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. 

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

Twitter: @WC1930blogger

1. Preguinho, son of famous poet Coelho Netto, and scorer of Brazil's first ever World Cup goal against Yugoslavia (14 July), was a multi-talented sportsman (swimming, basketball, volleyball, waterpolo). Legend has it that  he once swam the length of the Guanabara bay and then took a taxi to play a domestic match.

2. Ivica Bek scored three goals for Yugoslavia at the 1930 World Cup. Born in Belgrade to a German father and Czech mother, he played professionally in France. During World War Two, he fought in the French Alps for the resistance.

3. Alex Wood and George Moorhouse were the full-backs in the US team that reached the semi-finals. Each earned a schoolboy international cap for Scotland and England respectively.

4. Peruvian centre-half Placido Galindo was the first ever player to be sent off in the history of the World Cup against Romania (14 July). Unhappy with the decision he refused to leave the field and it took five minutes before his coach Paco Bru convinced him to leave. This is in contrast to one domestic game for his club Universitario when he committed such a bad tackle that he, alone, decided was worthy of dismissal and left the field.

5. Mexican captain Rafael Garza Gutierrez was the oldest player at the World Cup when he took the field against Argentina on the 19th July. He was 33 years and 218 days old.

Uruguai 1930, a primeira Copa da História - O primeiro gol da Seleção Brasileira (The story about Brazil's first World Cup goal by Preguinho)