the last time the usa was in the world cup was 2014.
when was the last time the usa was in the world cup?
2014
along with carlos valderrama, the country's most capped player, mondragón is the only colombian to have participated in five fifa world cup qualification campaigns. in 2010, he was recalled to the colombian squad at the age of 39 after a five-year absence from international football. in 2014, he was named in colombia's squad for the 2014 fifa world cup, making him the oldest player at the tournament, and in world cup history, at the age of 43, and the only squad member at the 1994 fifa world cup. he is also the only player to have participated in 6 different world cup qualifying campaigns since 1993. by coming on as a substitute in the 85th minute of the final group game against japan on 24 june 2014, he became the oldest player ever to play in a world cup game at the age of 43 years and 3 days old, surpassing the record set by roger milla for cameroon at the 1994 world cup. mondragón gave a very emotional interview afterwards, expressing his gratitude to have been given the opportunity to represent colombia one last time at a world cup. his record for oldest player in world cup history was broken four years later at the 2018 world cup by 45-year-old egyptian goalkeeper essam el-hadary.
faryd mondragón
as the defending champions, india went into the 2015 world cup co-hosted by australia and new zealand with high expectations and were billed pre-tournament favourites. unlike in 2007 and 2011, this time india went into the world cup on the back of poor results, with a mediocre australian tour preceding the event. despite this, it was expected that india would still do well in the world cup due to their familiarity with the australian conditions, having already spent more than 2 months there. the indian team for the 2015 world cup comprised only 4 members from the 2011 world cup-winning squad, which included captain and wicketkeeper mahendra singh dhoni, virat kohli, who was now the vice-captain of the side and one of the best batsmen in odi cricket, suresh raina and ravichandran ashwin. for the first time since the 1992 world cup, the indian world cup squad was without sachin tendulkar, who had retired from all forms of cricket in 2013, while the other stars of the 2011 world cup such as virender sehwag, yuvraj singh, gautam gambhir, harbhajan singh and zaheer khan were dropped due to poor form. despite the absence of these key performers, the indian world cup squad was still a strong side, with a power-packed batting lineup comprising kohli, dhoni, raina, destructive openers rohit sharma and shikhar dhawan and the stylish middle-order bat ajinkya rahane, and a strong bowling attack comprising pacers mohammed shami, umesh yadav, mohit sharma and bhuvneshwar kumar, supplemented by the spinners ashwin and all-rounder ravindra jadeja. the 1996 world cup format, which was also used in 2011, was used for the last time in the world cup, as the 2019 world cup would see the return of the round-robin format last used in 1992. in the group stage, india were placed in group b with arch-rivals pakistan, south africa, the west indies, minnows zimbabwe and associates ireland and the uae.
india at the cricket world cup