Chapter XXV - Foreign Cannons
Group 1
As done in the previous cups, the hosts would play the first match, and their opponents would be the debutants Sicily. Chile didn't take long to score the first, as Jorge Araya took advantage of the poor positioning of the Sicilian defense to score only one minute into the match. Sicily tried to react and would dominate the match for a few minutes, but wouldn't be able to create any dangerous chances. Things only grew more complicated for the Sicilians after Maximiliano Faotto was sent off after tacking Araya inside the area at the 38th minute. Although the Sicilian keeper, Leonardo Costagliola, saved Atilio Cremaschi's shot, Chile grew in the match and created some more dangerous chances before the break. In the second half, Sicily tried its best to tie despite the numerical disavantadge, and would see its shots (both by Riccardo Carapellese) be saved by Livingstone in two occasions. But the tie didn't come - at the 58th minute, Erasmo Vera doubled the Chilean lead, and 18 minutes later, Cremaschi would make up for the missed penalty by scoring the third Chilean goal.
The next day, Italy and Sweden played at the Santa Laura stadium. The Swedes began with control of the match, and opened the score with Henry Carlsson at 11 minutes. Stig Nyström almost doubled the Swedish lead at 35, but was stopped by a save from Lucidio Sentimenti. Italy improved in the final 10 minutes of the first half, but couldn't create any dangerous chances. Early in the second half, Sweden seemed it would keep up the pace, with Carlsson hitting the post, but Italy began growing in the match, and Silvio Piola took advantage of keeper Gustaf Sjöberg's poor positioning to equalize for Italy at the 50th minute. Sweden would answer with two dangerous shots from Gren, one of which hit the post, but Piola scored again in the 84th minute, and in the penultimate minute, Mazzola, unmarked, received the ball from Ferraris and scored the third Italian goal.
Three days later, it was Italy's turn to face the hosts, and they were by no means daunted by the crowd at the Nacional, missing four shots within the first 15 minutes, one of them, a strong one from Piola, requiring a brilliant save from Livingstone. Chile also had its own good chance with Araya, who also required a save from Sentimenti. After that, the match slowed down on the first half, but Chile opened the score seven minutes after the break - Mario Castro took a corner kick, Rava tried to head it away, but Desiderio Medina caught the ball and shot towards the goal. Italy went on the attack after taking the goal, but the Chilean defense held well, and the Italians were further hampered by particularly poor performances from Biavati and Ferraris, and so, the score held until the end.
The next day, Sweden and Sicily met, with both teams needing to win to remain alive in the competition. Once again, Sicily found themselves taking a goal early in the match, by Nyström, but were more effective in the attack, equalizing with Carapellese in the 18th minute. Sweden took the lead again with Gren seven minutes later, but shortly before the break, Sicily tied again with Carmelo Di Bella. Sweden came back better on the second half, and once they retook the lead with Gren, the floodgates were opened - Sweden would score another three times in the following 15 minutes, twice with Nordahl and once with Carlsson, and came out with a 6x2.
Four days later, Sicily came back to face Italy, needing a miraculous combination of results to qualify and by then, mostly dedicated in not losing the third match, while Italy needed to win to not to depend on the results of the other match. After the dreadful performance of the defense in the previous match, the Sicilian coach, Rafael Sansone, promoted the return of Faotto, suspended in the previous match, and replaced Francesco Capocasale and Italo Romagnoli, who had failed egregiously on the Swedish match, by Serafino Conti and Mario Pretto, respectively. Italy, in turn, had bet on a faster forward line after the weak performance of the previous match - Biavati, Ferraris and Piola gave way to Edmondo Fabbri, Romeo Menti and Héctor Puricelli. The Sicilian changes worked to a certain extent - Italy dominated the first half entirely, but the defense kept the scoreline at only 1x0 at the break - goal from Menti. The second half would be much busier - Tommaso Maestrelli equalized only ten minutes in, but Mazzola put the Italians back on the lead ten minutes after that, and then Carapellese tied for the Sicilians again in the 72nd minute. The tie held until two minutes from the end, when Eusebio Castigliano scored the winning goal for Italy.
The next day, Sweden would face Chile, needing only a simple victory to advance, due to their superior goal average. Howeer, they didn't start on the right foot and Chile dominated the actions through most of the first half and opened the score with Cremaschi shortly before the half-hour mark, but Chile began losing momentum and Sweden began waking up, and began imperiling the Chilean goal more often during the second half, but the Chilean defense was still in top form - the tie would only come twelve minutes from the end, with Nordahl, but would have no luck with their plays after that, and with the 1x1 tie, fell in the group stage.
Group 2
The first match of Group 2 would pit Uruguay and Navarra at the new stadium in Concepción. Although Uruguay had the first good chance three minutes in, when Ripehoff hit the crossbar, the first half would have Navarra as the dominant team. Juan Arza opened the score at 20, and while Uruguay was quick to react, with Raúl Schiaffino equalizing four minutes later, Telmo Zarra put Navarra back in the lead in the 35th minute. The second half was far less busy, and Uruguay had a slight predominance, but Navarra would be the only ones scoring then, as Raúl Pini deflected a shot from Zarra into his own net.
The next day, Hungary and Wallachia met at Talca - the teams had last met in September of the previous year, when Hungary had thrashed the Vlachs by 7x2, and a similar mismatch was expected. The match began in a quite busy fashion, with Deák opening the score at only five minutes in, Wallachia tying with Iosif Fabian, and Zsengellér recovering the lead for Hungary after that, all in less than 30 minutes. The match soon began slowing down as Wallachia began betting on a more defensive style and held the Magyars for the next 40 minutes. However, they wouldn't be able to maintain their low scoreline - Zsengellér scored his second midway through the second half, Szuzsa scored the fourth five minutes later, and with six minutes to go, Hungary's other new revelation, Ferenc Puskás, settled the score for Hungary.
Hungary took to the field again three days later, as they were visited by Navarra, and Hungary seemed to be confirming their favouritism in the first half, as Szusza scored within 20 minutes and the Hungarians created more chances thet were stopped mainly by the Navarrese keeper Eizaguirre. However, Navarra grew in the second half, and as their defense improved at nulling the Hungarian incursions, their counter-attacks began imperiling the Hungarian goal at a greater rate, and they proved to be more effectiv at converting these chances into goals - José Luis Panizo equalized only eight minutes into the second half, Zarra took the lead for the Basques ten minutes later, and Isidro Lángara, by then nearing the end of his career but no less lethal, scored the third and put Navarra in a excellent position for the last round.
The next day, Uruguay was visited by Wallachia at Concepción, and once again, Wallachia repeated the pattern of a good defensive performance in the first half, except that this time, the score remained at 0x0 thanks to a subpar performance from the Uruguayan attack, the Uruguayan performance overall wouldn't improve much in the second half, but Uruguay would eke out a victory thanks to José María Medina, who scored both of the goals that guaranteed the victory for Uruguay and kept them alive in the competition.
Three days later, Hungary visited Uruguay at Concepción. Uruguay's defense was up to par for that match, but the team needed a victory to advance, and their offensive performance, overall, still hadn't improved - the team remained depending almost exclusively on Medina for their more effective chances. The result is that Hungary controlled most of the match and had a greater number of goal shots, and eventually, two of them, both from Zsengellér, one in each half, found their way into Máspoli's net, while Uruguay scored their honor goal with Medina.
The result of the previous Wallachian match had both eliminated the Vlachs and qualified Navarra in advance, but that did not translate in Navarra slacking off. in any case, the first half was rather slow, with few chances for either side, but with Navarra going into the break leading by 1x0 - goal from Lángara. The second half would be more exciting. The Navarrese defense continued displaying the same flaws of the previous match, and the Vlachs were better at exploiting the defender's errors. only four minutes in, Iosif Petschovschi equalized for Wallachia, and after that, the Navarrese picked up the pace. Zarra put Navarra back in the lead in the 61st minute, and would have another two clear goal chances, both saved by Lăzăreanu, while Iordache and Fabian demanded some hard saves from Eizaguirre, before Francisc Spielmann equalized for Wallachia again. neither team would score after that, and Wallachia at least escaped coming off with three losses, though the first victory hadn't come yet.
Group 3
In the first match of the group, Germany would face Turkey at Viña del Mar, and went to quickly show why they were the favourites to win that match, dominating the first twenty-five minutes and scoring twice in this timeframe, with August Klingler and Hans Berndt. However, with their victory seemingly assured, Germany began slowing down soon after the second goal, which turned out to be a mistake. as Germany began ceding spaces, Turkey grew in the match and began moving up on counter-attacks more frequently, and with goals from Lefter Küçükandonyadis and Gündüz Kılıç, tied the match before the break. Germany returned from half-time more concentrated, and the goals quickly began stacking up in a regular basis - Fritz Walter only eleven minutes into the second half, Klingler again nine minutes later, and Berndt again nine minutes after the previous one. But in the last few minutes, just when the match seemed won, Turkey went up to the attack again, and Gündüz scored again five minutes before the end. However, there was not enough time to tie the match, and in any case, two minutes later, Gunther Baumann scored from a free kick and settled the score - 6x3.
Sunday would feature Brazil going up against England at Valparaíso, in a match that lived up to its hype. The first half would be largely dominated by the English, thanks to a inspired day from Tommy Lawton. First, 18 minutes in, Raich Carter intercepted a missed pass from Norival and passed the ball for Lawton to open the score. Brazil tried to react, with Heleno de Freitas missing a good chance to equalize, and in the 29th minute, Lawton scored his second after heading in a cross from Bobby Langton. Brazil kep trying to advance, and had a penalty marked in their favour at the 39th minute, which was converted by Zizinho, but shortly before the break, Wilf Mannion ran onto a long pass from Lawton and scred the third. However, Brazil improved considerably returning from the break. Only eight minutes in, Neil Franklin lost the ball in the edge of the area to Heleno, who shot from there to pull one back for Brazil. Then, four minutes later, Jair headed in a corner kick to equalize for Brazil. Having lost their defensive momentum, England spent most of the second half in the defensive, but managed to not to concede any goals. then, in the last ten minutes, Brazil started losing its own momentum, and England began risking itself on the attack, and in one of these occasions, Lawton was pushed inside the area, and Tom Finney converted the penalty to give England its first victory in a World Cup.
Three days later, Brazil visited Turkey at Viña del Mar. Brazil had little trouble to dominate the first half, with Turkey hardly creating any clear chances, and the scoreline only remained at 2x0 thanks to some sloppy accuracy from Brazil's forwards. In the second half, Turkey began improving, and to make things better, Ivan was sent off after one too many hard challenges, leaving Brazil in a numerical disavantadge. However, Turkey couldn't translate its numerical superiority into goals - in fact, Brazil was the next to score - Zizinho and Tesourinha traded passes, then the former passed the ball for Heleno to score. Still, Turkey didn't give up, and with four minutes to go, Şükrü Gülesin scored the Turkish honor goal directly from the corner.
The next day, Germany visited England in Valparaíso. England began dominating the match, but found itself initially unable to convert their chances into goals. By the break, Germany led by 1x0 - a goal scored by Fritz Walter on a counter-attack. However, England would have better luck in the second half. Only three minutes in, Lawton received a pass from Stanley Matthews to equalize for England, and eleven minutes later, Lawton converted a low cross from Finney to score the second. Germany tried to react but only began imperiling the English goal in the last few minutes. Too little, too late, and England secured its qualification.
Thus, in the last round, Brazil and Germany faced each other for the second berth, with Germany having the advantage of the tie. Brazil managed to impose itself in the first few minutes, but the first good chance was from Germany, as Berndt missed a penalty. Three minutes later, Brazil opened the score, as Zizinho dribbled past Kupfer and passed the ball for Leônidas to score. Germany would do little in the match until the final minutes of the first half. The pace of the match remained the same in the second half and ten minutes in, Warning palmed away a shot from Leônidas and Tesourinha caught the rebound to score the second Brazilian goal. Through the rest of the match, Germany would struggle to create opportunities, while the German defense kept Brazil from widening the score, and so, the match finished: 2x0, and Brazil on the quarterfinals again.
In its final group stage match, England, already qualified, faced Turkey. England needed less than 25 minutes to open a 2x0 advantage, with Jimmy Mullen opening the score only five minutes in on a free kick, and less then 20 minutes later, Mannion scored the second, catching a rebound from Finney's shot. In addition to that, Finney already had missed other two clear shots in the meantime. Turkey tried to react in the end of the first half, and Lefter managed to pull one back for Turkey. England's second half would have less dangerous chances, but Finney finally managed to score his own in the 69th minute.
Group 4
The group would have its matches played in the Nacional (in the days where Chile wasn't playing) and the San Eugenio stadium, the second biggest of the Cup in regards to total capacity. The first match of the group would see Guatemala making its World Cup debut against Bohemia at the San Eugenio. the debut wasn't exactly auspicious - Josef Bican (the same one who had played for Austria in 1934) opened the score for Bohemia and scored his second a few minutes after the break, and overall, Guatemala could do very little in the first half. In the second, Guatemala came back slightly better, and added to a relatively uninspired day for the Bohemian forwards, the scoreline remained on 2x0 until the 75th minutes, when Manuel Vargas pulled one back for the Guatemalans, who tried to push forward to tie, but only wound up taking their third goal ten minutes later, with Říha.
The next day, Castille faced Argentina at the Nacional, and the Albiceleste started behind thanks to a grotesque blunder from Claudio Vacca - the play started when José Campos ran from the outside right and passed to Pahiño, who shot towards the goal from inside the area. Vacca deflected the shot with his chest, but he didn't see the ball fell at his feet, and while he looked for it, Pahiño ran in and opened the score. Argentina tried to react, but Juan Zambudio Velasco saved two shots from Norberto Méndez. Then, at the 33rd minute, Castille doubled their lead, when Juan Carlos Fonda tried to head away a corner kick and accidentally sent into Juan Araujo's path. However, Argentina began improving considerably in the second half. First, 13 minutes in, Mario Boyé pulled one back with a shot from outside the area, then Norberto Méndez scored the second seven minuts later, off a pass from Labruna. By that point, Castille seemed to shrink from the attack and Argentina dominated the actions. The third Argentinian goal would eventually come at the 80th minute - Méndez again, and in a similar fashion to the previous one.
Argentina returned to the field three days later to face Bohemia, and for the second time, the started the match behind, with Prandella converting a cross from Jiří Zmatlík twenty minutes in. Argentina didn't take too long to react, with Ángel Labruna converting a penalty kick 13 minutes later. Although Argentina had a goal disallowed by offside later, the tie remained as the teams went into the break. Argentina came back better after that, and scored their second with Méndez only six minutes in, but by the most part, the Bohemian defense would remain effective enough to not to concede anymore goals, but their attack remained in a bad form and could hardly imperil the Argentinian goal, and so the 2x1 remained until the end of the match.
The next day, Guatemala faced Castille, with both teams needing to win to keep their chances to qualify. The match remained uneventful for the first 25 minutes, and susprisingly, it was Guatemala who opened the score, with Jesús María Araya, but their advantage wasn't going to last - César Rodríguez apparently channeled the spirit of Gerónimo del Campo and scored a hat-trick in only 13 minutes, and Carlos Alvarado's errors didn't help the Guatemala situation either. After the break, the match slowed down, and while Guatemala tried to sketch out a reaction in the final ten minutes, with Mario Camposeco, but three minutes before the end, Pruden took advantage of Alvarado being out of position again and scored the fourth Castillian goal.
So, three days later, Castille and Bohemia played, with the second berth (since few expected Guatemala to beat Argentina) at stake, and Bohemia dominatwed the actions almost cimpletely in the first half-hour. First, eight minutes in, Bican narrowly missed the goal and in the next minute, Říha scored, but the goal was disallowed for offside. The first goal would come soon, as Bican converted a penalty kick at 15. After another narrow miss by Prandella, Vlastimil Kopecký scored the second at the 22nd minute, but Bohemia began losing intensity after that, and shortly after the half-hour mark, Pruden pulled one back for Castille after a cross from Ángel Cabido. Castille kept on pushing towards the tie in the second half, and it came with César at the 61st minute, in a cross from Araujo, and four minutes later, Pahiño scored after a long pass from Pruden. Bohemia tried to react, but was ineffective, and Castille went to the quarterfinals for the first time.
The next day would have Argentina, already qualified, playing against Guatemala at the San Eugenio. After Alvarado's disastrous performance in the last match, the coach Hernán Bolaños decided to replace him with Erasmo Solórzano, while on Argentina, Stábile (now coach), regarding it impossible to fit the four best forwards (Moreno, Labruna, Méndez and Pedernera) on the same team, tried out a alternative formation, moving Pedernera to the centerforward and substituting Méndez for Moreno (who had almost missed the Cup, having played in Mexico for the previous two years and only coming back to Argentina a few months prior). In only ten minutes, Argentina was already up by 2x0. Guatemala's defense began putting itself together after that, but couldn't stop Moreno from scoring his second. The second half would turn out to be even worse for Guatemala. Labruna scored the fourth less than a minute after the teams returned from the break, and then Guillermo Marroquín was sent off after a harsh tackle on Boyé inside the area. Pedernera converted the penalty. soon after that, Julio Díaz turned a cross from Félix Loustau into his own net. Three minutes later, Loustau found Solórzano completely out of position and shot from the edge of the area to score the seventh. The eighth came two minutes later with Pedernera. After that, with the Guatemalans thoroughly whipped, the match slowed down, but there was still time for Labruna to score the ninth, and thus a new World Cup record was set.
And thus, the quarterfinals matches were defined:
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Let me know your predictions and stay tuned for Part 26!
