World Cup History: Italy vs. Brazil, 1938

The 1938 Italian national team.

The first World Cup tournament took place in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1930. Thirteen teams competed, and the host country won, which was not a fluke. Uruguay had actually been the repeat champions in the 1920 and 1924 Olympic games in Paris and Amsterdam respectively. Before 1930, the Olympics were considered the pinnacle of international soccer competition.

Since 1930, the Cup has brought enough drama, tragedy, comedy, and history to make Shakespeare proud, and indeed reams of paper and miles of film have been dedicated to documenting the beautiful game.

One book that takes a deep dive into the anecdotal past of the tournament is Eduardo Galeano's Soccer in Sun and Shadow. Galeano is Uruguayan and so has an intractable connection to the game, one that is, for better or worse, buried into the DNA of each and every young person in that small, land-locked South American country. As Galeano says “Like all Uruguayan children, I wanted to be a soccer player. I played quite well, in fact I was terrific, but only at night when I was asleep. During the day I was the worst wooden leg ever to set foot on the little soccer fields of my country.”

His stories of past Cups are both heart wrenching and heart warming. Sometimes they’re just funny. For all the hype and seriousness surrounding the World Cup, we sometimes forget that the players often have a lot of fun on the field.

Here’s a forgotten glimpse of the 1938 semi-final between Italy and Brazil, held in France: 

It was at the World Cup in '38. In the semi-final, Italy and Brazil were risking their necks for all or nothing.

Italian striker Piola suddenly collapsed as if he'd been shot, and with the last flutter of life in his finger he pointed at Brazilian defender Domingos da Guia. The referee believed him and blew the whistle: penalty. While the Brazilians screamed to high heaven and Piola got up and dusted himself off, Giusepe Meazza placed the ball on the firing point.

Meazza was the dandy of the picture. A short, handsome, Latin lover and an elegant artilleryman of penalties, he lifted his chin to the goalkeeper like a matador before the final charge. His feet, as soft and knowing as hands, never missed. But Walter, the Brazilian goalie, was good at blocking penalty kicks and felt confident.

Meazza began his run up, and just when he was about to execute the kick, he dropped his shorts. The crowd was stupefied and the referee nearly swallowed his whistle. But Meazza, never pausing, grabbed his pants with one hand and sent the goalkeeper, disarmed by laughter, down to defeat.

That was the goal that put Italy in the final.

Italy would go on to win the trophy that year (it's second in a row) against Hungary, and the next World Cup would not be held for another 12 years, in 1950, because of World War II.