1914 FIFA World Cup

The **1914 FIFA World Cup** was the third edition of the FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held in England from April 5 to 25, 1914 as it would be the last tournament before the first World War took place. Sixteen teams competed in the tournament which saw an increase to sixteen teams from fifteen in the previous edition.

The format of the tournament changed back to the group stage format that was successful in 1906 with the sixteen teams being grouped in four groups of four teams with the top two teams qualifying through to the knockout stage. The final saw Denmark upset England in the final in what some news outlets called the biggest boil-over in World Cup history with two goals in extra time securing Denmark their first (and to date only) major title.

## Background

After the failure of the 1910 FIFA World Cup, FIFA elected to go back to the group stage format that had been successful in the 1906 edition. The hosting duties would then go to England who was the founding nation of modern football. The competition would have 16 teams competing in the World Cup for the first time which they would be split into four groups of four, with the top two going through to the knockout stage.

## Qualification

For the first time in history, qualification had to be used to determent who would qualify through to the World Cup as the 20 teams that joined FIFA tried to qualify through to the World Cup. The top 12 teams automatically went through to the World Cup while the bottom four teams had to enter playoffs for the renaming four spots. The four teams to qualify were Scotland, Norway, Chile and Italy. For Chile and Italy, this would be the debut World Cup tournament for those teams.

## Group Stage

### Group A

The first match of the 1914 FIFA World Cup was held in Group A with hosts England taking on Sweden in London. For the English, they would get off to a good start with the Harold Fleming scoring a hat-trick and Edwin Latherton chipping in with a goal for himself. These goals would bring England a 4-2 victory on the opening day. The other match on the opening day, saw debutantes Chile took on Switzerland at Manchester. Goals from Pierre Collet and Paul Wyss gave the Swiss the victory by a score of 2-0.

The following matchday, England and Switzerland both booked their spot into the quarter-finals with comfortable wins. At Brighton, George Holley and Latheron each scored two goals in a 4-0 result over the South Americans in Chile. At Middlesbrough, Switzerland had a tougher time against Sweden with Erik Börjesson leveling the scores at 1-1 after Paul Wyss scored the opener for Switzerland. Switzerland would eventually get the victory in the 56th minute from a Ernst Weiss goal to give Switzerland a 2-1 result.

The deciding match for Group A ended in a goal from Fleming which gave the English, top spot in the group. For Switzerland though, it was a matter of what if's with chances being missed during the match. In the dead-rubber, Sweden recorded a 3-0 over Chile in Nottingham. Goals coming from Karl Bergström, Iwar Swensson and Gustav Sandberg as Chile created history by being the worst team at the World Cup in history (until 1950) with a goal difference of negative nine.

### Group B

Group B featured the runner-up from the previous World Cup in Belgium, Denmark, Hungary and Scotland. The opening matches on the 6 April saw the first draws of the World Cup with the draws being played in Brighton and Middlesbrough. For Belgium, their tournament would see one less player with Fernand Nisot shoulder ending his tournament as he had come off the pitch. In Middlesbrough, Denmark and Scotland played out a 1-1 draw with both goals being scored in the second half of the match.

The following match-day four days later saw the debutant in Mathieu Bragard score the winning goal for Belgium against the Scots after Belgium fell behind twice in the match before eventually going to win 3-2 in Liverpool. The other match which was held in Nottingham saw two second half goals from Sven Knudsen (47th minute) and Emil Jørgensen (58th minute) to put Denmark on top of the table with one set of matches to go.

The deciding match of Group B saw Denmark and Belgium meet in London to see who would finish top of the group. The first half was a tight tussle which eventually would break in the 36th minute with Jan Van Cant scored the opening goal for Belgium. For Belgium, this meant they had the lead heading into the second half. It wouldn't be until the 70th minute of the match before their was a chance of score with Sophus Nielsen scoring his third for the tournament to tie the match at one all. Despite a couple of chances for a winner, the match would end in a draw and for Denmark, they would take top spot in the group. The dead rubber match saw Scotland get a shaky 1-0 win over the Hungarians.

### Group C

In Group C, the first upset of the tournament occurred when Germany defeated Austria by a single goal. That goal coming from the 88th minute of the match with Richard Queck being the player to give Germany the win. The other match on the opening match-day saw a replay of the 1912 Summer Olympics gold medal match between the Netherlands and Norway. Much like the Olympics, the Dutch dominated the match with the result ending 5-0 in favor of the Netherlands. Jan Vos would also created history by being the first striker to score four goals in a World Cup match. Felix von Heijden wrapping up with a goal of his own in the demolition.

Norway did strike back in the next game of the group. This time against Austria in Manchester. Goals from Jonas Aas, Kaare Engebretsen and Erling Maartmann gave Norway a 3-1 win. While in London, Netherlands continued their devastating run in the cup with a four goal win over the Germans. The main culprit being that man Vos who scored his second hat-trick of the tournament and put him easily leading the tournament in goals.

In the deciding match of Group C, Norway was the team to go through with the Netherlands to the quarters after two goals from Erling Maartmann secured a 3-0 win and a spot in the quarter-finals. The Netherlands made it a clean sweep in the group stage after a 2-1 win over Austria. But a weaken lineup was almost their downfall when Angelo Mattea scored the opener for Austria. But two late goals in the last fifteen minutes made the Dutch more comfortable.

### Group D

Group D was the last group for the 1914 cup. This group featured debutantes Italy alongside France, Argentina and Ireland. The opening match of the group saw the French who weren't expecting to get out of the group cause an upset over Argentina in London. The winning goal coming from Charles Géronimi in the 56th minute of the match. Italy played their first World Cup match against Ireland in Manchester. For the Italians, goals from Felice Berardo and Renzo De Vecchi securing Italy the win. This was despite a late goal from Samuel Young in the 81st minute.

France continued to dominate the group, with a 4-1 win over the Irish at Middlesbrough. An hat-trick from Gaston Barreau (the fourth for the tournament) which included company from Étienne Jourde who scored the other goal in the victory. In Brighton, Italy scraped to 1-1 draw against Argentina after a 89th minute equalizer from Francisco Olazar secured the draw against Argentina. For Argentina, they needed to win against the Irish to keep themselves in the hunt.

With Argentina hoping that luck would come their way, got their part done with a win against the Irish in Nottingham. The goal scorers (Alberto Ohaco and Juan Enrique Hayes) in a 2-0 victory. But Italy would go on to defeat France to not only knock out Argentina. But they also would get top spot in Group D. The goals coming from De Vecchi, Aldo Cevenini and Carlo Corna in the 3-0 win. France still qualified as they finished second in the group.

## Knockout Stage

### Quarter-finals

The final eight teams met in the knockout stage of the competition. The opening quarter-final was between border nations England and France in what at the time was the biggest crowd in the tournament so far with 77,000 coming to London. In what was an interesting affair, it would be the hosts that book their third consecutive semi-final appearance in the World Cup as goals from Edwin Latherton and Billy Wedlock secured a 2-1 win.

The other match on the 18 April saw a replay of the semi final of the most recent Olympics played in Birmingham. Compared to that semi-final, this one was a high scoring affair with seven goals being scored. Four of them being in a span in twenty-five minutes. Despite a hat-trick from Rolf Maartmann, Norway would be knocked out of the tournament to a Nielsen hat-trick and a goal from Vilhelm Wolfhagen as Denmark won the match 4-3.

The following day saw the match between rivals Netherlands and Belgium at Manchester. In a close tussle, Belgian keeper Fernand Brichant was brilliant in goal against Vol and the Dutch who had scored 11 goals in the group stage. The game was tight until the 117th minute when a lapse in ply from the Dutch let Fernand Nisot score the winning goal to book Belgium a spot in the semi-finals. The last match in the quarter finals saw De Vecchi and Pietro Leone give Italy a spot in the semi-finals winning 2-1 over the Swiss in Middlesbrough, with both being scored in the second half.

### Semi-finals

The opening semi-final between England and Belgium was a replay of the previous World Cup final. As the firm favorites heading into the match, the English would score the opening goal in the ninetieth minute of play with Dicky Bond scoring the opening goal of the game. Continuing to have possession, England almost doubled their lead with a shot from Fleming going wide as England held a one goal lead at the break. The second half was much like the first with England scoring a goal in the 54th minute from Stan Fazackerley to give the English a two goal lead. That would be the final result as missed opportunities from the Belgium strikers gave England their second World Cup final appearance.

The following day saw semi-final debutants Denmark and Italy met with the winner to qualify through to their first World Cup final. The first thirty minutes of the game saw both teams score a goal to keep the match level at the break. This was due to goals from Emil Jørgensen (15th minute) to give Denmark the lead before Carlo Corna responded in the 26th minute from an easy set-shot piece. The second half of the match saw Italy take the lead for the first time with Leone scoring a goal in the 58th minute. Nielsen though would respond back for the Danes to have it all level with 25 minutes to go. In the end, Denmark striker Oskar Nørland would score the winner for Denmark in the 84th minute to book a World Cup final spot for the Danes.

### Third Place Playoff

The third place playoff was a brand new thing in World Cup with the previous tournaments not having a third place playoff. The match which was played one day before the final saw Italy take the win with a goal from Felice Berardo in the 48th minute giving third to Italy.

### Final

Main article: 1914 FIFA World Cup Final
The final of the 1914 FIFA World Cup saw England meet Denmark in the final of the World Cup. For the English, this was their second WC final after appearing in the 1910 edition where they defeated Belgium. Denmark, on the other hand, was competing in the first WC final.

The match began at 15:00 with the English team showing their experience from the previous appearance. This was true with Harry Hampton only just missing their shot. Two minutes later, Bobby McNeal almost scored for the English, but his shot went over the bar to stay at nil all after fifteen minutes. In the 28th minute, Danish player Oskar Nørland would break the deadlock as a pass from Dé Kessler secured the shot and into a empty net after the goalkeeper attempted to chase Dé Kessler down. The silence of an English dominated crowd with the only noise being from the Danes who had travelled from Denmark.

At the start of the second half, the Danes almost had a second goal with Vilhelm Wolfhagen shot being saved by the keeper. Four minutes later in the 49th minute, Stan Fazackerley scored the equaliser with the crowd cheering on the English in hope of defending their title. That goal meant the game was all tied up with England and Denmark wanting to score the winning goal to take home the world cup for their nation. Though both defences tightened up and the determination with the only break of this determination being in the 77th mintue when Hampton gave England the lead and for the English dominated crowd, they thought that it was over and England the title.

Except that Denmark was still in the hunt and for the small Dane crowd, there was hope that they would level and nine minutes later, Nørland scored his second for the match as they had levelled the match with it going to extra time which meant another thirty minutes of the match. During extra time, it would be Denmark that took the match as they scored two goals from Dolf Van der Nagel (who was on debut) and Nielsen to give Denmark their first (and to date only) World Cup trimuph.

## Goalscorers

7 goals

* File:Flag of Denmark.svg Sophus Nielsen
* File:Flag of the Netherlands.svg Jan Vos

5 goals

* File:Flag of Norway.svg Rolf Maartmann

4 goals

* File:Flag of England.svg Harold Fleming
* File:Flag of England.svg Edwin Latherton

3 goals

* File:Flag of Denmark.svg Oskar Nørland
* File:Flag of France.svg Gaston Barreau
* File:Flag of Italy (1861-1946).svg Renzo De Vecchi

2 goals

* File:Flag of Denmark.svg Emil Jørgensen
* File:Flag of England.svg Stan Fazackerley
* File:Flag of England.svg George Holley
* File:Flag of Norway.svg Kaare Engebretsen
* File:Flag of Italy (1861-1946).svg Felice Berardo
* File:Flag of Italy (1861-1946).svg Carlo Corna
* File:Flag of Italy (1861-1946).svg Pietro Leone
* File:Flag of Scotland.svg Joe Donnachie
* File:Flag of Sweden.svg Karl Bergström
* File:Flag of Switzerland.svg Paul Wyss

1 goal

* File:Flag of Argentina.svg Dannaher
* File:Flag of Argentina.svg Juan Enrique Hayes
* File:Flag of Argentina.svg Alberto Ohaco
* File:Flag of Austria.svg Angelo Mattea
* File:Flag of Austria.svg Robert Merz
* File:Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Mathieu Bragard
* File:Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Sylvain Brébart
* File:Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Fernand Nisot
* File:Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Jules Suetens
* File:Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Jan Van Cant
* File:Flag of Denmark.svg Sven Knudsen
* File:Flag of Denmark.svg Dolf Van der Nagel
* File:Flag of Denmark.svg Vilhelm Wolfhagen
* File:Flag of England.svg Dicky Bond
* File:Flag of England.svg Harry Hampton
* File:Flag of England.svg Billy Wedlock
* File:Flag of France.svg Raymond Dubly
* File:Flag of France.svg Charles Géronimi
* File:Flag of France.svg Étienne Jourde
* File:Flag of the German Empire.svg Richard Queck
* File:Flag of Ireland.svg Billy Gillespie
* File:Flag of Ireland.svg Samuel Young
* File:Flag of Italy (1861-1946).svg Aldo Cevenini
* File:Flag of Italy (1861-1946).svg Francisco Olazar
* File:Flag of the Netherlands.svg Leo Bosschart
* File:Flag of the Netherlands.svg Joop Boutmy
* File:Flag of the Netherlands.svg Wout Buitenweg
* File:Flag of the Netherlands.svg Felix von Heijden
* File:Flag of Norway.svg Jonas Aas
* File:Flag of Norway.svg Erling Maartmann
* File:Flag of Scotland.svg Jimmy McMenemy
* File:Flag of Scotland.svg Andy Wilson
* File:Flag of Sweden.svg Erik Börjesson
* File:Flag of Sweden.svg Birger Carlsson
* File:Flag of Sweden.svg Gustav Sandberg
* File:Flag of Sweden.svg Iwar Swensson
* File:Flag of Switzerland.svg Pierre Collet
* File:Flag of Switzerland.svg Otto Märki
* File:Flag of Switzerland.svg Ernst Weiss