FIFA World Cup: Italy, 1934

Qualifiers

After an enormous journey by sea, Mexico and USA played a qualifying match in Rome on 24 May 1934, three days before kick-off of the Italy 1934 finals. Mexico lost the match 4-2 and went home immediately and the USA went home three days later when they lost to Italy in the opening match.

Italy's World Cup 1934 player Allemandi was once banned from football for life for accepting a bribe. The Juventus player was found to have accepted a 50,000-Lire payment to cheat in a match against Torino. However, he was later re-instated and chosen as captain of the Italian national team in World Cup 1934.
Short-sighted Swiss center-forward Poldi Kielholz had to wear spectacles in matches of the 1934 finals? He scored three goals in two matches in the 1934 finals.
Italian player Raimondo Orsi went back to the stadium the day after the 1934 Final to demonstrate his spectacular curling shot, as the press photographers wanted to take a picture of Orsi's swerving shot that had turned into a winning goal in the Final. He tried more than 20 times to repeat that splendid shot on the same spot, but failed each time.
The result in the Final was 2-1 to Italy over Czechoslovakia after extra time.

The first qualifying match was between Sweden and Estonia (6:2) on 11 June 1933.
The first player to miss a penalty in World Cup finals was Brazil's Valdemar de Brito. De Brito missed the penalty in Brazil's 3-1 loss to Spain on 27 May 1934. That was Brazil's only match in the 1934 finals, and the only finals in which Brazil did not win any match. He later amended his reputation as he discovered and nurtured Pele.
The first tied match was between Italy and Spain, the score one all. The game was played in Florence, Italy on 31/05/1934.
The first match with extra-time was Austria vs France on 27/05/1934.
The first final with extra-time was Italy vs Czechoslovakia on 10/06/1934.
The first and only qualifying match played by a host country was by Italy (hosts) 4, Greece 0 on 25 March 1934.
The first player to have scored 4 goals in a qualifier was Ireland's Paddy Moore who scored 4 goals in their 4:4 draw with Belgium on 25 Feb 1934 in Dublin.
The first Asian country to play in a qualifying match was Palestine which lost 1:7 in Egypt on 10 March 1934.

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