1990 FIFA World Cup

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The 1990 FIFA World Cup was designated by FIFA in 1984 to be held in Italy, making it the second country to host the event twice. It was won by West Germany, who in a rematch of the 1986 World Cup final beat Argentina 1-0 to lift the trophy.

Ciao, the mascot.

Qualifying countries

Venues

• Stadio Olimpico, Rome - 81,000 [R1,R2,QF,F matches]
• Stadio San Paolo, Naples - 74,000 [R1,R2,QF,SF matches]
• Stadio Delle Alpi, Turin - 68,000 [R1,R2,SF matches]
• Stadio San Nicola, Bari - 56,000 [R1,R2,3P matches]
• Stadio Comunale (now Stadio Artemio Franchi), Florence - 41,000 [R1,QF matches]
• Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Milan - 85,700 [R1,R2,QF matches]
• Stadio Luigi Ferraris, Genova - 35,000 [R1,R2 matches]
• Stadio Renato Dall'Ara, Bologna - 39,000 [R1,R2 matches]
• Stadio Marc'Antonio Bentegodi, Verona - 42,000 [R1,R2 matches]
• Stadio Friuli, Udine - 38,000 [R1 matches]
• Stadio Sant'Elia, Cagliari - 40,000 [R1 matches]
• Stadio La Favorita (now Stadio Renzo Barbera), Palermo - 36,000 [R1 matches]

Squads

Tournament

The format of the competition stayed the same as in 1986: 24 teams qualified, divided into six groups of four. 16 teams would qualify for the knockout competition: six group winners, six second place finishers, and four best third place finishers. Three nations qualified for the first time in their history: Costa Rica, the Republic of Ireland and the United Arab Emirates.

The World Cup began with an upset. Defending champion Argentina fell 0-1 to Cameroon in the opening match. The match was held in Milan, where Diego Maradona of Argentina, striker for AC Napoli, was deeply despised: this resulted in an unexpected public support for Cameroon. The goal was headed in by François Omam-Biyik. Cameroon went on to become the surprise team of the tournament, becoming the first African nation to go to the quarter-finals and losing there 2-3 in extra time to England after leading 2-1. Cameroon's Roger Milla, who came out of retirement for the World Cup, became an international superstar at age 38, long after most top-level footballers typically retire.

Argentina recovered from their defeat and went all the way to the final. On their way, they defeated Brazil in the round of 16 and, in the semi-final, were the first team in this tournament to score a goal against the hosts Italy, winning through a penalty shootout after a 1-1 score after extra time. Argentine goalkeeper Sergio Goycochea saved two penalty kicks.

Italian Salvatore Schillaci won the Golden Boot with six goals, scoring a goal in every game that he appeared in. Amazingly, 'Totò' had played for Italy only once prior to the tournament.

The World Cup 1990 is widely regarded as one of the least spectacular and most cynical World Cups ever. It generated a record-low goals-per-game average and (at the time) record 16 red cards. Most teams relied heavily on defensive play and hard tackling, as well as aggressive intimidation of the referee. In the knock-out stage of the cup, many teams would "play it safe" for 120 minutes and try their luck in the penalty shootout, rather than risk going forward. Runners-up Argentina were the prime example of this trend, taking the gold-plated medal (for second place) despite scoring only five goals in seven games (they had, however, lost half their team to injury or suspension by the final). World Champions West Germany were one of the few teams to choose an attacking style of play, although they too became more defensive as the tournament progressed.

The final was one of the ugliest games ever seen in a World Cup. The fraught atmosphere was not helped by a number of questionable penalty decisions by the Mexican referee Edgardo Codesal, who denied clear penalties first to German player Klaus Augenthaler and then to Argentine player Pedro Monzón. Six minutes from the end, Codesal awarded a highly debatable penalty for the Germans, which was put away by Andreas Brehme. West Germany won 1-0 and the match ended amid scenes of unprecedented chaos with Argentina reduced to nine men, Monzon and Gustavo Dezotti having been sent off. [link]

Qualification

First round

All kick-off times local (CET)

Group A

Italy

Czechoslovakia

Austria

USA

Group B

Cameroon

Romania

Argentina

USSR

Group C

Brazil

Costa Rica

Scotland

Sweden

Group D

West Germany

Yugoslavia

Colombia

United Arab Emirates

Group E

Spain

Belgium

Uruguay

Korea Republic

Group F

England

Republic of Ireland

Netherlands

Egypt

Note: Republic of Ireland awarded second place by drawing of lots

Knockout stages

Round of 16

		Penalties
	Sheedy : scored Houghton : scored Townsend : scored Cascarino : scored O'Leary : scored	5–4	Hagi : scored Lupu : scored Rotariu : scored Lupescu : scored Timofte : Bonner saved

Quarter-finals

		Penalties
	Serrizuela : scored Burruchaga : scored Maradona : Ivković saved Troglio : hit a post Dezotti : scored	3–2	Stojković : hit a crossbar Prosinečki : scored Savićević : scored Brnović : Goycochea saved Hadžibegić : Goycochea saved

Semi-finals

		Penalties
	Serrizuela : scored Burruchaga : scored Olarticoechea : scored Maradona : scored	4–3	Baresi : scored Baggio : scored de Agostini : scored Donadoni : Goycochea saved Serena : Goycochea saved

		Penalties
	Brehme : scored Matthäus : scored Riedle : scored Thon : scored	4–3	Lineker : scored Beardsley : scored Platt : scored Pearce : Illgner saved Waddle : missed

Third place match

Final

Awards

Golden Shoe winner:	Golden Ball winner:	FIFA Fair Play Trophy:
Salvatore Schillaci	Salvatore Schillaci	England

All-Star Team

Sergio Goycoechea 

Andreas Brehme 

Jules Onana  

Franco Baresi  

Diego Maradona 

Lothar Matthaus  

Roberto Donadoni  

Paul Gascoigne  

Salvatore Schillaci 

Roger Milla  

Tomas Skuhravy  

Top scorers

6 goals

Salvatore Schillaci

1 goal

Andreas Ogris

Niall Quinn

Firsts

• For the first time, both World Cup semi-finals were decided by penalty shootouts.
• The tournament marks the first time a World Cup tournament has ever hit such a low goals-per-game average. There were 115 goals, and, taking account of extra time when applicable, 4920 minutes of play - which means 1 goal every 42.7 minutes, or only 2.1 goals for every 90-minute game.
• First appearance of Costa Rica, the Republic of Ireland, the United Arab Emirates, and reappearance of the United States after a 40-year absence. Both the UAE and the USA went out in the group stage.
• For the first time the second place team of a group was decided by draw:

Republic of Ireland in Group F.

• For the first time a team reached three World Cup finals in a row: West Germany had already lost the finals in 1982 and 1986. This feat was later repeated by Brazil in 1994, 1998 and 2002 with better results: two titles out of three finals.
• It was the first rematch of a preceding final: The two countries had met in the World Cup 1986 final with Argentina the victors.
• Pedro Monzón of Argentina became the first player to be sent off in a World Cup final. Teammate Gustavo Abel Dezotti was also sent off.
• For the first time, the losing team did not score a goal: Germany won by a penalty, almost saved by Sergio Goycochea, scored in the 85th minute by Andreas Brehme after a disputed foul on Rudi Völler. As such, West Germany's Bodo Illgner became the first goalkeeper to keep a clean sheet in a World Cup final.

Trivia

• USSR was the rival of Italy's candidacy to host the event.
• The

Republic of Ireland reached the quarter-finals despite not winning a single game and only scoring 2 goals.

Lasts

• This would be the last World Cup in which goalkeepers were allowed to pick up direct backpasses from teammates. The backpass rule was in use from the 1994 tournament in order to make it harder for teams to time-waste, having been introduced on July 1, 1992. It is thought that Egypt's performance in their match against the Republic of Ireland influenced the introduction of this new rule.
• This was the last World Cup in which four teams' countries existed as political entities: West Germany joined with East Germany shortly after the tournament, Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993, Yugoslavia dissolved into the nations Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro (the latter two were Federal Republic of Yugoslavia until 2002, and Serbia and Montenegro 2003-2006), and the USSR, which split into Russia and fourteen smaller states with the fall of the Communist regime, although eleven of the former Soviet states fielded a CIS team in the 1992 European Football Championship.
• This was also the last time World Cup finals matches awarded two points for a win during the group stage. The poor attacking play of sides prompted FIFA to introduce three points for a win for the 1994 tournament, to encourage attacking play.
• This was the last World Cup in which referees only wore traditional black jersey: starting from the 1994 FIFA World Cup, referees can choose other colours to avoid a clash with the two competing teams. This has been followed since 1994, although black has been provided as an option since 1998.
• This was also the last World Cup in which players only had their number printed in the back of their jersey. Players would have their names and numbers on their jerseys from 1994.

External links

• [Italia 90 on the FIFA website]
• [The Great White Hope: Gazza at Italia '90 - Extract from new book about the England football team by author James Corbett]
• [information on 1990 tournament]

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