France has a chance to become the third country to win the Men’s World Cup twice in a row.
Defending their 2018 World Cup gold, “Les Bleus” will face Argentina in the World Cup final on Sunday.
If France wins the World Cup for the second time in a row, it would also break a 60-year period without consecutive World Cup titles.
For the first time, Italy won back-to-back championships in the men’s World Cup, in 1934 and 1938. The last time only Brazil was able to repeat the championship in the immediately following games. It first won the world championship in 1958 for the first time in its history and again in the 1962 Games.
The latter of the championships did not come easily. The championship’s trip to Brazil was preceded by, among other things, a natural disaster before the games and a tough tournament.
Ten minutes killed thousands
The 1962 World Cup was held in Chile. For Europeans, the distant South American country became the target of criticism as the organizing country of the Games, as it was considered a “football backwater”, without World Cup-level success. Two second places in the Copa America did not convince the press of the old continent enough.
However, there were very few options. Europe had won the three previous games. Argentina, which wanted the Games, was in a very unstable political situation.
– Since we have nothing, we create everything, wrote the chairman of the organizing committee of the Chilean Games by Carlos Dittborn must have said before the Games.
Chile wanted to convince the world as the tournament host. However, the country was faced with a difficult situation when the Games had already been awarded to it on record.
On May 22, at 3:11 p.m., the ground shook in the southern part of Chile. The strongest earthquake in world history, which according to several studies and measurements had a magnitude of up to 9.6, lasted ten minutes.
The earthquake caused landslides and tidal waves. Its effects were felt hundreds of kilometers away in other parts of South America, and the tsunamis it caused killed people even in Hawaii, more than 10,000 kilometers away.
The “Gran terremoto de Chile”, Chile’s Great Earthquake, left more than 20,000 people homeless and killed an estimated 6,000.
Reconstruction of the damage began. The traces of the earthquake were finally repaired two years later when the Games started. Due to the large financial efforts spent on the repair work, the competitions were finally organized in only four locations for economic reasons.
Fist competitions
The 1962 World Cup is remembered in terms of games, especially infamously because of the hard tackles seen there and the very defensively winning game.
For example, the “Battle of Santiago”, where the home team Chile and Italy met in the first group match, was left out of the Games.
Its seeds were sown a couple of weeks before the start of the Games. Italian reporters Corrado Pizzinelli and Antonio Ghirelli wrote a report from the country’s capital, describing Chile as an “underdeveloped country” and its citizens as “illiterate, malnourished and alcoholic”.
When the Chileans got their hands on the articles, all the Italian journalists had to hide while reporting on the games. They carried the Swiss flag with them.
The match between Chile and Italy turned out to be as expected: violent. The police stopped the match four times. In the match, the players kicked each other and exchanged punches. Chilean Leonel Sanchez broke Italy with his punches Humberto Maschian nasal. Chile won the match 2–0. Only two outings were given.
The nature of the tournament changed even Brazil, which was enchanted at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. The attacking winning football was left to be pulled from the back pocket with the biggest favorite and its outdated composition was changed to a more cautious form. The team’s style of play was influenced by the fact that the country had piloted the country to the World Cup gold four years earlier Vicente Feola moving to the side from the position of head coach. Feola had become seriously ill and was replaced Aymore Moreira.
The games of the game ended in the first block
Brazil marched through its opening group in the Games with two wins and one goalless draw. Although they won their group, in their second match against Czechoslovakia, the situation every Brazilian fears happened.
A 21-year-old star player, who later became a legend, Pele was admired by the whole world. The talented striker had decided the World Cup gold four years earlier, as well as the Copa Libertadores and Intercontinental Cup victories in his club team Santos.
At the Chile Games, Pele was expected to shine in the same way. However, the star, who scored one goal in the opening game against Mexico, ended his tournament in the 25th minute of the match against Czechoslovakia. Pele’s leg failed in the shooting situation and he badly injured his groin. The games of the tournament’s greatest player were over, even though Pele finished the fight.
When the biggest name ended up on the injured list, another popped up.
The suspension of Brazil’s savior was turned upside down
Manuel Francisco dos Santos i.e. more familiar to football fans Garrincha (Finnish little bird) came into the spotlight. Playing in his second World Cup, the skillful straggler scored four goals in the knockout stage of the tournament and led Brazil to the world championship.
However, the World Championship gold had not come without its ups and downs. Garrincha messed up in the semi-final against Chile and kicked From Eladio Roja assistant referee Esteban Marino in front. He told the matter forward and the referee Arturo Yamasaki chased Garrincha off the field. It also meant that the star was banned from the final.
For the Brazilian Football Association, it was a disaster that they wanted to prevent in every way. The association arranged a meeting of the tournament’s disciplinary committee, where the suspension was to be discussed and Marino had to testify about the foul. He was the only one on the field who had seen it happen.
When the meeting was about to start, Marino was nowhere to be seen, as the Brazilian federation had paid for his plane ticket to Europe. When there was no witness, Garrincha was not suspended. The star pier did not score in the final, but Brazil still beat Czechoslovakia 3–1.
The competitions were the star player’s last real glory days. Garrincha’s career stalled due to his off-field problems, particularly alcoholism. Several relationships brought the irresponsible star plenty of offspring with several different women, a total of 14 children.
One of Garrincha’s children, Ulf Lindberg, was born in Sweden through his parents’ brief relationship. Garrincha’s grandson, 24 years old Henrik Johanssonhas represented Sweden’s under-19 national team and is a contracted player of Trelleborgs IF, the country’s second tier.
The life of the hero of the 1962 World Cup and Brazil’s second consecutive World Cup gold came to an end in 1983. Garrincha fell into a coma due to long-term alcoholism and died the next day in the hospital from cirrhosis of the liver, aged only 49.
The final of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Argentina–France on Sunday at 17:00. Live broadcast on TV2, Areena and the app from 16:00.
Sources: Jari Ekberg: As if touching the sky – the history of the football World Cup (Otava, 2014), BBC
You can listen below to the part of Seppo Heikkinen’s 2014 Chess on Turf – football history program, which deals with the 1962 World Cup. The expert is non-fiction writer Jari Ekberg.