Football World Cup 1990

With its third title (and three second place finishes) Germany became the most successful World Cup nation for 4 years, until Brazil won their 4th Championship in 1994. German team manager Franz Beckenbauer became the second footballer, after Mario Zagallo of Brazil, to become World Champion as a player (in 1974) and as team manager. In doing so, Beckenbauer also became the first captain of a winning team to later manage a winning squad.

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 goal was headed in by François Omam-Biyik. Cameroon went on to become the surprise team of the Championship, becoming the first African nation to go to the quarter finals and bowing there only in extra time with 2-3 to England after leading 2-1. Cameroon's Roger Milla, who came out of retirement specifically for the World Cup, became an international superstar at age 38, long after most top-level footballers typically retire.

But Argentina recovered from their defeat and went all the way to the final. On their way they defeated Brazil in the round of the last 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. Argentinian goalkeeper Sergio Goycoechea saved two penalty kicks.

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

The World Cup 1990 is widely regarded as the least spectacular and most cynical World Cup ever, with 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 Shooutout, rather than risk going forward. Runners-up Argentina was the prime example of this trend, taking the silver medals by scoring only 5 goals in 7 games. World Champions West Germany was one of the few teams to choose an attacking style of play.

Venues

• Stadio Olimpico, Roma - 81,000 [R1,R2,QF,F matches]
• Stadio San Paolo, Napoli - 74,000 [R1,R2,QF,SF matches]
• Stadio Delle Alpi, Torino - 68,000 [R1,R2,SF matches]
• Stadio San Nicola, Bari - 56,000 [R1,R2,3P matches]
• Stadio Artemio Franchi, Firenze - 41,000 [R1,QF matches]
• Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Milano - 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 Della Favorita Palermo - 36,000 [R1 matches]

First round

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Round of sixteen

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Third place match

Final

Firsts

• For the first time, both World Cup semifinals had been 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 the United Arab Emirates, and first appearance of the United States after a 40-year absence. Both teams were dismissed in group play.

• For the first time a team reached three World Cup finals in a row: 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 World Cup 1986 already saw Argentina and Germany in the final, only with a different winner.
• It was the first World Cup final that had more than one player of a team sent off: Two Argentinian players saw the red card.
• For the first time, the losing team did not score a goal: Germany won by a penalty in the 85th minute shot by Andreas Brehme after a heavily disputed foul on Rudi Völler.

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.
• 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, Yugoslavia dissolved into the nations Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Serbia and Montenegro (which retained the name Yugoslavia until 2002), and the USSR, which split into Russia and fourteen smaller states with the fall of the Communist regime, although the former Soviet states fielded a CIS team through the 1992 European Championship.