WORLD CUP SEARCHABLE DATABASE
(1930-2022)
(Next update: 2026 edition)
I'm presenting here a very powerful and complete searchable database containing all the 9,175 games played in the World Cup (not only final stages, but also preliminary rounds), from its inception in 1930 to Qatar 2022 edition. You will be able to make queries about editions, years, cities, rounds, national squads, and scores, either specifically or by combining different fields.
National squads are listed with their international English name, together with their original local name (if necessary) in parentheses. But don't worry: as input for the search box you can also use plain text (with no accents or especial diacritics), truncated forms (first, middle, or last letters of the team's name), or localized spellings (the common name of the team in English or Spanish), and the database will generate the desired results. The use of this database is very easy and intuitive: simply specify or combine the desired data, and the program will generate the list of games that matches those criteria. Remember that you don't have to fill all the fields and also that your query should be logical.
EDITION |
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Only Final Stage
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YEAR |
From
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To
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GAME DETAILS |
Venue
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Round
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MATCH |
OPTION 1 (recommended): DATA
INPUT
Free text. Broad search (non-context sensitive). |
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vs. |
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Fixed order of games |
OPTION 2: SELECT MENU
English names. Narrow search (context sensitive). |
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SCORE |
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INSTRUCTIONS AND TIPS
Following is a brief introduction and explanation of the different searchable
fields:
1) EDITION. Select the desired World Cup edition. By default,
the database will retrieve ALL the games played in the tournament, from the
continental qualifying rounds to the Final Stage. If you only want to retrieve
the matches of this final round in the host country (World Cup proper), you
should select YES in "Only Final Stage." It's also possible to use
the option "Only Final Stage" as a filter combined with each of
the fields VENUE and ROUND below.
2) YEAR. Select the first and the last year for the period
containing your search. If you only select "year from" or "year
to," the search will include, respectively, all the World Cup games beginning
or ending in that year. You should also keep in mind that these natural years
don't match the editions above, since normally the qualifying rounds are played
1-2 years before the Final Stage.
3) GAME DETAILS. You can further refine your search by selecting
VENUE (the place where a game is played, written in its original spelling
or a transcription into Latin alphabet) and ROUND (the different continental
confederations of the Preliminary Stage or the last rounds of the Final Stage).
You will notice in the field ROUND an index of different phases, corresponding
to the changes in the competition format of World Cup, but all except the
ones with the label "PRELIMINARY" are Final Stage rounds. Regarding
the continental preliminary rounds, please have in mind that the division
of continental FIFA confederations has not always been clear in the history
of the competition, and some countries are included in a confederation group
different from their geographical location (especially the border countries
between Europe-Asia, Europe-Africa, Africa-Asia, and Asia-Oceania). The names
in this index only reflect the names of the rounds in the different editions
of World Cup. Please, note the following abbreviations attached to the preliminary
rounds: Af./Afr. (Africa), As. (Asia), E./Eu./Eur./Euro. (Europe), N/C.Am. (North/Central America), N.E. (Near East), O. (Oceania), S.Am. (South America). [NOTE:
Due to database requirements, some complex city names are linked by a lower
hyphen (_) to avoid mismatches (like in Port_Moresby / Port_Harcourt), and
the apostrophe (') in the following city names is missing: Dnipropetrovs'k,
L'vïv, N'Djámena, Nuku'alofa, Sana'a, St. George's, St. John's,
Ta'Qali, Xi'an, Donets'k, Gomel', Kazan'.]
4) MATCH. There are two search options to retrieve games
between national teams: a) Data input:
The search box will accept almost any combination of plain text, truncated
forms, or localized names (English, Spanish, and even the original
spelling in the native language/-s and alphabet/-s,
which in time can be truncated), as long as it uniquelly identifies
a specific team; by default, the query under this option is reversible,
so the match "Country A" vs. "Country B" will generate
games "Country A-Country B" (Country A plays home in home-and-away
preliminary rounds or comes first in the official competition calendar of
the Final Stage) and "Country B-Country A" (Country A plays away).
If you want to restrict the search to "home" or "away"
games (only meaningful for preliminary rounds, as explained before), mark
the checkbox "Fixed order of games." It should be obvious now that
you should never mark this checkbox if you select a Final Stage edition or
round, with single-game matches, since this won't retrieve all the games of
a specific national squad. Another advantage of this search method is that
it generates the full historical record of a national team, including name
changes (like USSR > Russia). b) Select menu:
The English name of the country can be selected in this drop down index; please,
note that this option, although very quick and easy to use, can only generate
the fixed order of games specified in the search criteria (that is, "Country
A" vs. "Country B," but not the corresponding "Country
B" vs. "Country A") and doesn't show the name changes of the
selected teams. Because this option is context sensitive to the calendar order
of games, in order to make sure you retrieve all the matches of a specific
team you have to select it in both the first and second menus. [NOTE: In order to transcribe the local spelling of teams, in most
cases I've used standard Unicode fonts to represent characters different from
the Latin alphabet, so your Internet explorer should recognize and display
them correctly. However, for some complex scripts, I'm using the following
TTF fonts, which you might want to download and install in order to avoid
visualizing "squares" and properly read these names: Khmer
OS Metal Chieng (Khmer of Cambodia), GF Zemen
Unicode (Tigrinya of Eritrea and Amharic of Ethiopia), Malithi
Web (Sinhala of Sri Lanka), Mangal (Hindi
of India and Nepali of Nepal), SutonnyBanglaOMJ (Bengali of Bangladesh), Saysettha
OT (Lao of Laos), Myanmar2 (Burmese
of Myanmar).]
5) SCORE. This field lists the basic scores in all the games
of the World Cup. The retrieved games also show the score at halftime (in
parentheses). Please, note the following abbreviations attached to some scores,
containing additional information on the games: a.e.t. (after extra
time), r. (replay), w.o. (walkover or forfeit), p.k. (penalty kicks).
By combining these basic fields, you can make countless queries according
to your specific interest. After you complete your query, the resulting match
list is displayed in the following ascendent order: 1) by
edition; 2) by round (within the Preliminary Round, the order is regional qualifying group-stage-date,
although it doesn't show); 3) by specific
date (even within the same year there is a chronological
order, although it doesn't show).
Finally, you will notice a link in every single score of the generated list
of games. Only the Final Stage matches and all the Preliminary
Round games of Spain contain full game statistics (line-ups, stadiums,
dates, kick-off times, referees, goals, and relevant incidents). In the case
of the countless preliminary round games, the link will simply take you to
the edition file (although you might find it useful to check the specific
game date and have an overall view of the qualifying groups, together with
other explanations about the competition format). |