FIFA World Cup history: Post World War II, FIFA World Cup 1950, Champions Uruguay
After a 12 year gap because of the World War, FIFA came back with their Football World Cup in 1950, which was held in the South American nation, Brazil. The tournament took place from 24th of June to 16th of July. Most of the nations had taken a blow from the World War and were recovering, therefore, Italians, who had been champions for a record 16 years were feeling financially weak to perform in the World Cup. After a lot of persuasion by FIFA, Italians finally got persuaded to come to the FIFA World Cup, but there were rumours that the Brazilian government helped them with the tickets and funded them throughout the tournament.
The 32 teams that had qualified were:
Brazil, Yugoslavia, Switzerland, Mexico, Spain, England, Chile, United States, Sweden, Italy, Paraguay, India (withdrew), Uruguay, Bolivia, Scotland (withdrew), Turkey (withdrew).
Three of the teams withdrew from the tournament because of different reasons. India however had to withdraw because of the fact that they wanted to play without shoes and they were not allowed to. The first group included Brazil, Yugoslavia, Switzerland and Mexico; Brazil, the host nation played outstanding football in the group stages and topped the group by winning the matches against Mexico and Yugoslavia and drawing the match against the Swiss.
Yugoslavia, however, were the runner ups with only a point’s different, at 4. In the second group, Spain dominated by winning all the games they played and England, the favourites of the group were the runner ups. In the third group, the Swedish side made an upset by coming on top, even though the Italians were in the same group, who were the runner ups of the group. In the last group, there were only 2 teams as two of them withdrew and Uruguay defeated Bolivia in the only game of the 4th group, as they smashed the Bolivians with an 8-0 victory.
The final round had 4 top teams of the groups which were Uruguay, Brazil, Sweden and Spain. All of them had to fight each other for the title. The first match was between Brazil and Sweden and Brazil defeated them 7-1. The second match was a tough one when Uruguay had to face the very tough side Spain and the match ended in a 2-2 draw. In the third match, Brazil smashed Spain with a 6-1 victory over them and looked to be the best team of the tournament. In the next match, Uruguay faced the Swedish side and defeated them 3-2; and after the match the Swedish met Spain and defeated them 3-1 to end their hopes to become World Champions. Just because Uruguay and Brazil were on the top of the final round, they faced each other for the “Final” of the FIFA World Cup 1950.
The Uruguayans were on a boycott from FIFA since their last win in 1930 and they came back to play to prove why they were the best team back then. The Brazilians were playing at their home and wanted to win the World Cup for their fans. The match was filled with excitement and the Uruguayans went out after listening to their captain’s speech which later had a huge hand in their win over the host nation.
The match ended with the score line that nobody expected. The Uruguayans won the match 2-1 and the Brazilians could not win the title, as the Uruguayans celebrated their victory with joy. There were approximately 200,000 fans in the stands that night and many of them started to jump off the stadium’s roof, committing suicide. Therefore, it was an emotional end to the FIFA World Cup 1950.
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