Late cuts: Beautiful game revels in a colourful history

With Uruguay taking the 32nd and last place in next year's World Cup soccer finals in South Korea and Japan, the countdown is on.

The 17th finals are the first to be split between two countries, and the final will be the first played in Asia.

Among other interesting titbits from the last 71 years of World Cup finals ...

* Three players have captained their country in two finals - but none has a 100 per cent success rate. Argentina's legendary Diego Maradona led his country to the title in 1986 in Mexico, and lost the 1990 final to a late German penalty in Rome. The others are Brazil's Dunga, who was captain in the penalty shootout win over Italy in 1994 and the 3-0 loss to France three years ago. Germany's Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was captain in the 1982 and 1986 defeats to Italy and Argentina.

* Just one player has scored a hat-trick as a substitute in the finals. Laszlo Kiss, of Hungary, came on when the score was 5-1 against El Salvador in Spain in 1982. It finished 10-1, the biggest finals defeat.

* Five players have appeared for two countries in the finals: Luis Monti played for Argentina in 1930 and Italy four years later; Jose Altafini played for Brazil in 1958 and Italy four years later; Ferenc Puskas turned out for Hungary in 1954 and Spain eight years later; Jose Santamaria was in the Uruguay side in 1954 and joined Puskas in Spain in 1962; and Robert Prosinecki was a Yugoslav in 1990, a Croatian eight years later.

* Italy's Walter Zenga holds the record for the longest period without conceding a goal in the World Cup. He played a remarkable 517 minutes without having to pick the ball out of his net during the 1990 finals.

* When Daniel Xuereb came on as a substitute for France in the semifinal against West Germany in 1986, he completed the alphabetical list for the World Cup. "X" had been the only initial of a surname which had not appeared in the finals until then.

* The World Cup has not always been a happy hunting ground for the hosts. In 16 finals, only Uruguay (1930), Italy (1934), England (1966), West Germany (1974), Argentina (1978) and France (1998) have won at home.

* In 1970, after El Salvador beat Honduras in a World Cup qualifier, the two countries severed diplomatic relations. A four-day war broke out in which more than 10,000 people died.

* In the 1978 match against Italy, the Netherlands' Ernie Brandts had the dubious honour of scoring for both teams - injuring his own goalkeeper in the process of netting an own goal.

* Sex has played a part in the World Cup. The 1998 Brazilians were handed a "no sex, please" edict by coach Mario Zagallo for the 33 days of the tournament. The sex-starved South Americans almost delivered, reaching the final, only to be beaten by France. A British survey during the same tournament showed that most men would rather watch World Cup action than have sex with their wives.

* The most goals scored in a final came in 1958 when Brazil beat Sweden 5-2. Scoring twice for the winners was 17-year-old wonderboy Edson Arantes do Nascimento - better known as Pele.

* Americans credit Bart McGhee as scoring the first World Cup goal, in the 3-0 win the US had over Belgium in 1930. But, with no official records in those early days, Fifa credit France's Lucien Laurent with that honour in their win over Mexico.

* In one of the biggest upsets, the US beat England 1-0 in Brazil in 1950 with a controversial goal from Joe Gaetjens. There was doubt whether Gaetjens scored with his head or his hand, or whether the ball crossed the line at all. Some sports editors, refusing to believe the scoreline, posted it at 10-1 to England. The loss led to England's humiliating elimination.

* Germany's prolific Gerd Muller is the highest goalscorer in finals history. "Der Bomber" scored a total of 14 times, in the 1970 and 74 finals, going on to a stunning 68 international goals in just 62 games. Frenchman Just Fontaine holds the single finals record, of 13 in 1958.