Stories, anecdotes and curiosities about the World Cup

Discussion in 'Soccer History' started by argentine soccer fan, Jan 23, 2006.

  1. argentine soccer fan

    Staff Member

    Jan 18, 2001
    San Francisco Bay Area
    Club:
    CA Boca Juniors
    Nat'l Team:
    Argentina
    I might as well start this thread, since I just posted on this subject. The idea is to bring up interesting tidbits about the World Cup, and particularly the early days. But also any insight on any WC, on controversial plays, rivalries etc.

    Apocriphal unverified information is welcome as long as it is presented as such. (facts can always be disputed, if somebody has a different version of events.) I heard a lot of interesting stories which couldn't always be verified.

    At any rate, I'll start by pasting my post about Luisito Monti.
     
  2. argentine soccer fan

    Staff Member

    Jan 18, 2001
    San Francisco Bay Area
    Club:
    CA Boca Juniors
    Nat'l Team:
    Argentina
    Since we're talking history, here are a couple of anecdotes about Luisito Monti and the WC finals. (These are stories that my uncles and other old timers used to tell, I don't have documentation or verification, and I couldn't find anything on it by google, so keep that in mind.)

    Monti was a tough guy and it seems that he was hated by the Uruguayans because he had gotten in fights with Uruguayan players over the years. So, probably for that reason, before the WC final of 1930 (Uruguay vs Argentina) he was singled out for threats. There were death threats not only against him but against his family, warning him that he better not play and Argentina better not win or he wouldn't get out of Uruguay alive.

    These threats started getting to him to the point that he asked not to play. The team had a meeting, and they decided that he should play. However, he seemingly was affected by the whole thing and he wasn't his usual self, he wasn't intimidating, and according to his teammates was making an effort not to get into any trouble, to the point that when a Uruguayan player went down after he tackled him, he actually gave him a hand and helped him up, something which for him was totally out of character. And of course Argentina ended up losing.

    Four years later, Monti, now playing for Italy, found himself in a WC final again, and again there were threats, but coming from a different direction. It is said that Benito Mussolini himself went into the Italian locker room and gave the team a pep talk which ended with, 'Gentlemen, win or else...'. Monti and the others didn't need to be told what 'or else...' might mean. At any rate, this time he played his usual dominant game and Italy won the World Cup.
     
  3. tpmazembe

    tpmazembe Member

    Jun 13, 2002
    The Midfield (S.Fla)
    Way to go ASF.

    Allow me to re-post this tidbit from Random Postings Regarding WC Selecoes Past

    1938 - It wasn't arrogance to blame for Leonidas' absence....

    There is a popular myth that Brasil's Leonidas was kept out of the 1938 WC semi final against Italy because the coach, Adhemar Pimenta, was sure of victory and wanted to rest him for the final.

    The truth is that Leonidas pulled a muscle against Czechoslovakia, and it was improbable that he be well enough to play 48 hours later in the semis. Today, with player substitutions allowed, a player of his caliber would probably have played a portion of the game; but in those days he could only have started, and if lame, Brasil would have had to play with a man down for all intents and purposes. Pimenta did not risk it.

    His natural subsitute, Niginho, was declared ineligible for the game by FIFA after the Italian delegation protested to the governing body that Niginho had deserted his club, Lazio, shortly before the WC. Seems that he had feared being inducted into the Italian army and hastily reatreated to Rio. The CBD knew this at the time and still called him up for the Selecao. Pimenta was then forced to turn to another player, Pelliciari, who was not a forward.

    [Source: Enciclopedia da Selecao : 1914 – 2002, by Ivan Sotor. ISBN: 85-87199-05-6]

    Don't you love this story?

    Whether or not that made the difference in the 2-1 defeat we'll never know, but Leonidas had an interesting perspective (paraphrasing):

    "I believe that my absence had a great influence in or defeat, not from a technical perspective, but from a psychological perspective.....I didn't always play well, but never accepted defeat, and fought my way through every game. In this way they felt might absence."
     
  4. argentine soccer fan

    Staff Member

    Jan 18, 2001
    San Francisco Bay Area
    Club:
    CA Boca Juniors
    Nat'l Team:
    Argentina

    Interesting. I had heard it was arrogance and overconfidence that led Brazil to sit Leonidas, but it didn't quite seem to make sense, that a coach, no matter how arrogant, would not use his star player in a single elimination match. This story is more logical.
     
  5. comme

    comme Moderator
    Staff Member

    Feb 21, 2003
    It is interesting that they didn't play him. I also read that the Brazilians were so confident of success in the replay against Czechoslovakia (the QF) that they had sent most of their party ahead in preapration for the game against Italy.

    I've been writing a history of the WC for some time now, so have quite a few of these little stories that will be coming out in the next few weeks.

    My favourite from the 1930 WC is the American physio being knocked unconscious after stumbling and inhaling a bottle of chloroform.
     
  6. leonidas

    leonidas Moderator
    Staff Member

    Palmeiras
    Brazil
    May 25, 2005
    NYC
    Club:
    Palmeiras Sao Paulo
    The book "Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life" by Alex Bellos has some great anecdotes. There's one chapter where they discuss the 1950 World Cup and the repuation of Ghiggia, who scored the game winning goal in the final. The player, ironically, is much more well known in Brazil. haha. There was one story where he was flying into Brazil (this was years later...I think recently actually) and then a customs woman looked at his passport and was like "It's you." hah. Even poor Barbosa, the Brazilian keeper, his life was severely affected by that fateful day. I really feel sorry for him. Pretty much an ostracized figure.
     
  7. ChaChaFut

    ChaChaFut Member

    Jun 30, 2005
    ...and an usually underrated GK. Not just because of the Maracanazo, but in general, regardless of it IMO.
     

Share This Page