The 1994 World Cup was already strange with neither France or England qualifying, and Bulgaria beating France in the final match to qualify. But it could have been even stranger.
Going into the final CONMEBOL matchday, group 2 was like this:
The final matches were Ecuador-Bolivia and Brazil-Uruguay. Ecuador drew Bolivia and Brazil beat Uruguay 2-0, pushing Brazil to the top of the group and through to the World Cup.
But, what if Brazil drew Uruguay? Brazil's two goals were scored in the 72nd and 82 minute, so maybe Romario's second goal doesn't happen and Uruguay gets a last minute equalizer. If that happened, the final tally would have been like this:
Only the top two teams in the group went through to the World Cup. So for the first time in history, Brazil would have not qualified. In OTL, Brazil went on to win their fourth World Cup title in 1994. With Brazil out from the start... everything is up for grabs.
Going into the final CONMEBOL matchday, group 2 was like this:
Code:
Bolivia 10
Uruguay 10
Brazil 9
Ecuador 4
Venezuela 2
The final matches were Ecuador-Bolivia and Brazil-Uruguay. Ecuador drew Bolivia and Brazil beat Uruguay 2-0, pushing Brazil to the top of the group and through to the World Cup.
But, what if Brazil drew Uruguay? Brazil's two goals were scored in the 72nd and 82 minute, so maybe Romario's second goal doesn't happen and Uruguay gets a last minute equalizer. If that happened, the final tally would have been like this:
Code:
Bolivia 11
Uruguay 11
Brazil 10
Ecuador 5
Venezuela 2
Only the top two teams in the group went through to the World Cup. So for the first time in history, Brazil would have not qualified. In OTL, Brazil went on to win their fourth World Cup title in 1994. With Brazil out from the start... everything is up for grabs.