1938 FIFA World Cup

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1938 FIFA World Cup Coupe du Monde 1938
Tournament details
Host country	France
Dates	June 4 – June 19
Teams	15 (from 4 confederations)
Venue(s)	10 (in 10 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Italy (2nd title)
Runners-up	Hungary
Third place	Brazil
Fourth place	Sweden
Tournament statistics
Matches played	18
Goals scored	84  (4.67 per match)
Attendance	483,000  (26,833 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Leônidas (7 goals)

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 1 Qualification 2 Summary 3 Venues 4 Squads 5 Results 5.1 First round 5.1.1 Replays 5.2 Second Round 5.2.1 Replay 5.3 Semi-finals 5.4 Third place match 5.5 Final 6 Awards 7 Scorers 8 Footnotes 9 See also 10 External links

[edit] Qualification

Main article: 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. FIFA didn't offer participation to the runner-up of the qualification group, that Austria played in, Latvia.

[edit] 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.

Germany, France, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Cuba and Brazil were seeded for draw taking place in Paris, on March 5, 1938. ^[1]

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 Czechoslovak 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 perhaps an honest misunderstanding. ^[2]

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.^[3]

[edit] 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

[edit] Squads

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

[edit] Results

First Round

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

5 June - Paris

France

3

12 June - Paris

Belgium

1

France

1

5 June - Marseille

Italy

3

Italy (a.e.t.)

2

16 June - Marseille

Norway

1

Italy

2

5 June - Strasbourg

Brazil

1

Brazil (a.e.t.)

6

12 June – Bordeaux (replayed 14 June)

Poland

5

Brazil

1 (2)

5 June - Le Havre

Czechoslovakia

1 (1)

Czechoslovakia (a.e.t.)

3

19 June – Paris

Netherlands

0

Italy

4

4 June - Paris (replayed 9 June)

Hungary

2

Germany

1 (2)

12 June - Lille

Switzerland

1 (4)

Switzerland

0

5 June - Reims

Hungary

2

Hungary

6

16 June – Paris

Dutch East Indies

0

Hungary

5

5 June - Lyon

Sweden

1

Third place

Sweden

w/o

12 June - Antibes

19 June - Bordeaux

Austria[4]

Sweden

8

Brazil

4

5 June - Toulouse (replayed 9 June)

Cuba

0

Sweden

2

Cuba

3 (2)

Romania

3 (1)

[edit] First round

1938-06-04 18:00	Germany	1 – 1 (a.e.t.)	Switzerland	Parc des Princes, Paris Attendance: ~30,000 Referee: Langenus (Belgium)
	Gauchel  29'	(Report)	Abegglen  43'

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1938-06-05 17:00	Hungary	6 – 0	Dutch East Indies	Vélodrome Municipal, Reims Attendance: ~8,000 Referee: Conrié (France)
	Kohut  14' Toldi  16' Sárosi  25'  88' Zsengellér  30'  67'	(Report)

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1938-06-05	Sweden	walkover Austria withdrew [4]	Austria	Stade Gerland, Lyon

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1938-06-05 17:00	Cuba	3 – 3 (a.e.t.)	Romania	Stade Chapou, Toulouse Attendance: ~6,000 Referee: Scarpi (Italy)
	Socorro 44' Fernández 87' Tuñas  117'	(Report)	Bindea  35' Baratky  88' Dobay  105'

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1938-06-05 17:00	France	3 – 1	Belgium	Stade Olympique de Colombes, Paris Attendance: ~32,000 Referee: Wüthrich (Switzerland)
	Veinante  1' Nicolas  16'  69'	(Report)	Isemborghs  38'

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1938-06-05 17:00	Italy	2 – 1 (a.e.t.)	Norway	Stade Vélodrome, Marseille Attendance: ~18,000 Referee: Beranek(1) (Germany)
	Ferraris  2' Piola  94'	(Report)	Brustad  83'

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1938-06-05 17:30	Brazil	6 – 5 (a.e.t.)	Poland	Stade de la Meinau, Strasbourg Attendance: ~16,000 Referee: Eklind (Sweden)
	Leônidas  18'  93'  104' Romeu  25' Perácio  44'  71'	(Report)	Scherfke  23' (pen.) Wilimowski  53'  59'  89'  118'

---

1938-06-05 18:30	Czechoslovakia	3 – 0 (a.e.t.)	Netherlands	Stade Cavée Verte, Le Havre Attendance: ? Referee: Leclerq (France)
	Košťálek  93' Nejedlý  111'[5] Zeman  118'[6]	(Report)

[edit] Replays

1938-06-09 18:00	Germany	2 – 4	Switzerland	Parc des Princes, Paris Attendance: ~22,000 Referee: Eklind (Sweden)
	Hahnemann  8' Lörtscher  22' (o.g.)	(Report)	Walaschek  42' Bickel  64' Abegglen  75'  78'

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1938-06-09 18:00	Cuba	2 – 1	Romania	Stade Chapou, Toulouse Attendance: ~5,000 Referee: Birlem (Germany)
	Socorro  51' Oliveira  57'	(Report)	Dobay  35'

[edit] Second Round

1938-06-12 17:00	Switzerland	0 – 2	Hungary	Stade Victor Boucquey, Lille Attendance: ~14,000 Referee: Barlassina (Italy)
		(Report)	Sárosi  40' Zsengellér  89'[7]

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1938-06-12 17:00	Sweden	8 – 0	Cuba	Stade du Fort Carré, Antibes Attendance: ~6,000 Referee: Krist (Czechoslovakia)
	Keller  9'[8],  80'[9],  81'[10] Wetterström  32'[11],  37'  44' Nyberg  84' Andersson  90'[12]	(Report)

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1938-06-12 17:00	France	1 – 3	Italy	Stade Olympique de Colombes, Paris Attendance: ~58,000 Referee: Baert (Belgium)
	Heisserer  10'	(Report)	Colaussi  9' Piola  51'  72'

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1938-06-12 17:00	Brazil	1 – 1 (a.e.t.)	Czechoslovakia	Parc Lescure, Bordeaux Attendance: ~25,000 Referee: von Hertzka (Hungary)
	Leônidas  30'	(Report)	Nejedlý  65' (pen.)

[edit] Replay

1938-06-14 18:00	Brazil	2 – 1	Czechoslovakia	Parc Lescure, Bordeaux Attendance: ~20,000 Referee: Capdeville (France)
	Leônidas  57' Roberto  62'[13]	(Report)	Kopecký  25'

[edit] Semi-finals

1938-06-16 18:00	Hungary	5 – 1	Sweden	Parc des Princes, Paris Attendance: ~22,000 Referee: Leclerq (France)
	Zsengellér  19'  39'  85' Titkos  37' Sárosi  65'	(Report)	Nyberg  1'

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1938-06-16 18:00	Italy	2 – 1	Brazil	Stade Vélodrome, Marseille Attendance: ~30,000 Referee: Wüthrich (Switzerland)
	Colaussi  55' Meazza  60' (pen.)	(Report)	Romeu  87'

[edit] Third place match

1938-06-19 17:00	Sweden	2 – 4	Brazil	Parc Lescure, Bordeaux Attendance: ~20,000 Referee: Langenus (Belgium)
	Jonasson  28' Nyberg  38'	(Report)	Romeu  44' Leônidas  63'  74' Perácio  80'

[edit] Final

1938-06-19 17:00	Hungary	2 – 4	Italy	Stade Olympique de Colombes, Paris Attendance: ~60,000 Referee: Capdeville (France)
	Titkos  8' Sárosi  70'	(Report)	Colaussi  6'  35' Piola  16'  82'[14]

[edit] Awards

1938 FIFA World Cup Winners
Italy Second title

[edit] Scorers

7 goals Leônidas 6 goals Gyula Zsengellér 5 goals György Sárosi Silvio Piola 4 goals Gino Colaussi