1994 was a groundbreaking World Cup in many ways. The defending champions West Germany were united with their East German counterparts, representing the unified Germany for the first time since the 1938 World Cup. As a result of the strong performances by African teams in 1990, Africa was given three spots for the first time, with Nigeria joining Cameroon and Morocco. Among other teams who failed to qualify were Uruguay and England. Hungary and France both failed to qualify for the second successive tournament, while Scotland failed to qualify for the first time since 1970. This was the only World Cup finals since 1938 for which neither England nor Scotland qualified.
The average attendance of nearly 69,000 shattered a record that had stood since 1950 World Cup, and the match between the United States and Switzerland was the first ever to take place indoors, having been played under the roof at the Pontiac Silverdome, while Group E of the tournament remains the only group in World Cup history in which all four teams finished with the same number of points.
Oleg Salenko of Russia became the first player to score 5 goals in a single World Cup finals game in his country’s group stage win over Cameroon. Cameroon’s Roger Milla also scored a goal in the same match, becoming the oldest player to score a goal in a World Cup. At 42, he was also the oldest player to appear in a World Cup match. Gianluca Pagliuca of Italy became the first goalkeeper to be sent off in a World Cup Finals match, dismissed for handling outside his area against Norway.
Brazil’s 11 goals in their seven games was a record for the lowest average goals scored per game for any World Cup-winning side, but this was bettered by Spain’s lowly total of eight goals in 2010. The three goals Brazil conceded in those seven games was at the time also the lowest average goals conceded per game, although this was subsequently surpassed by France in 1998, Italy in 2006, and Spain in 2010.
The finals were the first time FIFA decided to experiment with the style of jerseys worn by officials, foregoing the traditional black. They could choose between burgundy, yellow or white shirts depending on what was feasible to avoid a clash of colors with the two competing teams. This custom has since been followed, but with black shirts added as an option later. The finals were also the first time that players had their shirt numbers printed on the center front of the shirt, as well as their names printed in the back of their jerseys in a World Cup, just like other American sports did, to make their identification easier for sportscasters. This custom followed from Euro 92, and has followed ever since. Additionally, the finals were the first to award 3 points for a win in the group stage to, er, motivate teams to play an attacking style.
The 1994 World Cup revolutionised television coverage of sports in the United States through the sponsored scoreboard and game clock that were constantly shown on screen throughout the game. Television sports coverage in the US had long been dependent upon commercial breaks; a feature suitable for American sports such as baseball, basketball, ice hockey and American football (which all have breaks in the action), but long considered incompatible with soccer, due to the long stretches of uninterrupted play. Variations on it were quickly incorporated into virtually every team sports broadcast by the decade’s end.
