1994 World Cup USA

1994 saw the World Cup being hosted by the USA and setting new attendance records of nearly 3.6 million spectators. It was won by Brazil for a record fourth time.

This was the first, and so far only, world cup where none of the British nations qualified since they first started taking part in the competition.

Yet again the tournament divided the 24 qualified teams into 46 groups of 4 with 16 going on to the next stage.

The hosts USA qualified for the second round to the surprise of many and also set a world cup first by playing their game against Switzerland indoors in the Pontiac Silverdome, the grass having being shipped in specially.

The Russian player Oleg Salenko also notched up a first when he scored 5 goals in a single match against Cameroon.

The final was held in the Rose Bowl stadium Los Angeles in front of a crowd of over 94,000 and was contested by three time winners Brazil and Italy.  The match ended in a goalless draw after extra time and so went to penalties.  Unfortunately for Roberto Baggio, who had almost single headedly got his side through the early stages of the competition, he missed his penalty and brazil scored theirs to win their fourth world Cup.

Top Scorers

6 Goals -  Hristo Stoitchkov (Bulgaria)
                Oleg Salenko (Russia)
 

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