<i> Il Duce</i> Demand Met in Overtime : The Last Time World Cup Was in Italy, Home Team Was Told ‘Win . . . or Else’
Benito Mussolini--or Il Duce as he was called before he was shot and strung up by his heels--was not a soccer fan.
That alone should have warned the Italians that he was not the sort of person they really wanted as their national leader.
All the same, Mussolini was quick to take advantage of the sport his countrymen love with a passion bordering on the absurd. When Italy was selected to stage the 1934 World Cup, Mussolini made one thing perfectly clear: Italy would win the Jules Rimet Cup . . . or else.
The “or else” never had to be acted upon because Italy did win, defeating Czechoslovakia in overtime in a memorable Final in Rome on June 10, 1934, to claim the first of what has since become three World Cup victories.
Now, 56 years later, Italy again is playing host to soccer’s quadrennial world championship, and the Italian team again is expected to win--at least by its own fans. This time, however, there is no underlying threat.
Things were a lot different in 1934.
For one thing, fans in Rome will not be seeing their beloved “azzurri” (or “blues”--for the color of their jerseys) giving the Fascist salute. Nor will Italy casually be able to draft a couple of players--perhaps Diego Maradona and Claudio Canniggia--from the Argentine team to help it win. In 1934, Italy did.
Some things, however, do not change. For example, 13 of the 16 countries that took part in the 1934 World Cup are on hand this time. And the United States, which had the misfortune of having to play Italy then, has the same misfortune this time. Italy won in 1934, 7-1. What the result will be in the Olympic Stadium on June 14 is anyone’s guess.
But the second World Cup will be remembered for much more than fascism or American amateurism. Replay the newsreels of yesteryear and the images of some of international soccer’s greatest stars flicker across the screen. Turn back the yellowed pages of old European newspapers and the photographs of memorable matches immediately catch the eye.
Italy ’34 was a tournament of great coaches--Italy’s Vittorio Pozzo, Austria’s Hugo Meisl--and great players--Spain’s Ricardo Zamora, Brazil’s Leonidas, Italy’s Peppino Meazza and Czechoslovakia’s Frantisek Planicka, for example--but it was much more than that, too.
This, then, is a look at the 1934 World Cup--the first to be played in Europe and the first to turn Italy upside down.
The first oddity that separates the second World Cup from the rest is that it was the only one in which the defending champion failed to participate.
Uruguay, unhappy at the refusal of many European nations to send teams to the inaugural tournament in Montevideo in 1930, refused to go to Italy. The only South American teams to take part were Brazil and Argentina--and both made the 8,000-mile journey by sea to play just one game.
Another oddity was the bizarre qualifying procedure. Mexico traveled to Italy to play the United States in a qualifier, lost, and went home. Even Italy, which as the host nation would normally have been exempt, had to play a qualifying match against Greece.
Eventually, the field of 16 was set. Representing Europe were Italy, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Spain, Romania, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, Hungary, France and The Netherlands. From the Americas came Brazil, Argentina and the United States. Egypt was the lone African participant.
The format was single elimination, and the first round quickly reduced the field to eight. There were few surprises. Austria, the so-called “Wunderteam” of the 1930s under Meisl’s coaching, was given a scare before knocking out France, 3-2, in overtime. Spain sent Brazil home; Sweden did the same to Argentina; Hungary easily disposed of Egypt; and Italy had a ludicrously simple time with the U.S. team.
The Italy-United States match at the Stadio Nazionale del PNF in Rome was, to all intents and purposes, over by halftime. The Italians led, 3-0, after 45 minutes en route to their 7-1 victory. The lone American goal was scored by Buff Donelli, who became football coach at Columbia University.
In the second round, it was Italy’s turn to get a scare. Playing Spain in Florence, the Italians were concerned that a nemesis of theirs, Zamora, the Spanish goalkeeper, again would thwart them. Although subjected to brutal punishment from the Italian forwards, he almost did.
For two hours, including 30 minutes of extra time, he held Italy at bay, conceding only a goal on a rebound shot while obstructed by an Italian player. The match ended in a 1-1 tie, but Zamora was so badly roughed up that he missed the replay the next day and Italy won, 1-0.
The semifinals saw Czechoslovakia play Germany in Rome while Italy played Austria in Milan.
The Czechs were a talented and creative team, with players of exceptional individual skill such as Oldrich Nejedly. They reveled in the short-passing game and were favored to win. The Germans relied on organization, hard work and a physical style.
Because the game was played in Milan, a large number of German fans made the trip south despite rain. The stands, in the words of English author Brian Glanville, were “mushroomed with umbrellas and checkered with swastika flags.”
Czechoslovakia took an early lead, then was tied in the second half when its goalkeeper and captain, Frantisek Planicka, made an uncharacteristic mistake and watched as a speculative shot flew past him into the net. Stirred, the Czechs recovered their poise, scored two more goals and won, 3-1.
Italy struggled to beat Austria. The only goal of the match was scored by one of the oriundi , foreign players of Italian extraction called upon by Italy to bolster its team.
Glanville, in his “History of the World Cup,” writes that Pozzo, the Italian coach, defended the practice, although it was widely criticized.
He quotes Pozzo as saying “If they can die for Italy, they can play for Italy,” meaning that such players were liable for military service. In any event, the Italian team contained three oriundi , the Argentines Luisito Monti, Raimondo Orsi and Enrico Guaita.
There was no question of their being Argentine. Monti, in fact, played for Argentina in the 1930 World Cup Final against Uruguay, and Orsi and Guaita played for Argentina in the 1928 Olympic Games.
Guaita scored the goal that put Italy into the championship match.
Having reached the Final, the Czechs were suddenly celebrities.
Wrote Glanville: “Very much the underdogs, (they) were showered with gifts: sausages, ham, a silver talisman one player was urged to sew on his shirt, seventeen hundred telegrams of good wishes. Two special trains and three motor coaches of supporters set off from Prague.
“It was known that Italy had the stamina and the power, not to mention home advantage and support, but the Czechs had wonderful skills and subtlety. The cliche of rapier against bludgeon was not wholly unfair; and how nearly the rapier prevailed!”
Each team was captained by its goalkeeper--Planicka for Czechoslovakia and Giampiero Combi for Italy--and each goalkeeper remained unbeaten for the first 70 minutes.
Then the Czechs silenced the Italian fans by taking the lead. A shot by Antonin Puc after a corner kick eluded Combi, and Czechoslovakia had one hand on the World Cup. The Czechs came within inches of securing the trophy when another shot moments later slammed against the post.
Rattled, the Italians looked ready to collapse. Up in the stands, Mussolini was scowling. Things did not look good.
Finally, with just eight minutes left in the match, Italy got the goal it so desperately needed. Two Argentine players, Orsi and Guaita, were the key. Glanville describes:
“Orsi received the ball from Guaita, ran through the Czech defense, feinted with his left foot and shot with his right. The ball, swerving crazily, brushed Planicka’s desperate fingers and curled freakishly into the net. Next day, Orsi tried twenty times to repeat the shot for the benefit of photographers, with no goalkeeper in goal; and failed!”
Tied, 1-1, after 90 minutes, the match went to overtime, and in the 97th minute Angelo Schiavio produced the goal that gave Italy the World Cup that Mussolini had demanded.
Il Duce invited the coach and players--still in their uniforms--to a celebration at the Palazzo Venezia.
The dictator’s wish to impress the rest of the world with the success of his regime by winning the World Cup had been granted, but at what cost?
The charged atmosphere of the tournament and the thinly disguised propaganda surrounding it left a bitter taste in the mouths of many. Would Italy have won without its Argentine connection?
John Langenus, the Belgian official who refereed the 1930 World Cup Final, had his own thoughts on the tournament.
“In the majority of countries, the world championship was called a sporting fiasco because beside the desire to win all other sporting considerations were non-existent. . . . A certain spirit brooded over the whole championship. Italy wanted to win, it was natural, but allowed it to be seen too clearly.”
