Football Files

<p>Pelé was kicked in the knee in the first match and the spine in the second. He left the tournament on a stretcher and vowed never to play in another World Cup. </p><p>Meanwhile, a team from North Korea — a country...

<p>Colombia qualified for their first World Cup in nineteen sixty-two and drew four-four with the Soviet Union. They did not qualify again for twenty-eight years. In nineteen ninety-three they beat Argentina five-nil in...

<p>He was born with a deformed spine, one leg six centimetres shorter than the other, both legs bent in opposite directions. Doctors said he would never walk properly. In the quarter-final against England a dog invaded...

<p>The first foul came after twelve seconds. The first sending-off after four minutes. The Italian players had handed flowers to Chilean women in the crowd before kickoff. The flowers were thrown back. </p><p>The...

<p>In the final, Sweden scored first. Then a seventeen-year-old from a Brazilian railroad town controlled a high ball on his chest, flicked it over a defender, and volleyed it into the net before it touched the ground...

<p>Brazil's squad psychologist tested the players and declared Pelé "too infantile" to participate. The manager replied: you may be right, but you know nothing about football. Just Fontaine damaged his boots in training...

<p>Hungary led two goals to nil after eight minutes. They had not lost in thirty-one matches. Their opponents had lost to them eight goals to three three weeks earlier. West Germany's captain could only perform at his...

<p>In the tunnel before the match at Wembley, an England player pointed at the stocky Hungarian captain and said: look at that little fat chap — we'll murder this lot. Hungary won six goals to three. </p><p>It was the...

<p>On the morning of July sixteenth, nineteen fifty, a Rio de Janeiro newspaper printed the photograph of the world champions. The match had not yet been played. Two hundred thousand people were inside the Maracanã by...

<p>England arrived at their first World Cup as heavy favourites. Their opponents, the United States, included a Haitian dishwasher studying accounting who was not yet an American citizen. England had not lost to a...

<p>On May fourth, nineteen forty-nine, a plane carrying the entire Torino squad flew into a hillside above Turin in thick fog. There were no survivors. Eight of the dead were Italy's national team. </p><p>Twelve months...

<p>On the eve of the 1938 World Cup final, Italy's players received a telegram from Rome. It read: "Win or die." Italy's captain scored the winning penalty with one hand holding up his shorts. </p><p>Brazil left out...

<p>Austria qualified for the 1938 World Cup and then ceased to exist as a nation. Their players were conscripted into the German squad — except one, who refused. Spain withdrew because of a civil war. </p><p>A Brazilian...

<p>Austria's Wunderteam were probably the best side in the world in 1934. Their forward Matthias Sindelar — Der Papierene, the Paper Man — played football like a diagram of where a footballer should be. </p><p>The...

<p>Mussolini told his football federation chief: "You don't understand. I said Italy must win the World Cup." The 1934 tournament was the first to be used as state propaganda — referees selected, opponents targeted, a...