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

Twitter: @WC1930blogger

1. Jacinto Villalba was only 16 years old when he arrived in Montevideo with the Paraguayan national team. The youngest player at the World Cup did not play in either of his country's two matches.

2. Prior to the Mexico vs France (13 July) game, Spanish-born Mexican coach, Juan Luque Serrallonga gave a passionate speech to his players with appeals to religious saints and evoking the victory of Mexican forces over the French Army at the Battle of Puebla on May 5th, 1865 (Cinco de Mayo).

3. Argentina vs France (15 July) is famous for the game ending six minutes early by the Brazilian referee, Gilberto Almeida Rego. However, this wasn't the only occasion this occured during the World Cup. On 19 July, Bolivian referee Ulises Saucedo ended the first half between Argentina vs Mexico three minutes too early. 

4. On 18 July, the Argentinian Military Aviation took part in Uruguay's Centenary celebrations. One particular pilot performed aerial stunts over the Estadio Centenario during the Opening ceremony that caused great concerns with worried spectators below.

5. Chilean club Colo Colo from Santiago was the most represented team at the 1930 World Cup with eight players taking part in matches. Alianza Lima also had eight players within the Peru squad but only six of the players were selected in matches.

Match Reports: US vs Belgium & France vs Mexico (English translation from Heraldo de Madrid)

@WC1930blogger

This is an English translation of the match reports that appeared in the Spanish newspaper, El Heraldo de Madrid, on 14th July 1930, from the Associated Press, the press agency from the United States. The authors of the article are anonymous but are most likely South American journalist working on behalf of the American company. You can read the original match report in Spanish here. I have used google translate for this document and therefore may not be perfect in its translation. I have tried to keep to this translation but where there may be confusion I have offered my own interpretation. 

El Heraldo de Madrid, 14 July 1930.

US @ussoccer_mnt vs Belgium @BelRedDevils, 13 July 1930, at the first @FIFAWorldCup, #Montevideo, @Uruguay. The Americans ran out 3-0 winners, with goals by Bart McGhee, Tom Florie & Bert Patenaude. @USSoccerHistory @1930WorldCup #WC1930 #Mundial1930 pic.twitter.com/r9twFGBv62

— worldcup1930project (@WC1930blogger) March 5, 2018

THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP OF FOOTBALL:

MONTEVIDEO 13.- In the match for the football world championship played yesterday afternoon in the Stadium of this capital, between the teams of France and Mexico, the first one won by four goals against one .-- Associated Press

MONTEVIDEO 13.-In the game played yesterday afternoon between the team of the United States and the team of Belgium for the world football championship the United States scored three goals against zero their opponents. Associated Press

MONTEVIDEO 14.-With attendance of numerous public have begun the eliminatory matches for the world soccer championship.

They play, in first term (game?), the American and Belgian teams, the first of which has developed magnificent game, winning by three to zero, and showing a greater knowledge of the technique than its opponents.

The Belgians played a very fast game, which was, however, counteracted by the Americans, who shot very well, excelling in both times the extreme (winger) and the right inside. The defenses of both squads were deficient and only the good game of the Belgian goalkeeper stood out.

In the first half the forces were leveled, but since the second half began the American team showed a great super quality, which justified its triumph from three to zero, also standing out in this time the extreme (winger) and the inside right. In this second part (half) the Americans scored the goals for the far left, Mac Ghee, in brilliant and fortunate plays, being very applauded.

He also played very well in this time the right half. In general the defenses of the teams were bad and the forwards played well, being observed in the course of the game that neither of the two teams knows how to finish the plays.

At the end of the match, the critics who attend the tournament and who attended the Amsterdam Olympiad said that the current Belgian team is much lower than the one that played in that in 1928.

It can be predicted that the Paraguayans, who with the Americans and the Belgians form the fourth group, will easily defeat these two opponents and will be classified as winners of the series, since they surpass both teams.

The game between Americans and Belgians was developed without incidents or brusqueness, and the audience was produced correctly. Twenty thousand spectators attended.

Este estadio de Pocitos es famoso, pues aquí se convirtió en 1930 el 1er gol en un Campeonato Mundial de Fútbol. Lo marcó el francés Lucien Laurent en la victoria 4-1 sobre México. pic.twitter.com/c99AlmnIKE

— Viejos Estadios (@ViejosEstadios) March 8, 2018

In another field the eliminatory match between France and Mexico was also played, which was developed with very little assistance from the public. It would not exceed four thousand the total number of spectators, as the fans preferred to witness the United States - Belgium meeting, which had aroused greater interest in the nature of the competitors.

Both the Mexicans and the French played with great enthusiasm, although without good technique, although the French team proved to be far superior to the Mexican and have greater knowledge of the game.

The French superiority was evidenced in the final score, which threw four goals in favor of the French for one on the Mexican scoreboard, despite having played the French team almost the entire game with only ten players, because the team goalkeeper was injured, Thelpot (Thepot), shortly after having started the game, being replaced by the left half, Chantrel.

In general the game lacked good plays, and at times was very violent, becoming denaturalized the character of the meeting by the fury with which both teams developed their game.

Both the French and the Mexicans proved to be technically very inferior to any South American international team, especially the Mexican team, which played a completely primitive game, acting with absolute lack of any organization, which they tried to replace with a waste of enthusiasm.

Of the Mexican team the only one that was good was the goalkeeper, Bonfiglio. For the rest, the team has no defenses or attack line. The French were equally weak in the defense, owing their triumph to the work of the strikers, who, although not very regular, were outstanding and brilliant compared to the Mexicans, and gave them the victory.

However, the extremes (wingers) stood out in the winning team.

Associated Press

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. 

1930 World Cup Group 1 France - Mexico UPDATED (joefa's World Cup History)

This is an updated version of Joefa's original video with added material. It includes rarely seen photos such images of the first World Cup goal scored by Lucien Laurent along with goal diagrams.
Go and check out his channel and subscribe here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLNEmInqFbG1gElv-OMCG0w

This blogger helped provide photographic material for his project. Special thanks also to JC Blanc for providing material.


Here are match reports for France v Mexico written in Portuguese and Spanish;

A Batalha (Brazil)

El Heraldo de Madrid (Spain)

13 July 1930 - (World Cup Group 1) France v Mexico; (World Cup Group 4) USA v Belgium (Match Reports in El Heraldo de Madrid)

This is an article from the Spanish newspaper El Heraldo de Madrid, published on the 14 July 1930, and contains the match reports for USA v Belgium and France v Mexico, chronicled by the news agency, Associated Press.

France v Mexico 4-1 Match Report in Brazilian newspaper A Batalha (World Cup 1930)

A Batalha, 15 July 1930, p7

This is a match report of the France versus Mexico game played on the 13 July 1930, from the Rio de Janeiro newspaper A Batalha. The paper did not publish an edition on the 14th of July, so this report was published two days later.

Match Reports in the Mexican Press (France v Mexico / Argentina v Mexico)

Mexico v France

El Siglio de Torreon, 14 July 1930, p5

El Informador, 14 July 1930, p.1

Mexico v Argentina

El Informador, 20 July 1930, p.1