Make no mistake, the Italian national team of the 1930’s was an incredibly talented side, without a doubt one of the best teams to ever play the game. Their manager Vittorio Pozzo was a tactical genius, one of the best managers in history and remains the only person to win the World Cup twice as coach. In addition, he took the job for free, receiving no payment for coaching the team. However, their 1934 World Cup win has been described as, well, controversial.  Not everything went their way; even though they hosted the tournament, they were still required to qualify like all the other teams. We would have witnessed a very different World Cup had they lost their qualifying match against Greece. But, the Italians were too good for the Greeks, and way too good for their first opponents, the hapless United States, who were demolished 7-1.  The New York Times reported that if it wasn’t for American keeper Julius Hjulian, the score would have been even higher.

 

The knock-out format of the competition meant that Italy’s next game was a quarter final against Spain. The game finished 1-1, and hence was required to be replayed the next day as stipulated by the rules. The Italians were brutal against the Spaniards in the replay, causing three Spanish players to leave the field with injuries. Several questionable decisions went the Italians way, and they were through to the semis, 3-1, where they faced Austria’s Wunderteam. Again, the referee played perhaps a larger role than he should have in seeing Italy through to the final with a 1-0 score. The same referee officiated the final, in which Italy fell behind against Czechoslovakia before striking back with the clock ticking down and then hitting the winner in extra-time. It’s somewhat difficult to argue that outside forces didn’t have a lot to do with Italy’s success in 1934 (such as Benito Mussolini, who’s influence -and interference- was felt throughout the tournament, particularly in games featuring Italy), however their next World Cup was a different story entirely.

 

First though, the Italians had the 1936 Olympic Games to tackle, straight after winning the Central European International Cup in 1935. Controversy followed the team to the games, where in their first match, the German referee was quite literally restrained from sending off Piccini for two rough challenges, his arms held down and mouth covered by Italian players. The ref was so intimidated, Puccini stayed on, and Italy won. They then smashed the Empire of Japan in a fair game by 8 goals to nil. Following victory over Norway, Italy took the gold against Austria.

 

The side that took the field in the 1938 World Cup was far superior to the 1934 team, and this time they deserved to be world champions. Meazza especially was under pressure to play well, having recieved a telegram from Mussolini simply reading “Win or die!”Due to Italy’s fascist government, they were far from popular among the French spectators and their salute before the game  against Norway was met with widespread booing. For the match against the hosts, Italy wore an all black strip under instructions from Mussolini. The scores were one a piece at half time, but Silvio Piola scored 2 in the second half to grant his team victory over France. Brazil’s overconfident coach rested 2 key players when his side met Italy in the semis, and was punished with a 2-1 loss. Then it was the physical Italians versus the skilful Hungarians in the final, Italy coming out on top in 4-2 thriller, giving them a much more legitimate world championship. At the end of the day, however Italy achieved these, the history books will forever list back to back World Cups, a European championship and an Olympic gold medal as Italy’s successes during the 1930’s.

Achievements: FIFA World Cup – Champions x2
                        Olympic Games – Gold medal x1
                        Central European International Cup – Winners x1

Star player: Giuseppe Meazza DoB 23 August 1910, Milan, Italy, nickname: Il Ballila

Meazza is simply a legend in Italian football, and, in fact, world football, being ranked the forth best World Cup player and the greatest Italian player of all time. A Milan native, he scored 242 goals in 365 games for Internazionale, and captained Italy to victory in two World Cups. His father was killed in World War I when Meazza was just 7, so he grew up with his mother, helping her sell fruit at a market. His mother used to hide his boots so he wouldn’t ‘waste his time’, and as a result Giuseppe learned to play football barefoot, using a ball made of rags. A notorious ladies man, he was known for having a passion for champagne and Tango (and women), and employed his dancing skills to make himself unpredictable on the football field, scoring with a foxtrot tempo. In 1933, Juventus goalkeeper Gianpietro Combi made two bets with Meazza: one, that he couldn't score past him with a bicycle kick, and two, that he couldn't sidestep past him and score. The next time Inter and Juventus met, Meazza scored two goals past Combi in these exact manners. Combi immediately got up and shook Meazza's hand. His trademark goals were ones where he would collect the ball at the half-line, dribble through several opponents with a series of twinkle-toed shuffles and turns, until arriving in front of the goal, where he would stop and invite the goalkeeper to attack him like a matador, before faking a shot, then dribbling past the beaten goalkeeper to slot home easily. He would occasionally get into trouble for turning up to games mere minutes before kick off. A story in his own words goes, "Luckily I lived near the stadium, and I managed to get there in a rush. My teammates and the coach looked at me disapprovingly. It was only five minutes before the kick-off, so I quickly changed and joined the team on the pitch. I could hear the Inter directors saying: 'We'll deal with him after the match. We'll find out what he's been up to.' Luckily I scored a hat-trick so afterwards no one said a word!" On another occasion, there was five minutes to kick off and Meazza had still not shown up, so Inter sent two club staffers in a car to find him. They went to his house and found him fast asleep and snoring after a night of lovemaking. They dragged him out of bed and got him to the stadium just in time. In that game, he scored 2 goals in a 2-1 win over Juventus, clinching the Serie A title for Inter. San Siro Stadium, the home of AC and Inter Milan, is now officially called Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in his honor.