| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host country | Argentina |
| Dates | 14-29 May |
| Teams | 16 (from 4 confederations) |
| Venue(s) | 2 (in 2 host cities) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |  Italy (2nd title) |
| Runners-up |  Netherlands |
| Third place |  United States |
| Fourth place |  Portugal |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 17 |
| Goals scored | 64 (3.76 per match) |
| Attendance | 597,421 (35,142 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) | Giuseppe Meazza (6 goals) |
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.
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Seeding[]
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 |
|---|---|
|
|
Draw[]
| Round of 16 | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Final | |||||||||||
| May 14 - Avellaneda | ||||||||||||||
| Italy
|
5 | |||||||||||||
| May 20 - Buenos Aires | ||||||||||||||
 Bulgaria
|
0 | |||||||||||||
| Italy
|
3 | |||||||||||||
| May 14 - Buenos Aires | ||||||||||||||
 Argentina
|
0 | |||||||||||||
 Chile
|
2 | |||||||||||||
| May 25 - Buenos Aires | ||||||||||||||
| Argentina
|
4 | |||||||||||||
| Italy
|
5 | |||||||||||||
| May 15 - Avellaneda Replayed: May 18 | ||||||||||||||
| Portugal
|
1 | |||||||||||||
 Denmark
|
1 (0) | |||||||||||||
| May 20 - Avellaneda | ||||||||||||||
 Brazil
|
1 (3) | |||||||||||||
| Brazil
|
1 | |||||||||||||
| May 15 - Buenos Aires | ||||||||||||||
| Portugal
|
2 | |||||||||||||
 Switzerland
|
0 | |||||||||||||
| May 29 - Buenos Aires | ||||||||||||||
| Portugal
|
2 | |||||||||||||
| Italy
|
2 | |||||||||||||
| May 16 - Buenos Aires | ||||||||||||||
| Netherlands
|
0 | |||||||||||||
| File:Flag of Romania.svg Romania | 3 | |||||||||||||
| May 21 - Buenos Aires | ||||||||||||||
 Yugoslavia
|
1 | |||||||||||||
| File:Flag of Romania.svg Romania | 1 | |||||||||||||
| May 16 - Avellaneda | ||||||||||||||
| United States
|
2 | |||||||||||||
| Dutch East Indies
|
0 | |||||||||||||
| May 26 - Buenos Aires | ||||||||||||||
| United States
|
5 | |||||||||||||
| United States
|
2 | |||||||||||||
| May 17 - Avellaneda | ||||||||||||||
| Netherlands
|
3 | Third place | ||||||||||||
| File:Flag of Hungary with arms (state).svg Hungary | 3 | |||||||||||||
| May 21 - Avellaneda | May 29 - Buenos Aires | |||||||||||||
 Uruguay
|
2 | |||||||||||||
| File:Flag of Hungary with arms (state).svg Hungary | 0 | Portugal
|
1 | |||||||||||
| May 17 - Buenos Aires | ||||||||||||||
| Netherlands
|
1 | United States
|
2 | |||||||||||
| File:Flag of Latvia.svg Latvia | 1 | |||||||||||||
| Netherlands
|
5 | |||||||||||||
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.
May 16, 1938
|
| File:Flag of Romania.svg Romania | 3-1 | Yugoslavia
|
|---|---|---|
Dobay  13', 62'Kovács 41'
|
Marjanović 67'
|
May 17, 1938
|
| File:Flag of Hungary with arms (state).svg Hungary | 3-2 | Uruguay
|
|---|---|---|
| Turay 17' Zsengellér 59'Sas 82'
|
Varela 29', 34'
|
May 17, 1938
|
| File:Flag of Latvia.svg Latvia | 1-5 | Netherlands
|
|---|---|---|
| Vestermans 5'
|
van Spaandonck 47', 78' Vente 23'van Heel 41'de Boer 69'
|
Replay[]
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.
Semi Finals[]
Third Place Playoff[]
Final[]
Goalscorers[]
6 goals
5 goals
3 goals
2 goals
Alberto Zozaya- Gino Colaussi
- Giovanni Ferrari
- Puck van Heel
- Henk van Spaandonck
- Leen Vente
- João Cruz
- Fernando Peyroteo
- File:Flag of Romania.svg Ștefan Dobay
- Severino Varela
1 goal
- Vicente de la Mata
- Alejandro Scopelli
- Romeu
- Tim
- Domínguez
- Raúl Muñoz
- 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
- Ugo Locatelli
- File:Flag of Latvia.svg Iļja Vestermans
- Piet de Boer
- Kick Smit
- Frank Wels
- Pinga
- Soeiro
- File:Flag of Romania.svg Silviu Bindea
- File:Flag of Romania.svg Nicolae Kovács
- Sam McAlees
- John McEwan
- Alexander Rae
- Blagoje Marjanović
Tournament Rankings[]
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Qualifying countries and their results
| R | Team | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Italy |
4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 1 | +14 | 8 |
| 2 | Netherlands |
4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 5 | +4 | 6 |
| 3 | United States |
4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 5 | +6 | 6 |
| 4 | Portugal |
4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 8 | -2 | 4 |
| Eliminated in the quarter finals | |||||||||
| 5 | Brazil |
3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 | +2 | 3 |
| 6 | File:Flag of Romania.svg Romania | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 3 | +1 | 2 |
| 7 | File:Flag of Hungary with arms (state).svg Hungary | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 |
| 8 | Argentina |
2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 5 | -1 | 2 |
| Eliminated in the opening round | |||||||||
| 9 | Denmark |
2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | -3 | 1 |
| 10 | Uruguay |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | -1 | 0 |
| 11 | Chile |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | -2 | 0 |
| 12 | Yugoslavia |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | -2 | 0 |
| 13 | Switzerland |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | -2 | 0 |
| 14 | File:Flag of Latvia.svg Latvia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | -4 | 0 |
| =15 | Bulgaria |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | -5 | 0 |
| Dutch East Indies |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | -5 | 0 | |
Notes[]
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