Today is the anniversary of the beginning of the first World Cup in 1930. I did make reference to this momentous occasion before and you might find some of the idiosyncasies in this past blog amusing.
http://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/keep-your-draws-on.htmlFIFA chose Uruguay for the first ever World Cup finals over Sweden, Italy, Holland and Spain. The entire competition was played in one city, Montevideo, using three stadia, occupying 13 national teams. Eight teams came from South America, the USA was there, the rest were European but not England where the FA deemed the WC not to be part of their plan!
The nations were put into 4 groups, one of 4 teams and 3 of 3. Needless to say the hosts were in a small group! Argentina, Chile, Mexico and France were unfortunate and played in a group of 4.
Some of the matches were poorly attended, the opening tie, Romania v Peru for example, only attracting 300 people. In a tense match the Peruvian captain, Placido Galindo was the first player to be sent off in a World Cup match.
Only three players played for clubs outside their home country....much different from today of course.
At the same ground the day before (13th July), was scored the first World Cup goal by Frenchman Lucien Laurent against Mexico after 19 minutes. It was his only World Cup goal of that tournament, scored in front of 1,000 people.
Hosts Uruguay were watched by over 190,000 during their semi-final (v Yugoslavia 6-1) and final (v Argentina 4-2) matches.
Apologies for the quality of the film but it is 1930.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4ZkR-US3e8
Uruguay were also Olympic champions in 1924 and 1928. Pedro Cea was the first person to score a goal in both the Olympic (1924) and World Cup (1930) finals.
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