Five Facts You May Not Know About The 1930 World Cup - Part 8

1. Liverpool-born George Moorhouse, US left-back, attempted to sign England & Everton star forward Dixie Dean for his club the New York Giants while on a trip back home in 1928.

2.  Bolivian player Lieutenant Luis Reyes Penaranda was denied entry to Uruguay at the port of Buenos Aires on July 10th, due to issues regarding his visa. His four days travel by train from Bolivia had all been in vain. Denied playing for his country he brought honour to his homeland by fighting bravely during the Chaco War with Paraguay.

3. Several members of the Paraguayan squad arrived in Uruguay on the 13th July, the opening day of the World Cup. They had been on tour in  Peru and Chile with their club Olimpia. Paraguay would play their first game on 17 July, a 3-0 loss to the USA.

4. Brazil arrived in Uruguay with a team almost entirely made of Rio based players. This was due to a dispute with the Sao Paulo Federation who refused to send their players. After Brazil lost to Yugoslavia, it was reported in a Rio newspaper that the citizens of Sao Paulo rejoiced in their nation's defeat. This had been witnessed by the coach of Argentine team Huracan which was touring the city.

5. During the semi-final Uruguay were awarded a controversial goal against Yugoslavia. The Brazilian referee Rego had failed to see that a Police officer had kicked the ball back in to play from which the host proceeded to score. Yugoslav player Milorad Arsenijević assailed the gendarme and shook him by the throat. Later he was surrounded by police who tried to obtain his arrest.

Five Facts You May Not Know About the 1930 World Cup - Part 7

@WC1930blogger

1. The French Football Federation defined the features of the insurance covering the delegates and the players travelling to the 1930 World Cup. It was decided that for the players and the officials who are married, the payment in the event of death will be increased to 100,000 francs. The daily allocation for all will be 30 francs, and the amount of the bonus will be 350 francs per person.

2. The Mexican press questioned the selection process of the 'National' team since all players were from the Capital but it was practical for these amateur players with their training camp at Parque Necaxa. All players arose at 6 am, trained till 8:30 followed by breakfast before leaving for their day jobs. Returned to camp at 5pm for lectures. Had dinner at 8pm before retiring to bed. 

3. US team manager W.R. Cummings, former Secretary to Robert Lincoln, son of Abe, described the field at Parque Central as '... being a bed of wet sticky clay with pools of water too numerous to count.' The US team strategy of using long wing passes was most effective in their opening day 3-0 victory over the short passing tactics of Belgium.

4. Brazilian forward Preguinho scored the first header in World Cup history in his nation's 2-1 defeat to Yugoslavia on 14th July 1930.

CORRECTION: After further discussion it was Bert Patenaude who scored the 1st headed goal in World Cup history (13 July) vs Belgium in the 89th minute in their 3-0 victory & not Preguinho (14 July, vs Yugoslavia.) Source: La Prensa (14/7/30)

5. Two Canillitas (newspaper vendors), both disabled, made a great sacrifice to watch Argentina play Uruguay in the World Cup Final. Alfonso Lloner and Antonio Pizzano left their home city of Rosario for Sante Fe where they crossed the river by raft to Parana. They made their way to Concordia and crossed Uruguay by train via Salto, Paysandu, Fray Bentos before finally arriving in Montevideo.