FIFA WORLD CUP has attained the status of a serious worldwide affair, capable of attracting a large number of A-list participants in even its third edition. The Third World Cup hosted in France particularly illustrated how far football as a sport had gone in terms of not only capturing attention but also how much people cared about it in the world.
But this tournament happened at the very doorstep of World War II, with the world’s polities and nations’ hostility lying in wait. Notwithstanding these impediments, the footballing event of the year, the Third World Cup, was packed with lots of football, drama, and history. In this post, we will highlight the main events of Third World Cup 1938, the teams and players that wrote history, the history of the tournament, and the impact that the tournament had on the game of football itself.
Reason for Selection of France as Host
In Third World Cup FIFA awarded France the right to host the third World Cup making it the second consecutive World Cup to be held in Europe after the controversial World Cup held in Italy in 1934. The sanction to stage the competition in Europe once more evoked some discontent however, especially amongst South American countries who felt that the Third World Cup should be a tussle for different continents in turns. This sometimes leads to a remarkable episode in the history of the World Cup: Argentina and Uruguay, both never participated accast, boycotted the 1938 tournament.
Seeing everyone vilifying it, France was quite clumsy in hiding its desire to flaunt its footballing experience. Many of the best-known European countries participated in the tournament which also brought up a few football greats. World Cup 1938 will always be known as the last football competition before the Second World War, playing the part of a pictorial farewell before the world tore itself apart.
Tournament Format and Participating Teams
Like the previous edition in 1934, the Third World Cup had a knockout system of competition. The tournament included 16 teams which included the host, France, and the champion of the last match which was played by Italy. The teams were:
Europe: France, Italy, Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, and Sweden, Poland, Norway, Romania, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Czechoslovakia.
South America: Brazil, Cuba
North America:Cuba
Asia:The Dutch East “Indies” now Indonesia which was the first appearance of Asian countries in the World Cup
Argentina and Uruguay were not around, thus the South American representation was inadequate, but Brazil took the chance to show a presence in Europe. At the same time, the tournament has witnessed the first representative of the Asian countries which fulfills the very aim of FIFA as an organization that wishes to promote football all over the globe.
Defending the Title and Mussolini’s Shadow
Back in the Third World Cup, Italy again entered the championship as the title holder, having won the last edition held in Italy in 1934. Once again, the head coach of the Italian team was a great Vittorio Pozzo, who had no intention of losing the title. Italy was still under the leadership of the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini, and as in the case of the tournament that took place in 1934, the politics of the day engulfed the 1938 World Cup. For Mussolini, it was necessary to create an image of the fascist spirit. Soccer is a tool that serves this purpose, which is the burden carried by the Italian team into the tournament.
Italy’s journey to the end of the road was not in any way straightforward. In the first round, they suffered a nasty encounter with Norway but came out on the other side and won the match 2:1 in extra time. Italy was then up against the French host nation in the quarter-finals and came out on top with a 3 – 1 victory. In the semi-finals of the tournament, Italy was to meet Brazil in one of the must-see games and once again Italy was dominant winning 2 – 1.
Emergence of Brazil as a Dominant Footballing Nation: A New Order
To say that there is tremendous performance would be an understatement and highlight that they did not win any trophies at the World Cup that year. Their forwards shined brightly thanks to Leônidas da Silva aptly nicknamed ‘the Black Diamond’ among other stars in the attacking line-up of the teams. He became one of the tournament’sgame changing figure, netting several times to win the golden boot.
The opening round of Brazil’s game against Poland was perhaps the most entertaining of all matches played at the tournament. In this match, Brazil won 6-5 after extra time with Leônidas scoring three goals. Moreover, it was the lowest-scoring set and one of the most efficacious scoring games in World Cup history, which illustrated the high level of attacking performance of the Brazilians.
A satisfying product for the Brazilians in the 1938 World Cup will be Brazil’s most humiliating defeat, which has been imprinted in the minds of every follower of football history. Brazil played Italy in the semi-finals, and although Brazil lost the match, they ended the tournament with a two-goal margin victory against Sweden in a third-place playoff. This performance by Brazil in 1938 served as a building block for what was to be the Brazilian hegemony in world football.
The Final: Italy versus Hungary
The fateful June 19 in the year 1938 emotionally drained every participant of the 1938 FIFA World Cup final at the Coliseum Olympique in Paris. It was Italy versus Hungary, a team that had shown its organizational skills and rich play throughout the games. During their opposition to these nations, Hungary had met and succeeded over both Switzerland and Sweden. Thus, they were quite a favorite to win the championship.
The final was his most thrilling match, ending up with the highest number of goals scored by both teams. Italy, as usual, took the lead in the sixth-minute courtesy of an early Gino Colaussi goal. Hungary was soon on level terms, but Italy regained the lead through a Silvio Piola goal and a second from Colaussi. Hungary scored again, but Piola added a third and the victory for Italy and a splendid 4-2 final.
With this victory, Italy became the first team in history to retain the World Cup title and even managed to achieve a lot more as such would not be repeated until Brazil did it in 58 and 62. Another World Cup win for any coach might make him the best in history as Pozzo is the only one who won two World Cups consecutively.
The Legacy of the 1938 World Cup Football Championship
The 1938 World Cup marked the closure of a chapter. With the onset of World War II, which began in 1939, global football was to come to a halt for a little over a decade. It would take another twelve years before another World Cup would be held in 1950 and by this time a good number of those who played in the 1938 tournament were not going to be around.
Nevertheless, the 1938 World Cup gave birth to a new dimension in the life of football. It was the tournament that cemented Italy in the list of nations that grace the football screen. Brazil also proved to the world thereby as they would go on to become the most successful team as far as the World Cup is concerned. The tournament furthered the global appeal of football with teams from Asia and the Americas because it was very obvious that FIFA was aiming at making the World Cup a global phenomenon, a vision that has come to fruition over the years.
Conclusion
1938 was again in its third year running the World Cup. The last cup of the pre-World War II dresses was the third World Cup as the name suggests. There was fuel of discontent, and there were exhilarating moments, the birth of countries to new football configurations. To the sports lovers, the World Football Cup of 1938 is a game changer where the game started moving towards, and in a wider sense conquering, the entire world instead of being confined in Europe.
We are dedicated to the vast history of the FIFA World Cup that includes the best and save the moment for the second age travel of ‘justsports24’ around the historical construction of such sports conception as football. 1938 World Cup where Italy won and then the Brazilian measures for football thanksgiving were rising, the World Cup proved beyond reasonable doubt that it was possible to have world sporting events where countries could put aside political differences and unite out of the looming shadow of war.
