities after Cesar Sampaio’s fifth-minute breakthrough. But defender Tom Boyd scored into his own net after 74 minutes, providing the springboard for Brazil to advance to the second of three successive finals.
2002: Senegal 1 France 0, Seoul World Cup Stadium, Seoul, South Korea
This had all the ingredients for a repeat of Cameroon’s heroics 12 years earlier: imperious defending champions, fancied to retain their trophy, against underdogs from Africa. Only nobody really believed lightning would strike twice.
Nobody, that is, outside coach Bruno Metsu and his team, who were fully worth their 1-0 win following Papa Bouba Diop’s goal on the half-hour.
2006: Germany 4 Costa Rica 2, FIFA World Cup Stadium, Munich, Germany
The hosts dominated from the moment Philipp Lahm curled in a superb sixth-minute goal – but Germany couldn’t shake off dogged Costa Rica. The Central Americans equalised and closed the deficit again after Germany led 3-1. But coach Klinsmann’s team finally put the game to bed when Torsten Frings scored a screamer on 87 minutes.
2010: South Africa 1 Mexico 1, Soccer City, Johannesburg South Africa
Siphiwe Tshabalala never played club football outside South Africa but the forward gained worldwide renown as the first man to score in an Africa-staged World Cup. Rafael Marquez equalised and the ‘away team’ threatened to burst the hosts’ balloon. That point was ultimately sufficient for Mexico to progress from the group ahead of South Africa on goal difference.
● Recent World Cup openers full of goals and drama
● Cameroon and Senegal both shocked global giants
● Hosts and Ecuador set for FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 opener
2014: Brazil 3 Croatia 1, Arena de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
A 12th-minute own goal from Marcelo didn’t quite fit the scenario envisaged by Brazilians over the seven years following confirmation the World Cup would return to the country after 64 years. What followed was more like it. Neymar scored twice and Oscar added another, raising hopes of a home triumph – cruelly, it would transpire.
2018: Russia 5 Saudi Arabia 0, Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, Russia
Fears over the hosts’ ability to shine at their own World Cup were alleviated with this crushing win. Man-of-the-match Denis Cheryshev scored twice – he would finish joint-second for the Golden Boot – and Russia kicked on to the quarter-finals, where eventual runners-up Croatia needed penalties to prevail.