World Cup History: Sweden 1958

Written by flyfra on 10 February 2010 | No comments yet | in: World Cup

world Cup sweden 1958

World Cup Champion Sweden 1958: After the crackling final of 1954, ended with the unexpected victory of Germany on the hungarian team, we get to the 6th edition of the football world cup championship of 1958, held in Sweden.

The organization and choice of the country

During the previous world cup in Berne, FIFA decided to entrust to the Scandinavian country the organization of the world event, above all for political matters. Indeed, Scandinavia, during the Cold War, was the ideal setting for the competition both for economic and practical reasons.

The presence of TVs and the growing soccer passion made the world cup of ’58 very popular and an event waited by millions of fans everywhere.

The participants: the absence of Italy

L’incremento del numero delle squadre che ambivano a partecipare al torneo resero necessario, anche per questa edizione , una lunga fase di qualificazione che definì le 16 squadre partecipanti alla fase finale:

The number of teams which wanted to take part in the event rapidly increased during the years, and it leaded to, still for this edition, a long qualification period. At the end, 16 were the teams of the final:

Argentina
Austria
Brazil
Czechoslovakia
France
Wales
West Germany
England
Nord Ireland
Yugoslavia
Mexico
Paraguay
Scotland
Sweden
Hungary
Sovietic Union
As it can be seen, there were important absents in this edition. The heaviest was perhaps that of Italy.

The Italian team, for the first time in the world cup’s history did not manage to qualify in the final. It began the darkest moment of the blue team, which was stopped by Ireland (for 2-1), during the qualification step.

On the contrary, Argentina was able to qualify. Although it owned good players, it was obliged to take part in the event with a team not really competitive, according to its internal law that forbade to players who played in foreign team to join the their national team. For the first time, it is registered the presence of URSS and Wales.

For the next step, after the unsuccessful method of the “head teams”, the round’s composition was realized by geographical criterion:

The qualified teams were divided in 4 groups:

1st Group: Central and North Europe (Austria, France, Germany, Sweden)
2nd Group: America (Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay)
3rd Group: United Kingdom (Wales, England, Nord Ireland, Scottland)
4th Group: East Europe (Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, URSS)
Each round host a team belonging to each group.

This step stopped important teams such as England, Argentina and Hungary -undisputed character of the previous edition. The team appeared deeply upset by the socio-politic problems of its country, which leaded to the Revolution of 1956 in Budapest.

Garrincha, Didì, Vavà and Pelè: the great Brazil

Different was the walk of Brazil.

The Seleçao was qualified thank to talented players, who mainly applied a strict strategy to the play, whose mister was Vincent Feola.

During this world cup, one all-time great player: Pelè.

Pelè, whose real name was Edson Arantes do Nascimiento, was born in Tres Coracoes in 1940. Since he was young, he had the characteristics to become one of the greatest players of all the times.

His main peculiarities were the good dribbling, headers, and the excellent kick both for precision and power. He was perfectly ambidextrous and he had good acrobatic gifts. He was able to organize the team and the development of the match. For all these reasons, he was recognized in 2000, together with Maratona, the best player of the century.

Pelè was seventeen when he was chosen to take part in the team. The brazilian mister let him play in the last team of rounds, against URSS. He substituted Josè Altafini, and this choice was not simple for Feola.

Fans were against Feola’s choices, but the performance of the team and the wonderful action play of Pelè gave reason to the brazilian mister.

Pelè soon showed his qualities and bravery. In the quarter-finals the young man, become then “O Rey” in the world, scored the decisive goal against Wales. Crucial was his hat trick against France in the semi-final, ended with the crushing victory of the golden-green team.
The french team had among its players the greatest Just Fontaine, which in the World Cup of ‘ 58, won, with 13 goals, the record of scored goal by a single player in final step of the world competition. This record is still nowadays unbeaten. Fontaine began to play in the first half of the 50s in Nizza and then in Stade Reims, the powerful team of the moment.

Another real talent of the event was the brazilian Garrincha. He was born with several physical defects: a slight squint, the deformed backbone, the sprained pelvis and the left leg shorter than the right of six centimetres. For these reasons, many doctors advise him against his soccer career, but many people claimed that his defects made his movements unpredictable, making that his dribbling was incontrovertible.

Garrincha, Didì, Vavà e Pelè…the names of the Brazil’s Champion became a kind of magical carol, able to enchant even the back four of important teams

The final: Brazil – Sweden

29 June 1958 was the day of the final match: Brazil – Sweden.

The host team had beaten in the previous matches URSS and West Germany respectively for 2-0 and 3-1. Brazil was the favourite and Sweden was happy for the position reached until this moment. The final mirrored these estimates.

In spite of the two goals of Sweden scored by Nils Liedholm, excellent player and then Milan’s mister, and Simonsson, the match saw Brazil as protagonist, with 5 goals: one scored by Zagalo and the two goals scored by Vavà and Pelè.

Brazil is crowned world’s champion for the first time

During the last minutes of the match the radio-reporters seemed crazy, the long scream of “goaaaaaaaaal” keeped on resound in the air. Both in the main brazialian squares and in the little villages a great feast began. After eight years from the Maracanà tragedy, fans could rejoice for the achieved result.

Pictures of World Cup ‘58