World Cup Memories: USA '94

Again, as an Englishman, the first thing I thought about with this Cup was how the English didn't even make it, courtesy of the Dutch, Graham "Do I not like that?" Taylor, and some dodgy refereeing, but of course.

As a British nation, we found ourselves rooting for the Irish. They surprised Italy with a 1-0 win in the first round, progressed to the quarters only to meet Italy again the Netherlands. I can remember that game, cheering them on as they were trying to come back from 1 2-0 down, hopelessly valiant as they seemed.

Cameroon vs Russia in the group stages had the distinction of having two records made in the same game. Roger Milla, again, became the oldest player in the history of the World Cup to score a goal (1:13 mark) and Oleg Salenko still holds the record for the most goals in one game (5).



Saudi Arabia were a surprise in this tournament, spear-headed by Saeed Al-Owairan, who went coast-to-coast against the Belgians to score one of the tournaments best goals:



Maradona was gone, being sent home after two games for failing a drug test. I don't remember the goal he scored against Greece, but certainly the celebration, see at the 0:38 mark of this video:



I remember the final being one massive "miss", and all the more so, as it was a match-up of Romario and Baggio, who had the biggest impact on all the games they played in, until the last one. Romario missing the most opportunities, Baggio with a bum hamstring, and thus it was the first World Cup Final With No Goals (Yawn!). The game is best remembered for its last kick:



The Italians really could have made someone else have a go, given his leg, and yet, in my mind at the time, seemed ready to concede the cup by letting Baggio take that penalty. They gambled and lost, the ponytail wasn't so divine after all.

The third place playoff is always worth mentioning because of a potential defensive collapse from a team that has stopped concentrating. In this case, it was Bulgaria, who were another surprise, led by Hristov Stoichov, a Golden Shoe winner; but they reverted to form in a 4-0 loss to Sweden. The Swedes had a talented playmaker who looked like he was equally comfortable eating donuts. Tomas Brolin went on to play for Leeds, abysmally so, and Stoichov made a name for himself with the Fire here in Chicago.

Finally, we cannot forget the ultimate own-goal. Andres Escobar was gunned down in his native Columbia, for scoring one for the USA (not shown out of respect).