Sweden 1958: Argentina failed and “O Rei” Pelé achieved the dream of Brazil

The love story between Brazil and the World Cup was null until 1958. Or rather, until the advent of Edson Arantes do Nascimento: “O Rei”, also known as Pele. The final against Uruguay in 1950, the legendary Maracanazo, left the country uneasy but an insatiable hunger for glory. The dream of the World Cup was getting closer and closer and would come true thanks to this unknown 17-year-old who would later, according to him and some records, score more than 1,000 goals in his career.

Pele was not the top scorer in that edition because Frenchman Just Fontaine was a machine. He converted 13 goals, the highest single in a World Cup, in 6 matches. However, France was not enough and had to be content with third place. Fontaine scored 3 goals against Paraguay, 2 against Yugoslavia and Northern Ireland, 1 against Scotland and Brazil and 4 against Germany. The French figure retired due to a double fracture of the tibia and fibula at the age of 28.

However, Pele was not far behind and scored 6 wins in 6 matches. The great curiosity is that he scored 3 in the semi-final against France and 2 in the final against Sweden. Brazil imposed a new tactical arrangement, 4 2 4 which sometimes became 4 3 3. Despite the tactics, the individual strength of the Brazilian team’s players made the difference. Despite being tied in the group stage with a collapsing England, Verdimarella qualified first after defeating Austria and the Soviet Union. In the quarter-finals, they beat Wales 1-0 and in both the semi-finals (France) and the final (Sweden) they crushed their opponents 5-2 respectively.

As happened to the Turin team in Italy in 1949, the Manchester United team suffered a plane crash in February 1958 in which 8 players died. Some of them were part of the England squad that qualified for the World Cup in Sweden months later. England were part of Group D at the World Cup along with Brazil, the Soviet Union and Austria. The UK team drew in 3 matches and were eliminated.

Lev Yashin Gloves

Although there are different versions about the use of gloves on goalkeepers, they all agree that the one who made them known throughout the world was the goalkeeper of the Soviet Union during the 1958 World Cup, Lev Yashin. The goalkeeper, nicknamed “The Black Spider”, is said to be one of the best goalkeepers in history. However, at that time, gloves were not those that exist today, but similar to those used in the cold. Only in 1966, the first gloves were officially made specifically for goalkeepers and in 1970 they were used by some goalkeepers at the World Cup in Mexico.

Returning after 24 years to world competitions has not been easy for Argentina. So much so that the match against Czechoslovakia where it was eliminated was called the “Sweden disaster”. Argentina joined Group A at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden along with Germany, Northern Ireland and Czechoslovakia. After drawing with Ireland and losing against Germany, they reached the last match with two points and the possibility of reaching the quarter-finals. Previously, they had to beat Czechoslovakia or draw and wait for other results.

Despite the illusion and hope, Argentina fell to Czechoslovakia 6-1 and left no chance to continue the competition. Czechoslovakia managed to reach the playoff against Northern Ireland but fell out and did not reach the quarter-finals either. Argentina reached the World Cup as the South American champion last year and with great personalities on the team. As expected, the loss and early elimination sparked controversy in the country and among the masses.

Criticism was directed at the leadership of the Asian Football Confederation and the technical staff of the selected team. The coach, Guillermo Stábile, resigned from a position he had held since 1939 in which he won six South American championships. For its part, the campus was greeted with insults and coin throwing.

“When we arrived in the country, after the cancellation, the plane had to land on a farm in Monte Grande so that they wouldn’t kill us. Some Argentine journalists who were in Sweden asked people to go look for us at the air station with sticks and stones, there was a lot of anger, they wanted to kill us. , they said we were traitors. Nobody thought Argentina lacked organization and none of us got paid a single peso to play in the World Cup,” said Amadeo Carrizo, goalkeeper of that team years later.

“We went blindfolded and blind. We were not physically or tactically ready to face three matches a week,” explained Angel Labruna, the striker of that team and the second top scorer in Argentine football history.

• Juan Francisco Lombardo – mouth

• Jose Varaca – Independent

• Orestes Corbatta – Racing

• Norberto Menendez – River

• David Acevedo – Independent

• Jose Ramos Delgado – Lanus

• Norberto Poggio – San Lorenzo

• Ludovico Aveo – Velez Sarsfield

• Riccardo Infante – Students

• Jose Sanfilippo – San Lorenzo

• Osvaldo Cruz – Independent