We know that during the World Cup, Brazil stops: on game day students are excused from school, workers meet and take a break from their obligations to watch the matches, the streets are painted, many people collect team cards, the official team jerseys are much more wanted... Anyway, at the time of the Cup you only talk about the Cup and you only think about the Cup! However, there are many curiosities about the World Cup that are little known and little publicized by the sports press. The purpose of this text is to present some of these curiosities for you. But, as there are many curious cases, the cases will be divided into periods, which will also be dealt with in other texts. This text deals with the 1930, 1934 and 1938 World Cups. Have a good time!
1930 World Cup:
- The first player to miss a penalty was Carlos Vidal, from Chile. The event took place in a game between Chile and France;
- Alexandre Villaplane, captain of the French national team, was shot in 1945 for having been accused of collaborating with Nazi Germany;
- Argentina had to put a reserve player in the dispute against Mexico because the holder Manuel Ferreyra had a test at college at the same time as the game;
- In the Argentina vs USA game, the American team doctor was irritated with a referee's appointment. He invaded the field and knocked over his things, including his chloroform bottle, which broke. He was immersed in the chemical and had to receive care from another doctor.
1934 Cup:
- This was the championship in which politics exerted a very significant force. The host country for this Cup was Italy, which also won the championship and further strengthened Mussolini's fascist argument of the superiority of his “race”;
- Despite trying to assert itself as a “superior race”, the Italian national team was not as superior as it was intended. They used South American reinforcements to compose the team, which became naturalized at the invitation of Mussolini. The Brazilian Filó played with his surname Guarisi. Besides him, the Argentines Monti, Guaita and Orsi also made up the team;
- In the game between Austria and Germany, dispute for third place in the championship, the two countries – Alvinegros – did not take a reserve shirt. So, to avoid confusion, Austria wore the shirt of Napoli, the Italian club;
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- The first overtime took place during this championship, in the match between Austria and France, in the round of 16.
1938 World Cup:
- The first World Cup broadcast, via radio, took place this year. As is expected from an innovative technology (and it was for the time), the transmission signal often failed, preventing full monitoring of the match;
- It was in that year that the only W.O. of the history of Cups. And the responsible was Austria. That year, Nazi Germany incorporated Austria into its territory and reinforced its team with Austrian players. The result was that Austria could not play, giving the automatic victory to Sweden;
- Spain did not participate in this championship, even though they were one of the main teams at the time. This is because I was going through a Civil War, which took place between 1936 and 1939;
- It was the debut of the blue shirt of Brazil. At that time, the official team shirt was white. But, in a game against Poland, who also wore a white shirt, Brazil opted for the training shirt, which was blue and without a shield;
- The Brazilian player Leônidas da Silva scored a goal barefoot. His boots were ruined during the match against Poland, due to the situation on the pitch. While they were fixing the boots, Leônidas played barefoot and ended up scoring in that condition;
- After the semifinal match between Italy and Brazil, in which Italy won 2-1, the Italian newspaper “La Gazzetta dello Sport" hailed the supremacy of the white race over the "brute strength of blacks" (represented, in this case, by the Brazilians).
See more:
Curiosities about the World Cup in the period 1998-2006
Curiosities about the World Cup in the period 1986-1994
Curiosities about the World Cup in the period 1950 - 1966
Curiosities about the World Cup in the period 1970-1982
By Paula Rondinelli
Brazil School Collaborator
Graduated in Physical Education from the São Paulo State University “Júlio de Mesquita Filho” – UNESP
Master in Motricity Sciences from the São Paulo State University “Júlio de Mesquita Filho” – UNESP
PhD student in Latin American Integration at the University of São Paulo - USP
world Cup - PE - Brazil School
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
RONDINELLI, Paula. "Fun Facts about the World Cup in the 1930-1938 Period"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/educacao-fisica/curiosidades-copa-mundo.htm. Accessed on June 29, 2021.
