The World Cup

By Eric Geier

The World Cup is an international soccer tournament played every four years by national teams from a variety of countries. There are over 200 teams from countries around the world who have national teams that can qualify for the World Cup. Out of the over 200 teams, only 32 qualify for the finals. In order to qualify teams must compete, sometimes three years in advance, against teams from other countries. Qualifying matches are played in six zones: North America and Central America, Africa, Oceania, Europe, Asia and the Caribbean. When the qualifying is all said and done, the 32 teams are split up into brackets for the World Cup. There are two stages, the group stage and the knock-out stage. For the group stage, teams play other teams in their bracket; usually the top two teams in the bracket move on to the knock-out stage, where it becomes win or go home.

The first International match was played between Scotland and England in the late 1800’s. This match sparked a bitter rivalry between the two countries and after this first International match, more International play was demanded. When FIFA was founded, they made it a goal to increase play between different countries. Prior to the World Cup, International soccer matches had only been played by amateurs during the Olympics in the early 1900s. No awards were given to the winners, as the sport was meant to be a showcase for the Olympics. In 1930, FIFA created the World Cup due to the increasing demand to see International tournament play stemming from the Olympic showcase. The first World Cup was played in Uruguay and has been played in a different country every four years since, except 1942 and 1946 during WWII. Despite not being known as a soccer nation, the United States was one of two teams to win the first World Cup soccer games in Europe, as two games were played at the same time. The U.S. wasn’t able to advance to the later rounds and the first tournament was eventually won by the home team, Uruguay, by defeating Argentina 4-2. The World Cup saw steady growth and more interest from other countries that wanted to participate in the tournament. The final teams were expanded from 16 teams to 24 in 1982, then to 32 in 1998.

Up until 1970 the winner of the World Cup got to hoist the Jules Rimet Trophy, named after one of the founders of the first World Cup. In 1970, a new trophy was designed, the FIFA World Cup Trophy. Only a small handful of teams get to hoist this prestigious trophy, with the last one being Italy in 2006, which was a historic match against France that saw legendary player Zinadine Zidane head-butt an Italian player in the final. Almost one billion people watched the most recent World Cup final. Brazil has won the most world cups, five, with Italy coming in second place with four World Cups. The United States has never reached the finals and only reached the semi-finals in the first World Cup in 1930. The United States is considered a poor club in the world of international soccer, but U.S. soccer officials are trying to change that by recruiting young prospects and offering better coaching and more intense training.

The culture of the World Cup is definitely something a sports fan should experience. People from all over the world converge on the hosting country to cheer on their team. It brings together people from all walks of life for a common purpose, to cheer on the team and their country.

Did you mean, Zinadene Zidan, Zinaden Zidane, Zinadine Zidanee. Jules Rimmet or Jules Rimett?