1938 FIFA WORLD CUP

The '1938 FIFA World Cup' was the third staging of the World Cup, and was held in France from June 4 to June 19. France was chosen as hosts by FIFA in August 1936. Italy retained the championship, beating Hungary 4-2 in the final.

Contents

Qualification

Summary

Venues

Squads

Results

First round

Second Round

Semi-finals

Third place match

Final

Awards

Scorers

Footnotes

See also

External links

Qualification

Main articles: 1938 FIFA World Cup qualification

FIFA's decision during the celebration of the 1936 Summer Olympics to hold the tournament in France caused outrage in South America where it was believed that the venue would alternate between the two continents. Instead, it was the second tournament in a row to be played in Europe. As a result neither Uruguay nor Argentina entered the competition. Spain had the record to be the first country to be out of the World Cup because of a war (the Spanish Civil War).
It was the first time that the hosts (France) and the title holders (Italy) qualified automatically. Title holders were given an automatic entry into the World Cup until 2006 when this was abolished.
Originally 16 nations were going to take part. Austria had qualified but after the Anschluss to Germany in March, they withdrew, leaving 15 teams to take part.

Summary

The tournament was again held in a knockout format, similar to 1934. This was the last tournament that there was not a group stage.
Five of the first round matches required extra time to break the deadlock; two games still went to a replay. The replays saw Switzerland oust the team of Germany, to which some Austrian players had been added for political reasons, with a score of 4-2, while Cuba managed to advance to the next round at the expense of Romania.
Sweden advanced directly to the quarter-finals due to Austria's withdrawal, and they proceeded to beat Cuba 8-0. The hosts, France, were beaten by the holders, Italy (wearing a provocative all-black 'fascist' strip), and Switzerland were seen off by Hungary. Czechoslovakia took Brazil to extra time in a notoriously feisty match in Bordeaux before succumbing in a replay; the South Americans proved too strong for the depleted Czech side (both Oldřich Nejedlý and František Plánička had suffered broken bones in the first game) and won 2-1.
Hungary destroyed Sweden in one of the semi-finals 5-1, while Italy and Brazil had the first of their many important World Cup clashes in the other. The Brazilians rested their star player Leônidas confident that they would qualify for the final, but the Italians won 2-1. Brazil topped Sweden 4-2 for third place.
The final itself took place at the Stade Olympique de Colombes in Paris. Vittorio Pozzo's Italian side took the lead early, but Hungary equalised within two minutes. The Italians took the lead again shortly after, and by the end of the first half were leading the Hungarians 3-1. Hungary never really got back into the game. With the final score favouring the Italians 4-2, Italy became the first team to successfully defend the title and were once more crowned World Cup winners.
Some argued that Hungary - or at least its goalkeeper - allowed Italy to win, as a measure to save the lives of the Italian Team, which had received telegrams by Benito Mussolini with "''Vincere o morire!''" (mistranslated as "Win or die") written on them. Hungarian goalkeeper Antal Szabó expressed his relief following his side's defeat against Italy despite letting in four goals in the loss. Referring to Mussolini's pre-match threats, Szabó quipped "I may have let in four goals, but at least I saved their lives". Actually, this is not the case. "Win or die" was a typical slogan of encouragement from fascist era, meaning "Victory or bust!" or "do your best to get victory". The fascist regime held sporting heroes and champions in high regard, greatly using them in their propaganda machine, so an act like the one suggested by Szabó was not realistic. Szabó's words may have been just an excuse for the lost match, or an honest misunderstanding. ^[1]
Due to World War II, the World Cup would not be held for another 12 years, until 1950. As a result, Italy were the reigning World Cup holders for a record 16 years, from 1934 to 1950. The Italian Vice-President of FIFA, Dr. Ottorino Barassi, hid the trophy in a shoe-box under his bed throughout the Second World War and thus saved it from falling into the hands of occupying troops.^[2]

Venues

Ten cities hosted the tournament:

★ Antibes, Stade du Fort Carré

★ Bordeaux, Parc Lescure

★ Le Havre, Stade Cavée Verte

★ Lille, Stade Victor Boucquey

★ Lyon, Stade Gerland (the only match there was cancelled)

★ Marseille, Stade Vélodrome

★ Paris, Parc des Princes and Stade Olympique de Colombes

★ Reims, Vélodrome Municipal

★ Strasbourg, Stade de la Meinau

★ Toulouse, Stade Chapou

Squads

For a list of all squads that appeared in the final tournament, see ''1938 FIFA World Cup squads''.

Results

First round

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'Replays:'
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Second Round

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'Replay:'

Semi-finals

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Third place match

Final

Awards

1938 World Cup Winners
Italy 'Italy' 'Second title'

Scorers

'7 goals' ★ Leônidas '6 goals' ★ Gyula Zsengellér '5 goals' ★ György Sárosi ★ Silvio Piola '4 goals' ★ Gino Colaussi ★ Ernest Wilimowski '3 goals' ★ Perácio ★ Romeu ★ Tore Keller ★ Arne Nyberg ★ Gustav Wetterström ★ André Abegglen '2 goals' ★ Héctor Socorro ★ Oldřich Nejedlý ★ Jean Nicolas ★ Silviu Bindea 'Own goals' ★ Ernst Lörtscher (for Germany)

'1 goal' ★ Henri Isemborghs ★ Roberto ★ Tomás Fernández ★ Carlos Oliveira ★ Juan Tuñas ★ Vlastimil Kopecký ★ Josef Košťálek ★ Josef Zeman ★ Oscar Heisserer ★ Émile Veinante ★ Josef Gauchel ★ Wilhelm Hahnemann ★ Vilmos Kohut ★ Ferenc Sas ★ Pál Titkos ★ Géza Toldi ★ Pietro Ferraris ★ Giuseppe Meazza ★ Arne Brustad ★ Fryderyk Scherfke ★ Iuliu Baratky ★ Ştefan Dobay ★ Harry Andersson ★ Sven Jonasson ★ Alfred Bickel ★ Eugen Wallaschek

Footnotes

1. ''On this date in 1938, the most ominous of World Cup soccer games ever was played [...] The Italian team received a telegram from dictator Benito Mussolini reading simply, "Vincere o morire". The world, including Hungarian goalie Antal Szabó (ph), was told of the simple, terrifying translation, "Win or die". Hungary lost to Italy that day. Some say they lost deliberately, 4 to 1. "I may have let in four goals," said the net minder Szabó, "but at least I saved their lives." Only problem, "Vincere o morire," translated literally as "win or die", in Italian sports vernacular, however, it simply meant, “"Give it your all, guys." Oops.'' (Keith Olbermann, 19 june 2006) [1]
2. Jules Rimet Cup FIFAWorldCup.com

See also

★ Polish roster at 1938 FIFA World Cup

External links

★ FIFA World Cup 1938

★ Details at RSSSF; note that they often disagree with FIFA on goal scorers and times

★ History of the World Cup-1938