Nineteen thirty-four was a year of increased international
tension compared to the year of the previous World
Cup. Hitler had been in power in Germany since January
1933 and had already taken steps to secure the Anschluss
(union of the dictatorships of Germany and Austria);
which ultimately succeeded four years later, once
“IL Duce” (the Leader) Mussolini Italy’s dictator
swapped sides and backed Germany.
This was the first time that a qualifying competition
was held; this whittled down the number of contestants
in the finals to sixteen, making Mussolini's promise
to pay all the expenses of the competing teams more
affordable. It was bizarre to see the United States
play a qualifying match against its neighbour Mexico
in Rome. Indeed, of the thirty-one teams in the
qualifying competition, two, Chile and Peru, withdraw.
Even the hosts Italy had to qualify. A mild surprise
was occasioned when the Yugoslavia, who had been
semi-finalists in the previous competition, were
knocked out.
Notwithstanding the larger number of entries, this
tournament was still not particularly representative
of the world of football, never mind the wider world.
The holders Uruguay, smarting from the lack of support
shown by European teams four years earlier when
the competition had been held in Uruguay’s capital
Montevideo, declined to defend the title, a decision
made easier by a players’ strike. The four British
teams continued their refusal to compete when the
boundaries between amateur and professional football
were so blurred. Argentina, which had reached the
final four years previously, deliberately sent a
weakened team; this was out of pique as Mussolini,
who had ruled Italy since 1922, had poached Monti,
who had played in the previous final for Argentina,
as well as Guaita and Orsi. The Argentines also
feared that they would lose still further players
to their Italian hosts. For the first time Africa
sent a representative, Egypt, which had a small
degree of autonomy within the British Empire. However,
Asia’s massive population was not represented by
even one team.
The finalists were:
Italy, the United States, Czechoslovakia, Romania,
Germany, Belgium, Austria, France, Spain, Brazil,
Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Argentina,
Hungary and Egypt.
Hence there was one team from North America, two
teams from South America, twelve from Europe and
one team from Africa. As lopsided a list as four
years before, save the Latin and European misrepresentations
had been flipped.
A regressive step was to adopt the cheaper format
of a knockout competition all the way to the final.
There was more than a hint of favouritism in the
refereeing; Mercet of Switzerland was later suspended
by the Swiss FA for the blatant pro-Italian nature
of his decision-making. The Swedish referee Eklind
was accused of meeting up with Mussolini before
matches.
Germany had to come back against Belgium in the
first round, and Switzerland and Sweden had to battle
to defeat the Netherlands and Argentina respectively;
nonetheless the form book was more or less observed.
A warning sign was the 7-1 demolition by Italy of
one of the previous competition’s semi-finalists:
the USA.
For the first time all the non-European teams had
been knocked out at the first hurdle, which would
probably not have happened had Argentina been at
full strength and Uruguay had entered. The quarter
finalists were:
Italy, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Austria, Spain,
Switzerland, Sweden and Hungary.
Austria and Hungary had been the pillars of the
Dual Monarchy, which had been created in 1867 and
had lasted until 1918; the Dual Monarchy being established
by the Hapsburgs to maintain their historic central
European Empire after defeat by Prussia at Sadowa
(modern name Sadova in the Czech Republic) in 1866.
Thus their quarterfinal pairing was not a happy
one, being less than one generation away from the
Treaty of Trianon, which finally dissolved the Hungarian
component of that empire. Meisl the Austrian manager
had a big international reputation, his side, known
as the ”Wunderteam”, had lost to England (one of
only two defeats) 4-3 in December 1932, but had
clearly been the better team in the second half;
they were widely considered the strongest continental
side, which was part of the cause for Italian enthusiasm
in discovering Argentine “Italians”. Just after
half time in their quarterfinal match Austria led
2-0, at which point the match descended into a brawl;
Hungary benefited by winning a penalty. Eventually,
the Hungarian winger Marcos was sent off, enabling
Austria to hang on to their 2-1 lead: a big change
from the 8-2 trouncing of Hungary administered two
years previously.
Italy rode her luck in her quarterfinal match against
Spain. In the first match Spain took the lead after
a a mis-hit free kick freakishly resulted in a goal.
Brutal play from Italy did not seem capable of securing
an equaliser in front of the thirty-five thousand
partisan crowd until luck intervened. This remained
the score line, so the match had to be replayed.
In the replay no less than seven Spanish players
had to be dropped as a result of injuries inflicted
by the Italian players. Forty-three thousand screaming
Italian fans witnessed a goal from Meazza after
only twelve minutes, which goal proved to be the
only one, helped in no uncertain manner by the Swiss
referee, who contrived not to notice the blizzard
of potentially crippling Italian fouls. Giuseppe
Meazza, the scorer of this goal, was one of the
few bright sparks in this Italian team. Born in
1910, Meazza was initially part of Inter Milan’s
formidable defence before he graduated to his true
métier: an out and out striker. In the 1934 World
Cup Vittorio Pozzo Italy’s manager positioned Meazza
as an inside striker, i.e. as a link man between
midfield and attack. He was part of two successful
World Cup squads, those of 1934 and 1938. His career
included two league title successes in 1930 and
1938. He was to score 243 goals for Inter and played
some 361 games for the club. Milan’s Guiseppe Meazza
stadium is named after him. Meazza was to win 53
caps for Italy, scoring a total of 33 goals; totals
that would have been far bigger had not injury blighted
his career in 1938 after the World Cup. Meazza’s
last international appearance was against Finland
in Helsinki in 1939, a match which Italy won 3-2.
Switzerland were defeated by Czechoslovakia 3-2
in a seesaw match in which the lead changed hands
several times. The Czechoslovaks holding in confidently
for the final ten minutes after they took the lead
for the last time in the game. A small crowd of
only three thousand saw Germany overcome Sweden
2-1 after a goal less first half.
Semi-finals
With the crowd and the referee on her side, Italy
also received an assist from the weather; the rain
created a heavy pitch that was most disagreeable
for the more skilful Austrians. In the event, one
of the Argentine “Italians” Guaita scored the decisive
goal after eighteen minutes play. The best Austrian
opportunity same right at the finish, when a shot
was scuffed wide. Thus, not for the first time,
a skilful short passing side was overcome by more
brutal opposition.
The Czechoslovaks initially walked all over Germany,
their half-time lead of just one goal not being
anywhere near justice in terms of their superiority.
Unfortunately, complacency set in at the start of
the second half, which enabled Germany to score
a freakish equaliser. Germany then very nearly scored
again, which finally awoke the Czechoslovaks from
their torpor. Nejedly scoring twice more, in addition
to his first half strike, for the Czechoslovaks
to achieve a score line that more accurately reflected
the margin of their superiority. The Czechoslovaks
were also aided by their players greater familiarity,
the team being drawn from only two clubs: Sparta
and Slavia.
On 10 June 1934, a crowd of fifty-five thousand
witnessed the host nation Italy take the field against
the more skilful players of Czechoslovakia. Would
Mussolini achieve his propaganda coup with a pliant
referee and a partisan crowd? At first it did not
look so as the Czechoslovaks withstood juddering
stops and crunching tackles to impose a short passing
game. Nonetheless, the pretty patterns on the pitch
did not translate into goals, not until more than
twenty-five minutes had elapsed in the second half.
At which point the Italians started to assert themselves.
After eighty-one minutes Orsi, yet another of the
Argentine “Italians”, scored a freakish goal, feinting
with his left and scoring with his right; a goal
which he was unable to reproduce before expectant
journalists the following day despite twenty attempts!
The match went into extra time, which greatly favoured
the physically more robust Italians. Finally the
non-Argentine Schiavio scored.