Similar to Morocco teams exploded surprises by reaching the golden square of the World Cup

From the American team that participated in the first edition in 1930, to South Korea and Turkey in 2002, a good number of teams achieved major surprises in the World Cup tournaments by reaching the golden square, similar to what Morocco did in the Qatar 2022 edition.

From the American team that participated in the first edition in 1930, to South Korea and Turkey in 2002, a good number of teams achieved major surprises in the World Cup by reaching the golden square, similar to what Morocco did in the Qatar 2022 edition.

The Soviet Union reached the semi-finals of the World Cup for the first time in their history in 1966, thanks in large part to their legendary goalkeeper Lev Yashin. However, Al-Ittihad previously won the European Cup in 1960 and reached the final of the Asian Cup in 1964.

1930: Football boom in America

In the first decades of the game’s history, football, or what is known as “Soccer” among Americans, enjoyed great prosperity, but unfortunately it lived a short golden period in the 1920s, followed by the establishment of the first federal championship, the American Football League, which collapsed in 1933.

The United States national team relied mainly on British players who were naturalized prior to the tournament, namely five Scots and an Englishman.

The US team won several matches, but when it reached the semi-finals, it suffered a major defeat at the hands of runner-up Argentina (1-6).

1962: Chile is driven by the enthusiasm of its fans

Chile made a historic performance in the 1962 World Cup, led by its striker Lionel Sanchez, as it qualified from a difficult group by defeating Switzerland (3-1) and then Italy (2-0) in a very violent match that later became known as the "Battle of Santiago". The police intervened several times to separate the players after expelling two Italian players.

In the quarter-finals, the Chileans beat the Soviet Union (2-1), before falling into the semi-finals with Brazil "Vava" and "Garrincha" and losing the match (4-2). However, they snatched third place in the last minute of their match against Yugoslavia (1-0).

1994: Bulgaria, Gil Stoichkov

Led by an exceptional generation, Bulgaria reached the quarter-finals in the United States thanks to Hristo Stoichkov, the Spanish Barcelona player, who was crowned top scorer in the finals with six joint goals with Russian Oleg Salenko. Next to Stoichkov, there was Emil Kostadinov, Krasimir Balakov and the bald Yordan Letchkov, who dropped Germany in the quarter-finals (2-1) with a wonderful header.

The adventure ended in front of the Italian Roberto Baggio, who scored a double in the semi-finals (1-2), as a result of which the Bulgarians lost the incentive to fight for third place and lost the bronze medal match against Sweden (0-4).

South Korean madness and a Turkish surprise

South Korea, led by Dutch coach Guus Hiddink, became the first Asian country to reach the semi-finals, after defeating Italy (2-1 with the golden goal) in the final price, then Spain on penalties in the quarter-finals, before its historic adventure ended in the semi-finals at the hands of Germany (0-1).

In the finals themselves and in its second participation after 1954, Turkey broke the heart of the other Japanese hosts by eliminating them from the final eighth (1-0), then eliminated Senegal with the golden goal (1-0) thanks to Ilhan Mansez's goal, before surrendering to Brazil and Ronaldo (0-0). 1).

The Turks won the match for third place (3-2) with the fastest goal in the history of the World Cup after 10.8 seconds.