Match Report - Yugoslavia vs Bolivia (English translation from El Sol)

@WC1930blogger

This is the English translation of the match report that appeared in the 18th July issue of Spanish newspaper, El Sol, from 1930 of the Yugoslavia vs Bolivia game that was played at the Estadio Gran Parque Central, home of Montevideo based team, Club Nacional, that was played on the 17th July.

The author of the article is anonymous but was written by a journalist working for Associated Press and is most likely a South American reporter on location in Uruguay.

Google was used to translate this document and is, therefore, subject to possible errors that would be better crafted by a professional translator. Spanish speakers are welcome to offer their opinions to help improve the text. You can read the original report here.

Fudbalska reprezentacija Jugoslavije.Svetsko prvenstvo Urugvaj 1930 god. pic.twitter.com/0BIk7lAE6x

— Jelena Mitic (@JelenaM19289182) July 13, 2017

#UnaVueltaPorElPasado #Mundiales #Uruguay 1930. Se habló siempre del Error de #Bolivia en el homenaje a nuestro país, acá tenemos una foto con la frase de forma correcta pic.twitter.com/PEAucFJjJl

— Juan Pablo Taborda (@jptaborda74) May 7, 2018

The victory of Yugoslavia, over Bolivia

MONTEVIDEO 17 (12 n.).

At the meeting held this afternoon between the national teams of Yugoslavia and Bolivia, Bolivians began attacking strongly to their opponents and putting constantly threatens the Yugoslavian goal only due to the brilliant performance of their goalkeeper was not crossed by the Bolivian shots.

The Yugoslavs, faced with such continuous attacks, were forced to stay defensive at all times.

This dominance of the players of a Bolivia was maintained throughout the first half, but the referee marked the end of the period without either side having scored so much.

In the second half, the Yugoslavs begin a brilliant attack, which takes completely surprise to their opponents. The game is developed in inverse form to that of the first half. The Bolivian goalkeeper shows a lack of security and the whole team reveals that it lacks defensive technique. In these circumstances, the Yugoslavs mark four goals and undo all the Bolivian attacks, which were so brilliantly developed during the first half of the fight.

Imagen de Yugoslavia (4) vs Bolivia (0) en el marco de Uruguay '30. Julio 14 de 1930. #ElAmorEsRedondo pic.twitter.com/Dnvk1d81

— Любовь круглая (@ElAmorEsRedondo) July 13, 2012

At the beginning of the match, the Bolivians surprised the public with an effective game, which always kept the ball in Yugoslav territory, to the point that in the minds of all the spectators was the belief that they would win. But a few minutes into the second half, the Bolivians began to waver and Yugoslav domination prevailed.

The Bolivian team played most of the game with ten players because the player Gomez had to be removed from the field with a fractured leg within minutes of having started the first half.

Soccernostalgia Podcast Part 1 - Mexico, Bolivia & Belgium

@WC1930blogger

This is part one of a three-part podcast I did with Shahan Petrossian from the Soccernostalgia blog on the subject of the first World Cup. In order to make this interview as different as possible from the podcast with the Yesteryear Footy Pod, we had agreed upon a different format where we discuss each of the individual teams in the order in which they finished in the rankings i.e. from 13th to 1st. This would me allow to include topics not discussed in the previous aforementioned podcast. In part one we discuss Mexico, Bolivia and Belgium.

Summary

Beginning with Mexico we discuss the teams' long travel itinerary, anecdotal evidence with regard to the limited education of some of the players and their training regime on board the SS Munargo. Other items include the low expectations of this very young team and of the motivating tactics of their coach Juan Luque Serralonga. There is also a brief focus of one of Mexico's star players, Juan Carreno, and his on and off the field antics. We then review Mexico's matches against France (which include the 1st World Cup goal); Chile (1st World Cup own goal) and Argentina, a game in which there are some discrepancies on how many penalties were actually awarded. 

Moving on to Bolivia we discuss the general lack of information that has been published on this team. And how only recently has new information come to light on their pre-World Cup preparations and journey to Montevideo which coincided with an ongoing coup in the Andean nation. We then take a closer look at Ulises Saucedo, the coach and World Cup referee and his possible connection to Arsenal. We then discuss the reasons why Bolivian players wore letters on their shirts which spelt out 'VIVA URUGUAY' before moving on to their matches against Yugoslavia and Brazil.

We then conclude with Belgium and their journey to Montevideo and how much of what we know comes from the accounts given by the Belgian ref, John Langenus and goalkeeper, Arnold Badjou. Despite their training regime on board the SS Conte Verde some of the players gained weight. We also look at Belgium's selection issues, especially with regard to their star man, Raymond Braine, and how this left them lacking in their attack and as we discuss their defeats against the United States and Paraguay, this affected their ability to be potent in front of goal. 

Unlucky Bolivia or false history?

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On July 17th, 1930, the Bolivian national team took to the field of Parque Central in Montevideo to face Yugoslavia in their Group Two match. The Bolivians were considered to be the weakest team in the group that also included Brazil. The Brazilians, just three days before, were surprisingly beaten by the Yugoslavs by two goals to one and were hoping for a Bolivian win in order to have any chance of advancing further in the tournament. As it transpired the Yugoslavs ran out 4-0 winners after a goalless first half and both Brazil and Bolivia were knocked out before they had the chance to play one another. 

One reason that the Bolivians were unlucky is that one of their players, Gumercindo Gomez, broke his leg in a challenge with Yugoslav defender Milutin Ivkovic around the eighth minute of the match. Substitutes were not permitted during this time and the South Americans had to play some eighty minutes with ten men. But the misfortune of Gomez is not the subject of this article because according to Cris Freddi in his The Complete Book of the World Cup (2002 edition), Bolivia had four goals disallowed. Freddi doesn't state the reasons why the Uruguayan referee Francisco Mateucci annulled the Bolivian strikes nor does he note the source of his claim. Indeed this claim would be repeated in an online article by The Guardian in 2010, most likely drawing on Freddi's account.

It would be understandable that the Bolivians would be much aggrieved not to come away with a four all draw or even a victory if such goals had dampened the resolve of their Yugoslav opponents. And such a controversy may have caused protest from the Brazilians believing some conspiracy may be afoot by the Uruguayan referee to knock out one of the seeded teams from the tournament that may challenge Uruguay for the title. 

How can one team be so unlucky to have four goals disallowed? Perhaps one or two but not four surely? If it all sounds incredulous it's because it never happened. Bora Jovanovic, the Yugoslav journalist who travelled to Montevideo to report for Belgrade newspaper Politika, wrote two dispatches on the match that were published in the July 18th and August 2nd editions of Politika and nowhere does he mention that Bolivia had four goals disallowed. Indeed he reports that it was the Yugoslavs that were unlucky with Marjanovic, Bek and Vujadinovic all striking their opponents crossbar early in the match. 

In the interest of playing Devil's Advocate maybe there was bias reporting on the part of Jovanovic who may have whitewashed it out of his account so not to question the legitimacy of his nation's 4-0 victory. So what did the Bolivian and Brazilian press report, those papers who have much to gain on such a scandalous sensation! 

Bolivia's La Razon, albeit publishing the cablegram from United Press (UP), is silent on the subject of their country's quadruple misfortune, indeed it describes how unlucky Alborta was when his shot hit the Yugoslav crossbar in the first half.

The same is true of the Brazilian newspapers. The reports that were written in Critica (18 July 1930), Diario de Noticias (18 July 1930), Folha da Manha (18 July 1930) and A Batalha make no mention of any such controversy. Many of these reports are extensively written with every foul, throw-in and shot at goal (wide or on target) described in an era before there was any television coverage and live radio reporting was new on the scene. These journalists were true chroniclers of the game and every chance to report on any such bad refereeing would be keenly accounted for. Even Spain's El Sol , with no axe to grind, make no such descriptions.

That's not to say that these contemporary football journalists are always right, we may look no further than the issue of Bert Patenaude's hat-trick against Paraguay. But this concerns the identity of goalscorers in a period when players bore no shirt numbers and not such incidences as four disallowed goals.

Cris Freddi's book is an impressive tome on the subject of the World Cup and is a worthy read but he is wrong on this issue. How did he make such a mistake? His bibliography contains no reference to any newspapers from the period and if I was to make an educated guess I believe he based his information on a mistranslation of a German magazine IFFHS Weltmeistershaft 1930, published in 1994, which describes the Bolivian crossbar being struck four times. However, I cannot be certain.

Yugoslavia vs Bolivia (youtube video)

1930 World Cup Group 2 Yugoslavia - Bolivia (Joefa's World Cup History)

This is a youtube video of Yugoslavia v Bolivia by Joefa's World Cup History. This blogger helped provide photographic material for his project. Special thanks also to JC Blanc for providing material.
Go like, share and subscribe to his Youtube channel.

Read two Match Reports below (one in Spanish, one in Portuguese):
El Sol
A Batalha

17 July 1930 - (World Cup Group 2) Yugoslavia v Bolivia (Match Report in El Sol)

El Sol, 18 July 1930

This is the match report of Yugoslavia versus Bolivia from the Spanish language Madrid based newspaper El Sol published on the 18 July 1930.

17 July 1930 - (World Cup Group 2) Yugoslavia v Bolivia (Match Report in A Batalha)

A Batalha, 18 July 1930.

This is a match report of the Yugoslavia versus Bolivia game that was played on the 17th July and was published in the 18th July publication of Brazilian newspaper A Batalha.