Five Facts You May Not Know About The 1930 World Cup - Part 9

 @WC1930blogger

1. The Romanian team formed a choir among the players while on their travels to Montevideo. During the train journey through Italy they impressed the Italian passengers with a rendition of 'Giovinezza' the official anthem of Mussolini's National Fascist Party.

2. During Brazil's first training session at the Pocitos stadium one of their footballs was kicked over the wire fence and had fallen into the wasteland, where some local boys grabbed it and disappeared, before any them could reach it. Given that the ball was of little value, and the difficulty of identification in a working class neighborhood, delegation chief Afranio Costa resigned himself to the loss. As there were, however, a lot of people around the camp, he was very upset that no one helped. Days later, to the Brazilians great surprise, the ball appeared at their Hotel, sent by the chief of police, who in an attentive letter told us that he had learned of the fact by people who attended the incident, had ordered a rigorous search in the immediate vicinity, where they seized the ball for its return.

3. On the outskirts of the city of Montevideo after 6 pm stood many store fronts where could be found queues of men awaiting their turn outside the brothels in what was considered controlled prostitution. To the surprise of the leaders of the Yugoslav delegation they witnessed some of their players in the queue. Not wanting to cause a scene they waited until the next day to warn the team about the dangers of such proclivities.

4. During the Brazil vs. Bolivia match, French referee Georges Balvay stopped the game in the 8th minute unable to distinguish between the white shirts that both teams wore. The Bolivians changed into the sky blue jerseys of the Uruguayan national team. However, the talents of the Olympic champions did not rub off on the men from the Andean nation as they lost 4-0.

5. In the 77th minute of the Paraguay vs Belgium game, Lino Nessi, forward for the South American team clashed with the goal post when he tried to go for a rebound ball after a save from Belgian keeper Badjou. Knocked unconscious there were grave concerns for his health as he was led to the infirmary.