1950 FIFA World Cup

The 1950 FIFA World Cup was the eighth FIFA World Cup to be held since its inception in 1906. It was the first World Cup after the Second World War after the planned 1942 and 1946 editions were cancelled.

This World Cup saw an attendance of over one million people for the first time in World Cup history which was reached in the final. Sweden who would take out the title after they defeated Great Britain by a score of 2-1 at Solna.

Background
After the Second World War ended in 1945 which cancelled the 1942 and 1946 editions of the World Cup, FIFA was keen to resurrect the competition as soon as possible so that they make plans. After the war, most of the European countries were in ruin and FIFA look towards the north as the Nordic countries stayed out of the war. On June 15, 1947, Sweden won the hosting rights for the 1950 edition. It was also discussed that the competition would expand to a twenty team competition to try and get more teams into international football.

Qualifying
Main Article: 1950 FIFA World Cup qualification Qualifying for the World Cup began in 1948 with the first round of North American qualifying taking place with Cuba taking on Hawaii. With the competition expanded to twenty teams and Sweden (hosts) and Italy (defending champions) automatically qualifying, this left eighteen spots remaining. Of these, ten spots went to Europe, four spots went to North America, three spots went to South America and one spot went to Asia.

Europe 🇦🇹 austria 🇧🇪 belgium 🇫🇷 france 🇬🇧 united kingdom 🇮🇹 italy 🇳🇴 norway 🇷🇴 romania 🇪🇸 spain 🇸🇪 sweden

North America 🇯🇲 jamaica 🇲🇽 mexico 🇺🇸 united states

CONMEBOL 🇧🇷 brazil 🇨🇱 chile

Asia 🇰🇷 south korea

Group A
Group A saw the hosts in Sweden being placed with two World Champions in Italy (1934 and 1938) and Belgium (1922) with the other two teams being Mexico and Chile. The big surprise in Group A was on the 20th June when scored the winning goal for Belgium to later cause a shock elimination of the Italians. Despite some people thinking that Sweden would only just scrape through the group stage, they would finish on top spot after a shaky start against Mexico (who would finish in the last spot) before winning three on the trot including a 4-2 win over Italy in Stockholm.

Group B
Group B saw a massive upset with the Netherlands struggling in the Group B with only a lonely win in the first match of the group against Jamaica who conceded 29 goals against them without even troubling the goalkeeper at the other end. The team that would replace the Netherlands would be Norway who claimed a surprise second in the group (Uruguay came in first) after scored a goal in the 76th minute to give Norway a victory over the second-ranked Netherlands. For Jamaica, as well as the worst World Cup record in history, they also were the wrong end of the record scoreline when the game against Uruguay saw a score line of eleven-nil in favour of Uruguay which is the biggest margin in a World Cup. Austria would be the unlucky one after the 2-2 draw against Norway on the final matchday couldn’t get the team into the quarter-finals.

Group C
Group C went according to the seeds that were set earlier in the year with France and Brazil each booking a spot in the quarter-final. But that wasn’t almost the case with third place Denmark needing to win against Spain to book a spot at the expensive of France and after conceding early in the second half, they got one back in the second half from but they couldn’t get a winner. Also in this group was debutantes Costa Rica who couldn’t defend against tough opposition but did score two goals with both being late in the match.

Group D
Group D saw the debut of Great Britain in a FIFA World Cup and they delivered on the favourite tag that was given to them before the tournament when they easily got through the group with four from four. The only real test for them was second place Yugoslavia who kept the team to only two lucky goals in the second half. Korea who was the second team that was debuting in this group almost caused a massive boilover when they ahead of the United States who lost to Romania in the first game when they were 4-3 up with only fifteen minutes left to play. But the Americans held the nerves and score two goals from who also got his hat-trick in this match to give the United States their only win of the group stage.

Quarter Finals
In quarterfinal action, all of the semi-finalists would be European after Uruguay and Brazil both got knocked out in their quarterfinals to France and Norway respectively. Also happening in the quarter-finals was the host nation in Sweden making it through to their first semi-final after they defeated Yugoslavia in extra time after scored a goal in the 117th minute to record the victory. In the other quarter-final it was Great Britain who would take out a 3-0 victory over Belgium with scoring a double in the victory.

Semi Finals
The Semi-Finals of the 1950 FIFA World Cup saw two new nations make it to the final for the first time. The first semi-final saw Sweden completely outplay their fellow Nordic opponents in Norway with goals on either side of the half giving the victory to Sweden at home.

Unlike the first semi, the second saw a struggle between two neighbours battled it out for all ninety minutes with both teams having numerous chances in taking out the victory. Extra time was the same and a lucky fluke in the 113th minute from got the British into the final at the expense of the French.

Third Place Playoff
In the curtain raiser to the final, it was Norway who would take out the victory by only a single goal over their French opponents with getting a goal in 63rd minute.

Final
For the Swedes, this would be a moment that the nation would savour as their team became the seventh team to win the World Cup after they defeated Great Britain in the final which was held at Solna. The man that got them the critical goal was who score the goal with ten minutes left to play in the match. This was also after they did fell behind early as scored the first goal of the match.

Goalscorers
7 goals
 * Flag of Brazil (1889-1960).svg

6 goals
 * Flag of Uruguay.svg

5 goals
 * Flag of France.svg
 * Flag of Korea (1882-1910).svg
 * Flag of Norway.svg
 * Flag of Sweden.svg
 * Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
 * Flag of Yugoslavia.svg

4 goals
 * Flag of Italy.svg
 * Flag of Uruguay.svg
 * Flag of Yugoslavia.svg

3 goals
 * Flag of Austria.svg
 * Flag of Belgium.svg
 * Flag of Brazil (1889-1960).svg
 * Flag of Brazil (1889-1960).svg
 * Flag of Denmark.svg
 * Flag of the Netherlands.svg
 * Flag of Norway.svg
 * Flag of Romania (1948-1952).svg
 * Flag of Sweden.svg
 * Flag of Sweden.svg
 * Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
 * Flag of Yugoslavia.svg

2 goals
 * Flag of Austria.svg
 * Flag of Brazil (1889-1960).svg
 * Flag of Denmark.svg
 * Flag of Denmark.svg
 * Flag of Denmark.svg
 * Flag of France.svg
 * Flag of France.svg
 * Flag of Italy.svg
 * Flag of the Netherlands.svg
 * Flag of Norway.svg
 * Flag of Norway.svg
 * Flag of Norway.svg
 * Flag of Spain (1945 - 1977).svg
 * Flag of Spain (1945 - 1977).svg
 * Flag of Sweden.svg
 * Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
 * Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
 * US flag 48 stars.svg
 * US flag 48 stars.svg
 * Flag of Uruguay.svg

1 goal
 * Flag of Austria.svg
 * Flag of Austria.svg
 * Flag of Austria.svg
 * Flag of Austria.svg
 * Flag of Belgium.svg
 * Flag of Belgium.svg
 * Flag of Belgium.svg
 * Flag of Brazil (1889-1960).svg
 * Flag of Brazil (1889-1960).svg
 * Flag of Brazil (1889-1960).svg
 * Flag of Chile.svg
 * Flag of Chile.svg
 * Flag of Chile.svg
 * Flag of Denmark.svg
 * Flag of France.svg
 * Flag of France.svg
 * Flag of France.svg
 * Flag of Italy.svg
 * Flag of Italy.svg
 * Flag of Italy.svg
 * Flag of Korea (1882-1910).svg
 * Flag of Korea (1882-1910).svg
 * Flag of Korea (1882-1910).svg
 * Flag of Mexico (1934-1968).svg
 * Flag of the Netherlands.svg
 * Flag of the Netherlands.svg
 * Flag of the Netherlands.svg
 * Flag of the Netherlands.svg
 * Flag of Norway.svg
 * Flag of Romania (1948-1952).svg
 * Flag of Romania (1948-1952).svg
 * Flag of Romania (1948-1952).svg
 * Flag of Spain (1945 - 1977).svg
 * Flag of Spain (1945 - 1977).svg
 * Flag of Spain (1945 - 1977).svg
 * Flag of Sweden.svg
 * Flag of Sweden.svg
 * Flag of Sweden.svg
 * Flag of Sweden.svg
 * Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
 * Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
 * Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
 * Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
 * Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
 * Flag of Uruguay.svg
 * Flag of Uruguay.svg
 * Flag of Uruguay.svg
 * Flag of Uruguay.svg
 * Flag of Uruguay.svg
 * Flag of Uruguay.svg
 * US flag 48 stars.svg
 * US flag 48 stars.svg
 * US flag 48 stars.svg
 * US flag 48 stars.svg
 * Flag of Yugoslavia.svg
 * Flag of Yugoslavia.svg

Unknown
 * Flag of Costa Rica.svg ??? (2 goals)

Trivia

 * This is the first time in World Cup history that the top two teams in the World have been eliminated in the group stage.
 * This would be the only time that the World Cup would have 20 teams as the next World Cup had four teams less which was the case until 1974.
 * This is also the first time that a World Cup winner came from a team that didn’t qualify in the previous edition.
 * Uruguay 11-0 win over Jamaica is the biggest win in the World Cup history and second only to the 17-1 result between Denmark and France at the 1908 Olympics.