It is the pinnacle of world football and it’s every footballer’s dream to take part in. The FIFA World Cup, the second biggest sporting event after Summer Olympics as 209 candidates battle it out for two years with the intention of being qualified as one of the 32 ‘chosen’ teams to represent their country at the final rounds.
The roots go back to 1928 as the FIFA President Jules Rimet decided to stage the inaugural world cup in 1930. Uruguay the Olympic football champions at the time were given hosting rights.
‘Uruguay the Inaugural Champions’ – 1930
The inaugural edition was blessed with 13 participants while the capital Montevideo became the solitary host city with three venues. France beat Mexico at the opening day as Frenchman Lucien Laurent became the first person to score a goal in world cup history. American striker Bert Patenaude scored the first hat-trick against Paraguay in a 3-0 win during the second round. The inaugural final on July 30th became an all-South American affair as the hosts met their neighbours and arch rivals Argentina at the final. Despite Argentina taking an early lead, Uruguay came back strongly to win 4-2. Captain Jose Nasazzi lifted the Jules Rimet trophy in front of a packed Estadio Centenario becoming the first team to gain the crown of football.
United States and Yugoslavia became were placed third and fourth respectively where both teams were beaten 6-1 by Argentina and Uruguay. Guillermo Stabile of Argentina earned the golden boot with 8 goals. The last surviving player from the tournament, Argentina’s Francisco Varallo died in 2010 at the age of 100, eighty years after the tournament.
‘Hosts Italy Conquer the World’ – 1934
The second edition was hosted by Italy. Defending champions Uruguay were missing from the tournament as they refused to participate as retaliation for Italy’s refusal to travel to the South American nation in 1930. Thereby Uruguay became the only champions not to defend their title in the following tournament. Argentina, who featured no survivors from 1930, had been unhappy to lose several key players to Italian football, among them midfielder Luisito Monti, who had appeared in the Final four years earlier. He would now play his part in Italy’s victory along with Atilio DeMaria, Enrico Guaita and Orsi – all fellow ‘oriundi’, players of Italian descent now returned from South America. Egypt entered as the first African nation to participate in the World Cup. However controversy surrounded ‘Italia 1934’ as many blamed Benito Mussolini for attempting to create a stage to promote his ideologies.
Sixteen teams took part while the venues were spread across 8 Italian cities. The tournament featured a knockout format throughout the entire course. For the only time World Cup history, after the first round, the last eight teams consisted entirely of European teams as Argentina, Brazil, USA and Egypt made early exits.
Stadium of the National Fascist Party hosted the final between hosts Italy and Czechoslovakia. After going down 1-0 and with 20 minutes to play, Italy equalized where they went on to score the winning goal at extra time becoming the second host nation to win the title. Oldřich Nejedlý of Czechoslovakia became the top scorer of the tournament with 5 goals.
Unbeaten Italy makes it ‘Two in a row’ – 1938
The hosting rights for the 1938 world cup were given to France. After the belief that the host nation will be an alternate venue outside Europe or South America, the decision caused outrage in South America as neither Uruguay nor Argentina participated in the tournament. 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. This stood until 2006 where it was abolished. Out of the 15 teams which took part, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) became the first Asian nation to take part in the World Cup.
The knockout format from 1934 was retained. If a match was tied after 90 minutes, then 30 minutes of extra time were played. If the score was still tied after extra time, the match would be replayed. This was the last of the two World Cup tournaments that used a straight knockout format. Ernst Wilimowski of Poland scored 4 goals against Brazil in the first round becoming the first player to net four goals in a world cup game but ended up being in the losing side as Brazil snatched a 6-5 win.
Eleven venues across 10 French cities hosted the tournament while Stade Olympique de Colombes in Paris hosted the finals between Hungary and defending champions Italy. Italy went on to be the first team to successfully defend their title as beat Hungary 4-2. Azzurri’s unbeaten run in the international arena from 1934 which stood till 1939 was guided by Vittorio Pozzo as he remains the only person to win two World Cups as a coach. Leonidas of Brazil known as the ‘Black Diamond’ became the highest scorer with 7 goals. Giovanni Ferrari and Giuseppe Meazza featured in both winning teams. Meazza later managed Internazionale, the club he spent most of his career. The stadium of San Siro which is shared by both AC Milan and Internazionale, was renamed after this great player in 1980. After 1938, Italy would not win the world cup until 1982, the longest gap between two successive titles.
‘A National Tragedy’ – 1950
The tournament, after a 12 year gap following the destruction of a World War, returned to South America as Brazil was chosen as the host nation. It was a golden opportunity for the football-crazy nation as they were seeking for their first title. A new format was introduced as the tournament featured a round robin at the final stage. The main reason for this choice was money as the organizers had to spend a great deal on stadium and infrastructure investment. A straight knockout tournament, as had been used in 1934 and 1938, would feature only sixteen games, while the proposed two-group format would guarantee thirty games, and thus more ticket revenue. In addition, this format would guarantee each team at least three games, and thus provide more incentive for European teams to make the journey to South America and compete. FIFA originally resisted this proposal, but backed down after Brazil threatened to back out of hosting the tournament if this format was not used.
Brazil built the biggest football stadium in the world, the ‘Maracana’ in Rio de Janeiro to host the final as cities Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, Porto Alegre and Recife were among the host cities.
Italy lost their unbeaten run at the world cup as they were defeated 3-2 by Sweden in the first round. Hosts Brazil were the hot favourites as they dismantled every possible obstacle on their way as they recorded huge wins against Mexico (4-0), Sweden (7-1) and Spain (6-1). The final group stage involved Brazil, Sweden, Spain and Uruguay, who appeared after their inaugural win in 1930. As the tournament featured a round robin format, the deciding game or the ‘de facto final’ became the match between Brazil and Uruguay. The hosts needed a draw to secure the title while a win was essential for Uruguay.
On July 16th a crowd of 199,854 crammed into the Maracana with high expectations for Brazil to clinch the title. The most watched football game in history, mounted pressure on the hosts which was a blessing in disguise for the underdogs Uruguay. However Brazil took an early lead in the game after two minutes but Uruguay equalized after 66 minutes and with eleven minutes to spare Uruguay did the unthinkable as Ghiggia scored the winning goal. Uruguay’s appearance after the 1930 edition crowned them as champions for the second time leaving Brazil in despair. Brazil’s surprise defeat later gave birth to the term ‘Maracanazo’ which is used to express a defeat that is not expected. Ademir of Brazil became the top scorer with 8 goals.
‘The Festival of goals’ – 1954
The 1954 edition saw a goal fest when Switzerland became the smallest country to host a world cup. The tournament set the record for the all time highest number of goals in a single edition as well as the highest goal average per game. Six cities hosted games where Wankdorf Stadium in Bern was prepared for the finals.
Hungary became the premier striking force spearheaded by Sandor Kocsis who ended up with 11 goals for the tournament. Led by the legend Ferenc Puskas, they stormed to the finals along with wins against South Korea (9-0), West Germany (8-3), Brazil (4-2) and Uruguay (4-2). Sepp Herberger the German coach gambled against the seeded team of Hungary by sending in a reserve side to take an expected 8-3 loss, with the only consequence being the additional playoff game against Turkey which was ultimately won 7-2.
West Germany met Hungary in the finals where the Golden Team of Hungarians were the favourites as they entered the final with a 32 game unbeaten streak. It started raining on the day of the finals which became a blessing for the Germans as the skipper Fritz Walter was known to play at his best in rainy conditions. Adolf Dassler (founder of Adidas) provided the shoes with exchangeable studs. Having being defeated 8-3 in the group stage, West Germany turned the tables as they won 3-2 in a hotly contested encounter which later became to be known as ‘The Miracle of Bern’. The football world welcomed the new champions West Germany while Hungary had to settle down as runners-up for the second time in their history.
Several goal-scoring records were set in the tournament. Hungary became the highest scoring team in a single tournament (27) while West Germany became the highest scoring champions with 25 goals. South Korea conceded the most amount of goals (16) in a tournament while the game between Austria and Switzerland (7-5) recorded the most number of goals in a single game.
For the first time television coverage was provided and special coins were issued to mark the event. West Germany also became the first team to win the World Cup after losing a match at the group stage. Germany’s victory is considered one of the greatest upsets of all time and one of the finest achievements in German sporting history. The German team was made up of amateur players as Germany did not have a professional league at this time. This is the only time a team has won the World Cup with amateur footballers. Named as the best player in the tournament, captain Ferenc Puskas later became the all time top scorer for the Hungary national team with 84 goals and later appeared for the giants Real Madrid in 180 games, scoring 156 goals.
‘A Star was born as Brazil finally taste Victory’ – 1958
Brazil finally won their first World Cup triumph at the 1958 tournament held in Sweden. In their first-round match against the Soviet Union, the South Americans introduced two new players, a bandy-legged winger called Manuel Francisco dos Santos, known as Garrincha, and a 17-year-old called Edison Arantes do Nascimento, or more simply, Pele. France, another revelation, boasted a star striker of their own, Just Fontaine, who was to set an astonishing World Cup scoring record of 13 goals in a single tournament.
The Brazil-England match in the first round became the first goalless draw in world cup history as they held on the powerful striking force of the South American nation at Gothenburg. The English side had been weakened by the Munich Air Disaster which killed 3 internationals on the books of Manchester United, including England’s young star Duncan Edwards. Argentina suffered their worst defeat in history as they lost to Czechoslovakia 6-1 which subsequently knocked them out of the campaign. During the group stage Just Fontaine netted 6 goals while he continued his form until the semi finals where they were eventually knocked out 5-2 by Brazil with young Pele scoring a hat-trick. The third place match saw Fontaine score four more goals as France defeated Germany 6-3. This brought his total to 13 goals in one competition, a record that still stands.
Out of the twelve venues across Sweden, Rasunda Stadium in Stockholm hosted the final between Brazil and hosts Sweden. However the hosts were no match as Brazil demolished Sweden 5-2 to win their first ever world cup. Pele again made his contribution with two goals in the final finishing the tournament with 6 goals.
Sweden 1958 became the first World Cup to give international television coverage and it was the first World Cup without the founder Jules Rimet who died in 1956. For the first and only time all four British countries qualified, with Wales and Northen Ireland, who ousted Italy, making their debuts. The Soviet Union, featuring the legendary Lev Yashin in goal, was also making their first appearance in the World Cup finals. Brazil introduced a revolutionary new way of playing, with a 4-2-4 formation based on dynamic wing play. Brazil’s 5-2 victory over Sweden remains the highest score in a World Cup final.
