World Cup Qatar 2022 gave us everything – goals, drama, controversy, conspiracy theories, upsets,
and records being broken and extended every other game.
Today, we want to focus on those records.
Quite a number of records were broken in Qatar, and here are 10 of them.
1.
Scoring in 5 World Cups
Cristiano Ronaldo hit the back of the net just once in this tournament, but that goal
created history.
When he converted the spot kick which he won in Portugal’s opening game against Ghana,
he became the only man in the history of the FIFA World Cup to score in 5 different tournaments,
after previously scoring in Germany 2006, South Africa 2010, Brazil 2014, and Russia
2018.
That’s an insane achievement which only further proves the insane longevity of his
incredible career.
And well, there’s still that tiny bit of possibility that he could be extending that
record in 4 years.
Who knows?
It’s Cristiano Ronaldo after all.
2.
Most Man of the Match awards
When Messi was named Man of the Match in the round of 16 game against Australia, he became
the player with the most Man of the Match awards in the history of the World Cup.
But he was not satisfied with that, so he went on extending that record the more games
he played.
Now, he’s not only the player with the most Man of the Match awards of all time, he is
also the player with the most Man of the Match awards in a single edition of the World Cup.
What a guy!
3.
26 players all involved
For the first time in the history of the World Cup, a team used all 26 of their players in
one single tournament.
Brazil achieved this incredible feat of rotation after they named a very different lineup in
their last group stage game against Cameroon, and then brought in their third choice keeper
against South Korea in the round of 16 to complete the set.
Netherlands also used every single member of their squad at the 2014 World Cup, but
back then, the squad size was just 23, and that’s why this is a new record.
4.
New French top scorer
In the round of 16 game against Poland, Giroud scored to become the outright top scorer in
the history of the French national team, toppling Thierry Henry.
That goal against Poland was Giroud’s 52nd in 117 appearances, while Henry scored 51
in 123 appearances for Les Bleus.
This is an incredible achievement for Giroud and a very huge improvement from his last
outing in Russia where he failed to score or even hit a shot on target.
Anyway, Giroud has since gone on to extend his record as top scorer, and seems like he
wants to extend it even further before he calls it quits for international football.
5.
Most goals before 24
That round of 16 game between France and Poland was full of records.
After Giroud wrote his name in France’s history, Mbappe went on to write his own name
in World Cup history.
His two goals in that 3-1 victory made him the player with the most World Cup goals before
the age of 24, overtaking the great Pele.
Even before the age of 24, Mbappe has already established himself as one of the greatest
players in World Cup history.
What a guy he is turning out to be!
6.
New semi finalists
When we said Qatar gave us a lot, we really meant it.
For the first time in the history of the World Cup, we saw an African team make it all the
way to the semi final.
Morocco achieved this incredible feat when they defeated Portugal by a lone goal in the
quarter final.
It was definitely a long time coming, and a step further for the continent of Africa
after Cameroon, Senegal, and Ghana, had previously got to the quarter finals of the competition.
And this is also a win for the Arab world.
Morocco doubles as the first African team and first national team from the Arab world
to reach the semi finals of a World Cup.
7.
All-female referee team
Qatar also gave us diversity.
For the first time ever, we saw a team of only female referees officiate a men’s FIFA
World Cup match.
In the group stage game between Germany and Costa Rica, France’s Stephanie Frappart
became the first woman to take charge of a men’s World Cup game.
And she was accompanied by Brazil’s Neuza Back, Mexico’s Karen Diaz, Rwanda’s Salima
Mukansanga, Japan’s Yoshimi Yamashita, and Kathryn Nesbitt from the United States.
These women together made World Cup history at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
8.
1k plus passes
You can say we have never seen possession football played like it was in Qatar this
year.
In Spain’s opening game of the tournament against Costa Rica, they didn’t only blow
away their opposition with goals, they also completely blew them away with possession.
Spain had 82% of the ball that day and made 1,045 passes.
That became the first time ever that a team completed more than 1,000 passes in a single
World Cup game.
Surely, only Spain could have done something like that.
They would go on to make even more passes against Japan, but that did not exactly end
well for them.
And that leads us to our next record.
9.
Lowest possession in a World Cup win
Japan beat Spain in the group stage of the World Cup to secure top spot in their group
and that was one of the biggest upsets in this tournament.
What made it an even bigger upset was that Spain had total control of the game but still
lost.
Japan had only 17.7% of the ball in that game, and they made the best use of it.
They won that game in spite of Spain’s record-extending 1,058 passes and became the team to win a
World Cup game with the lowest possession figure ever.
10.
First host nation to lose opening game
Qatar put up a good tournament for the world to enjoy but didn’t stay long to enjoy it
themselves.
They became the first Arab nation to ever host the World Cup, and then in their first
game against Ecuador, also became the first ever host nation to lose the opening game
of the tournament, falling to 2 Enner Valencia goals.
They would go on to lose their other two games against Senegal and the Netherlands to also
become the only host nation to crash out of the tournament they’re hosting without getting
a single point.
But perhaps we can cut them some slack as this was their first ever outing at the World
Cup.
If they can get themselves into the competition in subsequent editions, they will only get
better.
Well, these are 10 records that were made and broken at the 2022 World Cup, but there
were more.
We tried to keep it down to one per player, and that’s why we didn’t mention more
Messi records like him having the most appearances in World Cup history, being the oldest player
to score and assist in a single World Cup game, and being the first player to score
and assist in 4 different World Cup games.
Honorable Mention: For the first 100 minutes during the World
Cup quarter-final game between the Netherlands and Argentina, it seemed like the game would
be remembered for some amazing plays by the Argentine god Lionel Messi.
But Dutch player Wout Weghorst had some other plans.
Weghorst scored a dramatic goal from a clever free-kick deep into in the injury-time.
However, once the dust settled on Argentina's victory by penalty shootout - 4-3, after a
2-2 draw - one number will remain closely linked with this game: 18.
That was the number of yellow cards shown.
Yes! 18!
A record for a World Cup match.
Back In 2006, Portugal defeated the Netherlands in the last 16 round of the World Cup, with
the game featuring a total of 16 cards, including four players being sent off.
That was a very physical and intense game.
There are other matches that could be cited too.
But none of those matches had as many cards flourished as there were in the Battle of
Lusail between Argentina and Netherlands last week.
Anyway, which of these records is most mind-blowing for you?
Let us know in the comments.
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