2014 FIFA World Cup

• 1. Introduction

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  In the 31st minute of the 2014 FIFA World Cup final, Christoph Kramer turned to referee Nicola Rizzoli. He asked whether the match he was playing was actually the World Cup Final. Kramer had taken a blow to the head in the 14th minute and played on in a daze before collapsing. That disoriented question, posed at one of sport's highest stages, signaled how extraordinary this tournament had become.

  The 20th FIFA World Cup ran from the 12th of June to the 13th of July 2014. Brazil hosted the competition across 12 cities; the country had last staged the World Cup in 1950. Sixty-four matches were played at 12 venues. The country received 1 million visitors from 202 countries, and 31 nations had fought through qualification to earn their place. Bosnia and Herzegovina were the only debutant.

  Spain came in as defending champions. Brazil had won the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup on home soil. The opening ceremony at Arena de São Paulo featured 660 dancers. What lay ahead for the sport's most celebrated nations would not follow any expected script.

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• 2. The Fall of Champions

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  Spain, ranked first in the world, were eliminated from the 2014 World Cup before the group stage ended. Their exit was the quickest for a defending champion since Italy's from the 1950 tournament. Spain became the fourth nation to be eliminated in the first round while still holding the title. Italy had suffered that fate in 1950 and again in 2010; Brazil had in 1966; and France in 2002.

  Brazil's own path through the tournament brought a different kind of shock. The host nation conceded 14 goals across all their matches; that figure was the most by any host nation in World Cup history. It was also the most conceded by any single team at a World Cup since 1986. After losing their semi-final and then the match for third place to the Netherlands 3-0, Brazil finished fourth. That result was still their best World Cup outcome since they last won the title in 2002.

  For the Netherlands, the 3-0 victory in the third-place match was historic. It was the first time the Dutch had ever finished third at a World Cup. Neymar's injury during the quarter-final against Colombia kept him out of the rest of the competition. Brazil would face Germany in the semi-final without him.

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• 3. Germany's Historic Run

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  Germany's path to a fourth World Cup title began with a record. With a 1-0 quarter-final win over France, Germany set a World Cup record with four consecutive semi-final appearances. In the semi-final against Brazil, Miroslav Klose scored his 16th World Cup goal across all his tournaments. That total broke the record he had previously shared with Ronaldo. Klose also became the first player in history to appear in four World Cup semi-finals. Germany's 7-1 victory was the biggest defeat in Brazilian football since 1920. Germany then qualified for the final for the eighth time.

  The final brought Germany and Argentina together for a record third time, following previous meetings in 1986 and 1990. In 1990, West Germany had beaten Argentina 1-0 in 90 minutes. In 2014, the match went to extra time. Mario Götze scored with a half-volley in the 113th minute to give Germany the title. It was Germany's first major tournament win since UEFA Euro 1996 and their first world title since German reunification in 1990.

  Germany became the first European nation to win the World Cup in the Americas. Their victory marked the third consecutive World Cup won by a European team, following Italy in 2006 and Spain in 2010. Lionel Messi received the Golden Ball as the tournament's outstanding player, despite finishing on the losing side.

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• 4. Records and Firsts

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  One hundred and seventy-one goals were scored at the 2014 World Cup, by a record 121 different players. Five of those were own goals. The group stage alone produced 136 goals, an average of 2.83 per match. That group-stage average was the highest since 1958. It was also the largest group-stage goal total since the 32-team format began in 1998.

  France's second goal against Honduras in the group stage became the first to be confirmed by goal-line technology at a World Cup. The system, introduced for the first time at this tournament, used 14 high-speed cameras positioned around each goal. Data were sent to a central image-processing centre, while the referee received a signal through a vibrating watch.

  FIFA approved vanishing spray for use at a World Cup finals for the first time. The water-based substance disappeared within minutes and was used to mark the ten-yard line for defending teams during free kicks. The biological passport was also introduced to the World Cup in 2014. Samples were analysed at the Swiss Laboratory for Doping Analyses. FIFA reported that 91.5 percent of players were tested before the competition, and none tested positive.

  The tournament's most significant disciplinary case involved Uruguayan striker Luis Suárez. During the group stage, Suárez bit Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini. FIFA suspended him for nine international matches and banned him from all football-related activity for four months. He was also fined CHF100,000. An appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport allowed Suárez to train and play friendly matches with his new club, Barcelona. Colombia's James Rodríguez closed out the tournament as its leading scorer, with six goals and two assists.

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• 5. A Country on Edge

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  The total cost of staging the 2014 World Cup reached $11.6 billion, making it the most expensive World Cup to that point. FIFA was expected to spend US$2 billion on the finals themselves. Stadium construction and renovation consumed a reported US$3.6 billion. That figure was more than three times the original estimate of US$1.1 billion. Five host cities had entirely new venues built for the tournament. The Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha in the capital Brasília was demolished and entirely rebuilt for the occasion.

  Outside the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup opening ceremony, protesters had gathered against the level of public spending on football infrastructure. Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff and FIFA president Sepp Blatter were both heavily booed when they rose to speak at that event. FIFA subsequently announced that the 2014 World Cup opening ceremony would not feature any speeches. Further demonstrations took place during the Confederations Cup and again before and during the 2014 tournament itself.

  Eight workers died during stadium construction, and a fire broke out at one site. On the 3rd of July 2014, an overpass under construction in Belo Horizonte collapsed onto a busy carriageway. Two people died and 22 others were injured. Venue security was also breached on multiple occasions; at the Group B match between Spain and Chile, around 100 Chilean supporters forced their way into the Maracanã Stadium, with 85 people detained by military police.

  Favela do Metrô, situated near the Maracanã Stadium, had housed around 700 families as recently as 2010. It was completely demolished as part of the redevelopments linked to the World Cup. Thousands of other families across Rio de Janeiro's slums were cleared from their homes despite protests and resistance. The Brazilian government committed US$900 million to security forces. Over 1 billion people worldwide tuned in to watch Germany play Argentina in the final.

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