FIFA World Cup Goals Trivia Lucien Laurent of France scored the first World Cup goal in the 19th minute of the first World Cup match on July 13, 1930. Turkey's Hakan Sukur scored the fastest goal in a World Cup match against South Korea in 2002, after only 11 seconds. The record is still standing today.
World Cup winners include the names of many famous players, such as Alfredo Di Stéfano, Albert Camus, Roberto Baggio, and Diego Maradona. Women's World Cup winners include an American, one Italian, and one German. The U.S. women's team has won the most titles with four; Germany has won three.
The first Women's World Cup was held in China in 1990, and it wasn't until the 1994 edition that Japan and South Korea joined the tournament. Australia also started participating in 1995 but did not continue beyond that year's edition.
Women's World Cup finals have been held in China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, and USA. The largest crowd to see a World Cup game was recorded at Yongda Stadium in 1992 when 48,000 people came out to watch Brazil beat Sweden 1-0 in the final.
China hosted the next two World Cups in 1998 and 2002. Brazil won both tournaments.
Goals scored in the shortest amount of time in FIFA World Cup history
| Player | Country | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Vaclav Masek | Czechoslovakia | 16 seconds |
| Ernst Lehner | Germany | 24 seconds |
| Bryan Robson | England | 27 seconds |
| Clint Dempsey | USA | 30 seconds |
Turkey great Hakan Sukur scored the quickest goal ever seen in a final, finding the net just 10.8 seconds after opponents South Korea had taken the field in the third place playoff game at the 2002 World Cup.
The goal was so fast that it was not even noted by the match officials at the time. But after the game they awarded it as a goal because the clock showed the last kick of the game as being inside the opening minutes of the quarter-final.
It was also recorded by ESPN as the fastest goal in World Cup history with its coverage of the event. The previous record was held by Mexico's Raul Gonzalez who scored in 9 seconds flat during a 1998 game vs. Italy.
However, the record has since been beaten several times at major tournaments. In 2014, Colombia's James Rodríguez scored in 11 seconds flat during that country's game against Germany. And in 2016, Argentina's Emiliano Sala scored an incredible goal in 12 seconds flat during an international friendly game vs. France.
So, Turkey's Hakan Sukur remains the champion speedster with his world cup winning goal in 2002. He also holds the record for the fastest penalty kick ever taken when he managed to beat Kim Young-gi of South Korea in a 2004 Olympic tournament qualifier.
According to some statistics, the first player to score a hat-trick was Guillermo Stabile of Argentina in their 6:3 victory against Mexico on July 19, 1930, two days after Patenaude. On July 14, 1930, Peru's first player was sent off in a World Cup match, against Romania. He had three shots, two from the penalty box and one from outside it.
However, there are other sources stating that this record belongs to Giuseppe Meazza of Italy who did so in his debut match at the World Cup, won by Italy 3-0 over Sweden on June 21, 1934. Before playing for Italy, he had already scored three times for Milan. And according to another source, this record also belongs to Meazza.
In any case, none of these players is still active in soccer. So they would not be able to break their own records today!
The current world champion team was crowned in Brazil last year. They successfully defended their title against Germany in the final match of group stages. The tournament has now entered into the knockout stage, where the winners will be determined over time.
So far, only men have been allowed to play soccer and no women's national teams have yet qualified for the World Cup. In fact, the first female player was not identified until years later.
The lone "Olympic goal" (a goal scored directly from a corner kick) at the World Cup was scored by Marcos Coll for Colombia in a 4-4 tie with the Soviet Union in 1962. The game was played on July 3 in Rio de Janeiro.
Before this match, there had been only one other Olympic goal scored from a corner kick: by Arseniy Yatsenyuk for the USSR in their gold medal match against West Germany in Moscow in 1980. That made Colombia's score its only "World Cup goal" ever.
Although it is called an "Olympic goal", this wasn't recognized as such by any international organization at the time. The International Olympic Committee only started awarding medals four years after this tournament. In addition, Canada and Mexico did not join what was then known as the FIFA body until 1974 and 1976, respectively.
Also, since this was just a quadrennial event held every four years, there were no official championships awarded beyond the first-place finisher. So while this goal is considered historic today, it didn't earn either team any real accolades at the time of its creation.
Finally, Brazil and Colombia met again in the final of the 1970 World Cup, which Brazil won 5-2.
Ernst Willimowski of Poland was the first player to score four goals in a single match and still end up on the losing side against Brazil in 1938. Brazil's Leonidas also scored three goals in the game, which his side won 6-5. Austria beat Switzerland 7-5 in the highest-scoring game in World Cup history in 1954.
Each tournament's top scorers At the 1958 FIFA World Cup, Just Fontaine set a record with 13 goals. In the 1966 World Cup, Eusebio scored nine goals for Portugal. During the 2014 World Cup, Colombia's James Rodriguez scored six goals.
Mandzukic's winning goal came 108 minutes and three seconds after England surrendered the first goal in a World Cup match. Trippier became the first player since David Beckham in 2006 to score a direct free-kick for England at the World Cup.
It was also the first time England had been beaten by Croatia in an official fixture. The two nations have met on eight previous occasions with England holding its own strongly against the Croatians, but this was their first meeting at a World Cup finals tournament.
England were knocked out of the World Cup after just one game for the second consecutive time. It was also Mandzukic's second goal of the tournament - he scored another late free-kick against Colombia in the round of 16.
So far this year, Croatia has scored 42 goals in all competitions. Only Spain (46) has scored more goals than Croatia this year.
However, England has won four games in charge of manager Gareth Southgate, who was appointed before the tournament started. He is the first British manager to win his country's opening game at a World Cup finals tournament.
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