There's a couple I am upset I missed. The 3rd Brazilian one, just knew it was a 2-part name but it escaped me completely. Second, couldn't come up with more German towns. And last, I was quite sure Spain was involved, but after the capital wasn't included I stopped guessing. Duh. -- A great idea for a quiz though, a bit different!
No, Bochum is not closer than Gelsenkirchen. Both border Essen. If you come from Kray (Essen), the border Essen-Gelsenkirchen runs through a street with houses so Gelsenkirchen
Great Quiz! Have to say though that Essen should not be acccepted as an answer for Gelsenkirchen in my opinion. Yes, these two cities border each other, but they are independent cities, they both have football clubs rich in history (Rot-Weiß Essen / Schalke 04), who both have been German Champions recently, playing in their own stadiums. And Essen never hosted a World Cup match. Its like accepting Oakland as an answer for a NFL hosting city while actually meaning San Francisco.
And I made the same mistake again. Can I suggest a slight reword of the question to help simpletons like me. “Hosted” implies the games have taken place, whereas the Qatar farce of a WC is 6 months away. Can it be changed to ‘have hosted or are scheduled to host’?
Or can you put big alarm bells on it to remind idiots like me to read all the caveats!? Lol.
Really think the quizmaster should make it clearer that this is about soccer. Nothing wrong with the game of soccer (although I've never liked all the diving and playacting that goes with it).
It has given me an idea though. I may do a similar quiz for Rugby World Cup cities. Not sure as yet where I'd set the qualification bar (possibly 5 games).
Just get out of here, people who don't like football always turn up in football spaces to complain (especially people from the USA that see it as a "foreign" sport).
Don't like it, be quiet and don't complain about "playacting"
@RogerM Not really a debate I can be bothered with. Rugby World Cup is the official name of the tournament that I am referring to. I don't even think about league to be honest. Game is dying in NZ.
Any chance you could pair Viña del Mar up with Valparaíso like you did with Paris, LA, and Stockholm? Also, I'm curious about the reason you used / for Paris, but () for Stockholm and LA.
Because all the matches played in Stockholm and Los Angeles were not exactly in the city proper but in their metro area (Solna and Pasadena respectively). Paris instead hosted matches in more than one stadium: Parc des Princes Stadium is in Paris municipality, while Stade de France is in the suburb of Saint-Denis (and the Olympique Stadium in Colombes).
I found some possible mistakes in this quiz. Two cities are missing for sure: Cordoba (8 matches, Argentina 1978) and Bordeaux (2 matches and 1 replay in 1938 + 6 matches in 1998 = 8 matches total, 9 if we count the replay). Toulouse hosted 1 match and its replay in 1938 and 6 matches in 1998, so the total is 7 but could become 8 if we count the replay (I don't know if we have to count them or not!). Also, if we sum up Monterrey and San Nicolas de los Garza, which are the same metro area, the total for Monterrey becomes 8 (4+4 in 1986). Other less relevant mistakes: Mexico City hosted 23 matches (26 if we sum up all the extended metro area); Paris 20 + 1 replay (maybe you forgot to count the 3 matches played at the Olympic Stadium in 1938?); Leon hosted 11 matches, not 14.
Córdoba in Argentina is missing. It hosted eight matches during World Cup 1978. Five in the First Round and three in the Second Stage of the tournament.
You mean the 1994 World Cup that still holds the attendance record, even though the tournament is now 32 teams instead of 24? The tournament that basically launched MLS in 1996 in the US? The one where the host nation qualified for the knockouts and lost 1-0 to eventual champions Brazil? Yeah, you could say that the US was aware of it.
I'm not old enough to remember the 1994 World Cup, but I have a feeling the 2026 one will be much bigger. Both because the World Cup itself is larger (expanding to 48 teams) and because soccer has become much more popular in the US. I'm definitely looking forward to it!
Tried guessing various Swiss cities (1954). Turns out all miss out on the 8. Basel 6; Bern, Lausanne and Zurich 5.
Surprised none from 2002 Korea/ Japan either. Between them they had had 20 host cities (10 from each country) and saw 4 cities hosting 4 games (2 from each country), and 16 cities hosting 3 games each.
The only 2 (or 3) host countries not to feature a city on this list.
Or can you put big alarm bells on it to remind idiots like me to read all the caveats!? Lol.
It has given me an idea though. I may do a similar quiz for Rugby World Cup cities. Not sure as yet where I'd set the qualification bar (possibly 5 games).
Don't like it, be quiet and don't complain about "playacting"
Surprised none from 2002 Korea/ Japan either. Between them they had had 20 host cities (10 from each country) and saw 4 cities hosting 4 games (2 from each country), and 16 cities hosting 3 games each.
The only 2 (or 3) host countries not to feature a city on this list.
I've created a quiz on all world cup hosts and finalists, give it a go if you're interested.