1938 FIFA World Cup

The **1938 FIFA World Cup** was the seventh FIFA World Cup to be held since its inception in 1906. The bids started to come in 1933 and lasted until August 13, 1936, where Argentina won the bid to host the World Cup. This is eight years after the first World Cup to be held in South America. Fourteen teams advanced to the main competition joining Argentina (host nation) and Italy (defending champion). The Dutch East Indies became the first team to qualify through to the World Cup from the Asian region.

Italy won the World Cup for the second consecutive time after they defeated the Netherlands 2-0 in the final held in Buenos Aires. While United States finished in 3rd place after defeating Portugal in the curtain-raiser match.

## Background

On February 17, 1935, FIFA brought back knockout format which in 1910 was a failure in the country of Austria. The attempt at the possibility of doing a knockout competition was further strengthened by the recent Olympic competition which was held in Germany with crowds over an average of 35,000 people.

## Bids

Argentina was chosen to be the host of the 1938 FIFA World Cup after it was the only bid to come from the South America region. This meant that it would be the second time that South America would host the event after eight years.

## Qualifying

Main article: 1938 FIFA World Cup qualification

Qualifications for the 1938 FIFA World Cup began in January 1937 with the WEFF Championship being held in Italy. 16 teams made it through to the finals with Latvia, Dutch East Indies and Romania all making their debuts. Denmark returned to the World Cup for the first time in 24 years while Belgium was the highest team to not make it through to the World Cup as they were ranked 4th at the time.

File:Flag of Bulgaria.svg Bulgaria
File:Flag of Denmark.svg Denmark
File:Flag of Hungary with arms (state).svg Hungary
File:Flag of Italy (1861-1946).svg Italy
File:Flag of Latvia.svg Latvia
File:Flag of the Netherlands.svg Netherlands
File:Flag of Portugal.svg Portugal
File:Flag of Romania.svg Romania
File:Flag of Switzerland.svg  Switzerland
File:Flag of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.svg Yugoslavia

File:Flag of Argentina.svg Argentina
File:Flag of Brazil (1889-1960).svg Brazil
File:Flag of Chile.svg Chile
File:Flag of Uruguay.svg Uruguay
**North America**
File:U.S. flag, 48 stars.svg United States
**Asia**
File:Flag of the Netherlands.svg Dutch East Indies

## Seeding

* File:Flag of the Netherlands.svg Netherlands (2)
* File:Flag of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.svg Yugoslavia (4)
* File:Flag of Switzerland.svg  Switzerland (7)
* File:Flag of Argentina.svg Argentina (8) (Host)
* File:Flag of Brazil (1889-1960).svg Brazil (10)
* File:Flag of Hungary with arms (state).svg Hungary (11)
* File:U.S. flag, 48 stars.svg United States (15)
* File:Flag of Denmark.svg Denmark (27)
* File:Flag of Bulgaria.svg Bulgaria (30)
* File:Flag of Latvia.svg Latvia (34)
* File:Flag of Chile.svg Chile (42)
* File:Flag of the Netherlands.svg Dutch East Indies (50)
* File:Flag of Uruguay.svg Uruguay (3)
* File:Flag of Romania.svg Romania (31)

## Draw

### Round 1

The first round of the World Cup saw the debutants of the Dutch East Indies, Latvia and Romania in the World Cup. Only Romania would qualify to the quarter-finals from the three teams as they defeated Yugoslavia 3-1 with Stefan Dobay scoring a double. In other results from the opening round, Brazil and Denmark had to go to a second match after the first match ended in a 1-1 draw. The replay though would be a different story as Brazil dominated to win 3-0. Switzerland also was a shock elimination in the opening round as they joined Yugoslavia with a loss to Portugal while Italy gained an easy passage through into the quarters after defeating Bulgaria 5-0 with Giuesppe Meazza scoring a double.

### Quarter Finals

The quarter-finals of the World Cup saw the defending champions in Italy knocking out the hosts (Argentina) with three different goal scorers being on the scoresheet in the win. The Netherlands also qualified through to a semi final after a fifth minute goal from Frank Wels giving the win to the Dutch as they would be meeting the United States after a tight battle which saw them just get over Romania after Ray Volz scored the winner in the 85th minute of play. The other match saw Portugal qualify through to their first semi after defeating Brazil 2-1.

## Goalscorers

6 goals

* File:Flag of Italy (1861-1946).svg Giuseppe Meazza

5 goals

* File:U.S. flag, 48 stars.svg George Nemchick

3 goals

* File:Flag of Brazil (1889-1960).svg Leônidas
* File:Flag of Italy (1861-1946).svg Silvio Piola
* File:U.S. flag, 48 stars.svg Ray Volz

2 goals

* File:Flag of Argentina.svg Alberto Zozaya
* File:Flag of Italy (1861-1946).svg Gino Colaussi
* File:Flag of Italy (1861-1946).svg Giovanni Ferrari
* File:Flag of the Netherlands.svg Puck van Heel
* File:Flag of the Netherlands.svg Henk van Spaandonck
* File:Flag of the Netherlands.svg Leen Vente
* File:Flag of Portugal.svg João Cruz
* File:Flag of Portugal.svg Fernando Peyroteo
* File:Flag of Romania.svg Ștefan Dobay
* File:Flag of Uruguay.svg Severino Varela

1 goal

* File:Flag of Argentina.svg Vicente de la Mata
* File:Flag of Argentina.svg Alejandro Scopelli
* File:Flag of Brazil (1889-1960).svg Romeu
* File:Flag of Brazil (1889-1960).svg Tim
* File:Flag of Chile.svg Domínguez
* File:Flag of Chile.svg Raúl Muñoz
* File:Flag of Denmark.svg Arne Sørensen
* File:Flag of Hungary with arms (state).svg Ferenc Sas
* File:Flag of Hungary with arms (state).svg József Turay
* File:Flag of Hungary with arms (state).svg Gyula Zsengellér
* File:Flag of Italy (1861-1946).svg Ugo Locatelli
* File:Flag of Latvia.svg Iļja Vestermans
* File:Flag of the Netherlands.svg Piet de Boer
* File:Flag of the Netherlands.svg Kick Smit
* File:Flag of the Netherlands.svg Frank Wels
* File:Flag of Portugal.svg Pinga
* File:Flag of Portugal.svg Soeiro
* File:Flag of Romania.svg Silviu Bindea
* File:Flag of Romania.svg Nicolae Kovács
* File:U.S. flag, 48 stars.svg Sam McAlees
* File:U.S. flag, 48 stars.svg John McEwan
* File:U.S. flag, 48 stars.svg Alexander Rae
* File:Flag of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.svg Blagoje Marjanović