In writing the World Cup team history posts recently, I never once stopped to wonder whether anyone from the first ever World Cup final in 1930 was still around. I just assumed they weren’t. I was wrong.
Francisco Varallo, who played for Argentina in the 1930 World Cup final, turned 100 recently. Varallo was 20 years old at the time of the inaugural World Cup, and apparently the youngest player at the tournament. He is the only surviving player. Varallo celebrated his centenary near Buenos Aries, Argentina with a screening of the famous game from 80 years ago, which Uruguay won 4-2.
“Never in all my years have I been honoured this way,” Varallo said, smiling, as tears rolled from his eyes, after entering the theatre in La Plata where hundreds of people had gathered to pay tribute to him on Friday.
Varalloa was a striker, and apparently had such a powerful shot that he went by the magnificent nickname of Cañoncito (The Little Cannon). Imagine getting in the way of one of his shots? With one of those heavy old leather footballs? No thank you.
Varallo had missed the semi-final with a knee injury, but was determined to play in the 1930 final. However, even 80 years later the striker is understandably disappointed about the result.
“I played my heart out in the second half and I could feel it in my knee. We were down to 10 men and as the match went on, another was injured, and another,” Varallo told the FIFA website.
“I aggravated my injury when hitting the bar with a shot that could have won it for us. I couldn’t even walk.
“From that point on they (Uruguay) started to get stronger and, with all due respect to my team-mates, we weren’t gutsy enough. How I cried that day. Even now when I look back it still makes me angry,” he said.
Varallo had plenty of other successes though. He won three Primera División titles with Boca Juniors and the 1937 South American Championship (forerunner to the Copa América). Just as impressive, his record of 181 goals for Boca Juniors made him the club’s all-time leading scorer from 1938 until 2008, when Martin Palermo finally surpassed him. Varallo was awarded the FIFA Order of Merit in 1994.
Now, time to start a rumour. Argentina famously need a strong #9 going into World Cup 2010. Diego Maradona has shown a willingness to recall older players. So how about recalling Francisco Varallo for World Cup 2010 duty?
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As mentioned in this post about the Pelada pickup soccer movie, we get a lot of emails asking us to publicize this or that on World Cup Blog and The Offside. We’re not a PR machine, so we only post things that are genuinely interesting to football fans. Hopefully the following item falls into that category.
At World Cup 2010 there’s going to be a television series called Bud House, where 32 fans (one for each team competing at World Cup 2010) will live together in a big house in Cape Town, South Africa. Sort of like MTV’s The Real World, but instead of petty arguments over who’s been using whose soap, the drama will presumably center around the World Cup.
As you can tell from the title, Bud House is sponsored by Budweiser. However you feel about that particular brand of beer, I’m thinking this might (repeat: might) be one of those happy instances where corporate sponsorship creates something worthwhile.
I’m posting this not just because it’s an interesting concept and a series I’d almost definitely sit down and watch, but because the producers of Bud House are still accepting applications from fans who want to be a part of this. If you’re interested in representing your nation in 2010 and living alongside 31 other football fans in South Africa this June and July, then here’s what you need to do:
Go to the Bud House application page and give them your info, including two photos and a short video. You need to be 25 or over at the time of the World Cup, you need to be able to speak English and you need to have a valid passport (obviously). Other that that, it’s wide open. If any World Cup Blog/Offside readers are brave enough to apply then please let us know in the comments. Deadline for applications is midnight Friday, February 26th, 2010.
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OK, I’ll admit it. I’ve been putting off writing this post about Brazil’s World Cup history. Mostly because there’s so much of it. Not only has Brazil won a record five (FIVE!) World Cups, it is the only team to have appeared in every single World Cup tournament. From the first one in 1930 to the present day. In fact it’s tempting to skip writing a proper post about Brazil’s World Cup history and maybe just embed this video of applause instead. But then we’d miss out on all the excellent YouTube videos of Garrincha, Pele, Ronaldo and co.
We’re going to have to split this into three parts though: Part one (this part) will cover 1930 to 1954. Perhaps surprisingly, Brazil’s early World Cup record is not all that impressive…
1930 World Cup in Uruguay
At the 1930 tournament Brazil were drawn into Group 2 with Bolovia and Yugoslavia. They lost their first every World Cup game 2-1 to Yugoslavia and beat Bolivia 4-0 in the second game. But that was that. Brazil finished second in the three team group and failed to advance to the second round. This poor result is mostly blamed on the rivalry between the states of Sao Paulo and Rio. Apparently Sao Paulo representatives were excluded from the committe to travel to Urgugay, and so in retaliation Sao Paulo clubs refused to release their players for the national team. Captain Preguinho scored three of Brazil’s five goals in Uruguay, but other than his contribution, Brazil’s 1930 World Cup is best forgotten.
1934 World Cup in Italy
The Brazil team crossed the Atlantic by boat for the 1934 World Cup tournament in Italy, which was a straight knockout with no group stage. They lost 3-1 to Spain in the opening game, and were out. So after 15 days on a boat, Brazil’s tournament was over after 90 minutes. Ouch. Divisions were once again to blame for the poor performance, with arguments erupting over the issue of professionalism vs amateurism. But I’m sure that spending more than two weeks on a boat didn’t help anybody.
The one bright spot was Leônidas da Silva (pictured), scorer of Brazil’s only goal. Leônidas is to some extent credited with popularizing the bicycle kick. He’d get a few more goals in the next tournament.
1938 World Cup in France
This is where Brazil started getting it together. The 1938 World Cup was a similar format to 1934, a 16 team knockout from the get go. Brazil opened with what sounds like one of the most exciting World Cup games ever, vs Poland. It was 4-4 after 90 minutes, and 6-5 to Brazil after extra time. Leônidas da Silva (Brazil’s only goalscorer form 1934) scored four, as did Poland’s Ernest Wilimowski. I can’t even imagine how good that game was. In the quarter-final Brazil drew 1-1 with Czechoslovakia, and then won the replay (yep, they had replays back then instead of penalty shootouts) two days later. Leônidas scored in both games.
For reasons best known to coach Ademar Pimenta, Leônidas was left on the bench for the semi-final vs Italy, and Brazil lost 2-1. They did win the 3rd place playoff vs Sweden 4-2 though, with Leônidas scoring another two and finishing the tournament as top scorer with seven. So third place and a Golden Boot winner. Brazil were getting serious. But thanks to World War II, there’d be no more World Cup until 1950.
1950 World Cup in Brazil
Brazil fans will never forget the 1950 World Cup. But not in a good way. It was the first World Cup following World War II, and the first World Cup to be hosted by Brazil. The slightly odd format featured no knockout games, but rather a First Round group stage followed by a Final Round group stage featuring the four best teams. Whoever topped that group won the World Cup.
Brazil waltzed through the first group stage playing some attractive attacking football that showcased the talents of Zizinho, Jair and Ademir, beating Mexico and Yugoslavia, and drawing with Switzerland. The Final Round group contained Brazil, Uruguay, Spain and Sweden. Brazil hammered Sweden 7-1 and Spain 6-1, and so just needed to avoid defeat vs Uruguay in the final game at the Maracanã.
To say that the Brazilian people expected their team to lift the trophy is an understatement. Brazil had looked unstoppable against Sweden and Spain, while Uruguay had stumbled through a draw and a narrow win. There was only one favourite, and somewhere between 170,000 and 210,000 people packed the Maracanã to see Brazil finally win the World Cup.
Except it didn’t happen like that. Though Friaça made it 1-0 to Brazil at the start of the second half, Uruguay equalized in the 66th minute through Juan Alberto Schiaffino and won the game 2-1 with a goal from winger Alcides Ghiggia in the 79th minute. Uruguay were world champions and the Maracanã was silent. Here’s a shortish video about that 1950 final:
The disaster that was Brazil’s failure to win the 1950 World Cup cast a long long shadow over not just Brazilian football, but Brazilian society too. There was a curious backlash againt the black players in the squad, particularly goalkeeper Barbosa, who was made the scapegoat for the defeat. The BBC’s South America football expert Tim Vickery has written that the vilification of Barbosa is probably the main reason the Brazilian national team failed to select another black goalkeeper for decades afterwards.
The 1950 World Cup is also the reason for Brazil’s current canary yellow jerseys. From the national teams beginning until the disaster against Uruguay, Brazil wore white shirts with a blue collar. In direct response to the events of 1950, these shirts were abandoned, and the Brazil shirts we’re so familiar with today were adopted instead.
1954 World Cup in Switzerland
Because 1950 had been oh so painful, Brazil’s 1954 World Cup featured few of the same names. You might think it’s insane to rip apart a talented team because of one measly defeat. Brazil didn’t. Though I suppose it’s less insane when you have defenders like Djalma Santos (pictured left, and apparently a very similar player to Cafu) and attackers like Didi to bring in. Obviously Brazil’s mission in Switzerland was to erase the memory of 1950 and bring the World Cup home.
It started well enough. A 5-0 win over Mexico and a 1-1 draw with Yugoslavia was enough to see Brazil through the group stage in first place. But in the quarterfinals Brazil faced favourites Hungary, and the Might Magyars went 2-0 up inside 10 minutes and eventually won the game 4-2.
You may notice that we’re now five World Cups in and Brazil has precisely zero World Cup victories. But don’t worry Brazil fans, the good times will begin in 1958, and in Part II of this Brazil World Cup Team History…
American broadcaster ESPN has been showing the above promo for World Cup 2010 across its network. When you start seeing commercials like this, you know the World Cup is getting closer. I’m not embarrassed to say that I’m starting to get excited. There’s a second, Martin Tyler-centric, promo after the jump.
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In writing the 
Varalloa was a striker, and apparently had such a powerful shot that he went by the magnificent nickname of Cañoncito (The Little Cannon). Imagine getting in the way of one of his shots? With one of those heavy old leather footballs? No thank you.
Varallo had plenty of other successes though. He won three Primera División titles with Boca Juniors and the 1937 South American Championship (forerunner to the Copa América). Just as impressive, his record of 181 goals for Boca Juniors made him the club’s all-time leading scorer from 1938 until 2008, when Martin Palermo finally surpassed him. Varallo was awarded the FIFA Order of Merit in 1994.
As mentioned in 
The Brazil team crossed the Atlantic by boat for the 1934 World Cup tournament in Italy, which was a straight knockout with no group stage. They lost 3-1 to Spain in the opening game, and were out. So after 15 days on a boat, Brazil’s tournament was over after 90 minutes. Ouch. Divisions were once again to blame for the poor performance, with 
Brazil fans will never forget the 1950 World Cup. But not in a good way. It was the first World Cup following World War II, and the first World Cup to be hosted by Brazil. The slightly odd format featured no knockout games, but rather a First Round group stage followed by a Final Round group stage featuring the four best teams. Whoever topped that group won the World Cup.
Because 1950 had been oh so painful, Brazil’s 1954 World Cup featured few of the same names. You might think it’s insane to rip apart a talented team because of one measly defeat. Brazil didn’t. Though I suppose it’s less insane when you have defenders like 
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