1922 FIFA World Cup

The 1922 FIFA World Cup was the fourth edition of the FIFA World Cup, a tournament that was organised by FIFA since it's inception in 1906 and it was the first tournament after World War One. The tournament compared to the previous one in 1914 saw the tournament be reduced to only ten teams with all of them being neutral nations in the World War.

With the lowest amount of teams in the tournament's history, the format of the tournament changed to be a straight knock-out tournament with six of the ten teams receiving byes in the first round, while the remaining four (all being debutants) competed in the opening round. In the final, took home their first (and to date only) World Cup defeating the  2-1. came in third place after they defeated in the third-place playoff.

Background
After World War One, the main football nations of the British Isles (, Scotland, Wales and Ireland) stayed in Britain while Germany, Austria and Hungary who was defeated in WW-1 were expelled from FIFA. None of the Americas countries turned up in Europe to compete.

European infrastructure was also a problem for this World Cup with it not being effective and secure after WW-1. The host nation of the Netherlands, being neutral during WW-1, was the suitable host for the fourth edition of the World Cup.

Round 1
The opening round of the 1922 edition saw four teams who were making their first appearance at World Cup taking on each other in two matches to book a spot into the quarter finals. In the first match of the tournament, and  played in what was the only match that went into extra time during the tournament with Yugoslavia player  scoring the winning goal in the 109th minute of play. Spain attempted to get a goal back but with no success.

The following day at the same venue saw showed the damage that they could do in the tournament as they scored a 4-1 win over. scored two goals in the match while Luxembourg midfielder scored a late goal in the 86th minute to at least some pride for Luxembourg.

Quarter-finals
The Quarter Finals began on May 12 with two matches being played in Rotterdam and Zwolie. The first that was being played was between the and Yugoslavia. For the Dutch, they got over the Yugoslavia team who had play in extra time in their opening match. Goals from (2 goals) and  gave the Netherlands, their first semi-final appearance at a World Cup. In the other match that was played, book their first semi-final spot after defeating  with the winning goal coming from an Swedish defender with the cross being directed from  boot to give Switzerland the win.

In the most ingest battle for a spot in the semis, it was between Belgium and France in the capital. The match of the tournament showed what could be seen for the future of Belgian football. But France gave a fight to Belgium when they took a two goal lead at half time with (who was on debut) and  scoring the goals. But that didn't stop Belgium from trying to gain control of the game in the second half and with two goals from and  to level it with 10 minutes to go.

In what was the deciding factor, the Belgian midfielders of, and  helped  scoring the winning goal for Belgium. The French defensive struggle to past the midfielders of Belgium and the goal was scored from Michel to give Belgium the victory and spot in the Semi Final for the third time.

In the final quarter final, Italy got through to their second Semi Final after defeating Czechoslovakia 2-0 with and  scoring the winning goals. But the result was dampen by an injury from ending his tournament and his international career.

Third Place Playoff
Before the final, the third place playoff was played in Rotterdam. For Italy, a goal in the 43rd minute from meant that Italy would finish in third place for the second time in a row after finishing in that position at the last World Cup. Switzerland did get close in the second half but they couldn't break through the defense of the Italian goalkeeper in would make his first and only appearance at the international level.

Final
17-5-1922: Netherlands 1-2 Belgium (Amsterdam)