Top scorer: Czechoslovakia’s Oldrich Nejedly (5 goals)
Number of games: 17
Total goals scored: 70
Average goals per game: 4.12
Highest scoring game: Italy’s 7-1 win over the U.S. on May 27
Total attendance: 395,000
Average attendance: 23,235
Although there was an even number of teams (16), there was no opening group stage. Instead, the tournament was a knockout competition from the start: if you lost, you went home. Games went to extra time in case the teams were tied after 90 minutes, and a replay (another game) if they were tied after 120 minutes. There were no penalty shootouts.
THE FINAL
All of Italy stood still on June 10 when Mussolini’s Azzurri and Czechoslovakia clashed in the final in Rome. It was a matchup that pitted teams with different styles: the Czechs displaying great skill and style with their short-passing game, and the Italians showcasing their stamina and strength. Both teams launched countless attacks, only to be thwarted. Finally, in the 70th minute came the breakthrough—winger Antonin Puc took a corner kick, and when the ball found its way back to him, he hammered it past Italian goalkeeper Giampiero Combi to make it 1-0 for the Czechs.
Czechoslovakia should have put the game away minutes later, but Jiri Sobotka squandered a scoring chance and Frantisek Svoboda’s shot slammed against the post. The Czechs paid for their poor finishing. With nine minutes left in regulation, Argentine-born Enrico Guaita fed a pass to fellow Argentine Raimundo Orsi. The winger split the defence and beat Czech goalkeeper Frantisek Planicka with a right-footed curler after feigning with his left to tie it 1-1.
Ninety minutes of furious action left both teams exhausted. Italy, though, was in far more trouble as the game went into extra time. Forward Angelo Schiavio looked tired in the waning minutes of regulation, while Giuseppe Meazza was limping. And yet, it was the Italians who broke the deadlock, conjuring a goal of pure magic in the 95th minute. The Czechs did not bother to mark the injured Meazza, and he made them rue that decision when he crossed to Guaita from the wing. Guaita passed to the tired Schiavio, who found open space after rounding Czech defender Josef Ctyroky and fired past Planicka.
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