The 1958 World Cup took place in Sweden from June 8 to June 29, 1958. 16 teams from 3 confederations participated in the final tournament: 12 from Europe (UEFA), 3 from South America (CONMEBOL), and 1 from North America, Central America and Caribbean (CONCACAF). Three teams made their first World Cup presentation (Northern Ireland, Soviet Union and Wales), and all going as far as the quarter-finals.
This championship marked a new era in the history of World Cups because it was the first to receive international television coverage. People from all corners of the globe had the opportunity to watch the World Cup on television. The World Cup in Sweden was spectacular and the best so far thanks to a marvellous Brazilian team. It was also notable for marking the debut on the world stage of an unknown 17-year-old Edson Arantes do Nascimento, more famously known as Pelé. Just Fontaine scored a World Cup record 13 goals, but nobody captured the attention and fantasy of fans like the young man Pelé.
The 1958 World Cup was won by the Brazilian team that defeated Sweden 5 to 2 in the final, including two goals of the incomparable Pelé, to achieve the deservedly first World Cup title. It was the only time in the World Cup history that a World Cup held in Europe was won by a non-European team.
The Vietnam War (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) begins (1955).
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The President of Panama, José Antonio Remón, is assassinated (1955).
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Albert Einstein, the father of modern physics, dies (1955).
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William Faulkner wins Pulitzer for The Fable (1955).
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J. R. R. Tolkien publishes The Lord of the Ring: The Return of the King (1955).
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Juan Rulfo publishes Pedro Páramo (1955).
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Morocco and Tunisia declare their independence (1956).
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Pakistan becomes the first Islamic Republic (1956).
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Israel invades the Sinai Peninsula (1956).
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The United Kingdom and France attack Egypt due to Suez Canal crisis (1956).
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Fidel Castro and Che Guevara parts from Mexico to Cuba aboard the Granma (1956).
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Rocky Marciano announces his retirement as undefeated Heavyweight Champion (1956).
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Cortina d'Ampezzo, holds the VII Winter Olympic Games (1956).
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Melbourne, Australia, holds the XVI Summer Olympic Games (1956).
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Elvis Presley's first RCA single, "Heartbreak Hotel", was a number one hit (1956).
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Sputnik I, the first Soviet Earth-orbiting artificial satellite, is launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit (1957).
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Juan Manuel Fangio, driving for Maserati, wins his record 5th Formula One World Driver's Championships (1957).
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An oral polio vaccine was developed by Albert Sabin (1957).
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Albert Sabine
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The first satellite of United States satellite is launched (1958).
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European Economic Community (EU) becomes effective (1958).
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Nikita Khrushchev becomes Premier of the Soviet Union (1958).
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Chad, Republic of the Congo, and Gabon gains their independence (1958).
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Pope Pius XII dies (1958).
Antecedents
Sweden was chosen to host the 1958 FIFA World Cup at the Congress held in Rio de Janeiro on 23 June 1950. Sweden was the only bid, so it was elected unopposed. The World Cup would be played in Europe twice in a row.
Before the tournament, England suffered the loss of three mainstays’ players, who died in the Munich air disaster on 6 February 1958. On the plane was the Manchester United football team, along with supporters and journalists. 23 of the 44 on the aircraft died.
On the other hand, FIFA had a new President: The English Arthur Drewry. He was the fifth President of FIFA, where he succeeded Rodolphe William Seeldrayers, serving from 1955 to 1961.
Qualification
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Participating countries:
54
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Withdrew:
5
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Qualified automatically:
2
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Teams that played at least one qualifying match:
47
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Matches:
89
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Total goals:
341 (3.83 per match)
A total of 55 teams signed up to participate in the 1958 World Cup qualification rounds, passing the 50 mark for the first time. Sweden, as the hosts, and West Germany, as the defending champions, qualified automatically, leaving 14 spots open for competition.
This was the first and only time in World Cup history that all United Kingdom teams qualified: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Two former champions, Italy and Uruguay, failed to qualify for the finals. This World Cup graced also the entry and qualification for the first time of the Soviet Union.
The 14 available spots were distributed in continental zones as shown below:
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Europe (UEFA): 27 teams competed for 9 direct places. Sweden, as host, and West Germany, as defending champion, qualified automatically.
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South America (CONMEBOL): 9 teams competed for 3 spots. Venezuela withdrew.
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North America, Central America and Caribbean (CONCACAF): 6 teams competed for 1 place.
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Asia (AFC) and Africa (CAF): 11 teams (including Israel, Cyprus and Turkey) competed for 1 spot. Republic of China, Hong Kong, Turkey and Cyprus withdrew.
Israel won the African and Asian zones without playing any games because its three opponents, Indonesia, Egypt and Sudan refused to play against Israel for political reasons. For this reason, FIFA decided that Israel would have to play a playoff match with a team of Europe that initially did not qualify. After Belgium refused, Wales, the runner-up of UEFA Group 4, was the team chosen to play against Israel. Wales won both matches and qualified. The first one by 2-0 in Tel-Aviv on 15 January 1958, and the second match by the same score in Cardiff on 5 February 1958. This was the first time that FIFA imposed a rule that no team would qualify without playing at least one match. Turkey, on the other hand, withdrew from qualifying after refusing to be included in the Asian group
A total of 46 teams played at least one qualifying match. 89 qualifying matches were played and 341 goals were scored.
Still trying to perfect the competition, the format of the competition changed again from 1954. The sixteen teams were split in four groups of four teams each in which they would face in the round-robin format. Two points were awarded for a win and one point for a draw. The best two teams of each group would move on to the quarter-finals. Thankfully, extra-time was not was not used to settle draws. If the first two teams finished on equal points then goal average would decide who was placed first and second. On the other hand, if the second and third team were equals on points, a playoff match had to be played to decide which team would progress to the following stage. If a play-off resulted in a draw, goal average from the group games would be used to determine who will advance to the next round. If the goal averages were equal then lots would have been drawn.
If a knockout match was tied after ninety minutes, then thirty minutes of extra time would be added. For any match other than the final, if the score were still tied after extra time, lots would have been drawn to decide which team advanced. The final would have been replayed if even after extra time. In the event, no replays or drawing of lots were necessary.
The teams were not seeded as in 1954. The teams were divided for purposes of the draw into four groups according to geographic basis. Each of the four groups would contain one team from Western Europe, one from Eastern Europe, one from the United Kingdom and one from Americas: Western European Pot (Sweden, West Germany, Austria and France), Eastern European Pot (Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia), British Pot (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales), and Americas Pot (Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Paraguay).
Squads
For a complete list of all squads that appeared in the 1958 FIFA World Cup, please, visit: 1958 World Cup squads
29 match officials from 22 countries and 2 confederation were the responsible for enforcing the laws of the game during the course of the 35 World Cup matches.
Action from all four groups kicked off on June 8 and there were some facts worth noting. In Group A, the defending champions and still very strong West Germany and the tiny Northern Ireland progressed to the knockout stage. The Northern Irish did one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history by qualifying for the quarter-finals, beating Czechoslovakia 1-0. The Irish finished second after upsetting the Czechs again in a playoff. On the other hand, Argentina, competing for the first time since 1934, finished last in the group and with a −5 goal differential. This drew the ire of many fans who did not expect such a bad result. France and Yugoslavia topped the Group B and advanced to the quarter-finals. The amazing Just Fontaine from France scored six goals, making him the tournament's top scorer. The second group saw one of the largest number of goals scored in a single group in the World Cup history with 27 goals in total (4.5 goals per game). The Swedish hosts had no problems winning Group C ahead of Wales and the last runner-up of the World Cup, Hungary. Wales earned three draws and then defeated Hungary 2-1 in a play-off match to decide which team accompany Sweden in the knock-out stage. The Hungarian team was expected to advance from their group, but they were diminished after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 that led to the departure of three of their biggest stars: Zoltán Czibor, Sándor Kocsis and Ferenc Puskás. As expected, a talented Brazilian team topped Group D ahead of Soviet Union and England. The Soviets, the reigning Olympic champions, took second thanks to a 1-0 playoff win against England. As aforementioned, the English team was weakened by the Munich Air Disaster. Having missed the first two games due to injury, the teenage Pele played the last game against the Soviet Union marking his debut in the world cups.
The quarterfinals saw no surprises. Brazil defeated Wales 1-0 with Pele scoring his first goal. France, meanwhile, dispatched Northern Ireland 4–0, with Just Fontaine managing another two goals. West Germany disposed of Yugoslavia 1-0 thanks to Helmut Rahn's goal, while Sweden had no problems and progressed to the semi-finals at the expense of the Soviet Union.
Brazilian team holding Ericofon's
Wales national football team
In the semi-finals, Brazil smashed to France 5-2 with a superb hat-trick of Pelé within 20 minutes. Despite being only 17, the Brazilian shone in this game. Sweden, on the other hand, continued their winning streak towards the final as they beat West Germany 3-1. Erich Juskowiak was sent off and remained in the records as the first ever German player to be sent off in an international game. The third place match saw the victory of France over West Germany 6-3. Just Fontaine added four more goals and this brought his total to 13 goals in one competition to set a new record.
The 1958 FIFA World Cup Final was contested onto a slippery field at the RåsundaStadium in Solna, before a crowd of over 50,000 and millions more watching in television, for the South American team, Brazil, and the host Sweden managed by Englishman George Raynor. Brazil with two supreme talented forwards, Pele and Garrincha, defeated Sweden 5-2 to win the first of many titles. Sweden took the lead in the first minutes of the game, but goals by Zagalo, Vava (two) and Pele (two) gave the Brazilians a deserved victory. Pelé enjoyed an outstanding competition and remains to this day the youngest ever winner of the World Cup. A legend was born. The Brazilians received the congratulations of King Gustav IV. This was the only time in the World Cup history that a World Cup held in Europe was won by a non-European team. This final had the highest number of goals scored by a winning team (5), the highest number of total goals scored (7); together with the World Cup finals in 1970 and 1998, it also had the greatest victory margin (3).
"When I passed to Didi, I made as if I was going to run forward but turned back instead. That confused the defender a little and he let the ball come through to me. When I controlled it on my chest he thought I was going to shoot. I got my foot on it and flicked it over his head, which was something the Europeans weren’t used to. They always tried to close you down because they were used to people shooting straightaway. I hit the ball before it touched the ground and in it went. It was one of the most beautiful goals of my career": Pele relives his side’s third goal
"After the fifth goal I didn’t want to mark Pele any more. I just wanted to applaud him ": Swedish defender Sigge Parling
Absolute frequency is a statistical term describing the number of times a particular piece of data, or value, appears during a trial or set of trials. Essentially, it is the number of times a particular thing happens. For example, in this World Cup one player from France scored thirteen goals, two scored three goals, one scored two goals, a two more players scored one goal. The sum of the absolute frequency represents the number of players that scored at least one goal (6 players in the case of France: 1 + 2 + 1 + 2 = 6). The sum of the product between the number of times per value results in the number of goals for a team (23 goals in the case of France: 1*13 + 2*3 + 1*2 + 2*1 = 23)
Milestone goals. The goal number 500 in the World Cups history was scored by Bobby Collins of Scotland in Norrköping on 11 June 1958. Collins scored the 2-3. Paraguay defeated Scotland 3-2.
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This was the first time that all United Kingdom's Home Nations qualified for the World Cup finals: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
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This was the only occasion on which Italy failed to qualify to World Cup finals. It was also the first and only time that Wales qualified for World Cup finals.
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Brazil's 1958 victory is still the only time a South American country has won the World Cup in Europe.
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The 1–1 draw between Wales and Mexico was the first point scored by Mexico in a World Cup.
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England and Brazil drew 0–0 in Gothenburg on 11 June 1958. This was the first ever goalless draw in a World Cup match.
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Erich Juskowiak was sent off in the semi-finals and remained in the records as the first ever German player to be sent off in an international game.
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The Final holds many records in World Cup history. Pelé became the youngest player to play a World Cup Finals, the youngest scorer in a World Cup Final and the youngest player to win a World Cup Winner's Medal.
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Nils Liedholm became the oldest player to score in a World Cup Final (35 years, 263 Days).
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Didí, Garrincha, Pelé and Zagallo from Brazil were one of the deadliest attacks in the history of the World Cups.
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Just Fontaine became the second player after Alcides Ghiggia to score in every match of a World Cup. Fontaine scored 13 goals in 6 matches.
Three playoffs game were needed to decide which team would advance to the following stage. In Group 1, Northern Ireland beat Czechoslovakia 2-1. In Group 3, Wales won the game to Hungary, 2-1. Finally, in Group 4, Soviet Union beat England, 1-0.
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The 1958 World Cup Final established three new records: This final had the highest number of goals scored by a winning team (5), the highest number of total goals scored (7), and the greatest victory margin (3).
The youngest player was Pelé from Brazil: 17y (23 October 1940). The youngest goalkeeper was Ramón Mayereggerfrom Paraguay: 24y (19 February 1934). The youngest scorer was Pelé from Brazil. The youngest champion was again Pelé from Brazil. The youngest captain was Juan Bautista Agüero from Paraguay: 22y (24 June 1935).
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The oldest player was Ángel Labruna from Argentina: 39y (28 September 1918). The oldest goalkeeper was Kalle Svensson from Sweden: 32y (11 November 1925). The oldest scorer was Gunnar Gren from Sweden: 37y (31 October 1920). The oldest champion was Nílton Santos from Brazil: 33y (16 May 1925). The oldest captain was also Nándor Hidegkuti from Hungary: 36y (3 March 1922).
Clubs and players
The most important teams that contributed players to the national teams are shown in the table below.
29 match officials from 22 countries and 2 confederation were the responsible for enforcing the laws of the game during the course of the 35 World Cup matches.
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The order of the table is based on the matches as referee.
This section presents the statistics of all dissmissals and cautions since the first 1930 FIFA World Cup held in Uruguay. However, the use of red and yellow cards to indicate sent-off and cautions were officially introduced at the 1970 World Cup.
Teams' discipline
Red cards are one of the most remarkable event that can impact the outcome of a game after goals and penalties. The team receiving the red card is in a vulnerable position and faces a significant disadvantage, mainly if it occurs in the first half. The opposing side on the other hand, receives the advantage and the score is more likely to be in their favor.
The top scorer (Golden Shoe) of the tournament was Just Fontaine from France, who would go on to score thirteen goals. The names that people probably remember from those times are:
England suffered the loss of three mainstays players before the tournament, who died in the Munich air disaster on 6 February 1958, when the British European Airways flight 609 crashed on its third attempt to take off at Munich-Riem Airport. On the plane was the Manchester United football team, along with supporters and journalists. Manchester United had become one of the most successful teams in Europe. They had won consecutive Championships in 1955/6 and 1956/7 and had reached successive European Cup semi-finals in 1956/7 and 1957/8. The football team was returning from a European Cup match in Belgrade, Yugoslavia against Red Star Belgrade, and had stopped to refuel in Munich. After two earlier unsuccessful take-offs due to technical problems, it looked unlikely that the plane would be making the return journey that day since it had started to snow heavily. So much so that Duncan Edwards, the star of Manchester United, sent a telegram to his landlady telling he would arrive tomorrow. It read: "All flights cancelled, flying tomorrow. Duncan”. However, the decision was made to have a third attempt. In the final attempt to take-off, the plane skidded off the end of the runway, crashed into the fence surrounding the airport and crossed a road before finishing in a house, home of a family of six. Twenty passengers died on board, and three people died later.
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Hungary attended the World Cup without their top stars, as Ferenc Puskás, Zoltán Czibor and Sándor Kocsis had been in exile in Western Europe.
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Guillermo Stábile from Argentina, who was runner up in the 1930 World Cup and top scorer of the tournament, was coach of Argentina in the 1958 World Cup. Argentina finished as the last place in Group 1, winning one match (Northern Ireland) and losing two others (Germany and Czechoslovakia). Stábile received 6 goals as Argentina coach against Czechoslovakia.
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Only 2,823 spectators watched the playoff game between Hungary and Wales. People boycotted the match to show sympathy with Imre Nagy, the Prime Minister of Hungary, who had been executed the previous day.
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The case of Just Fontaine, born in Marrakech, Morocco, is similar to that of Guillermo Stábile from Argentina in the 1930 World Cup. Fontaine was not a part of France´s first team, but an injury in the ankle of the first-choice Rene Bliard that was forced to return France before the tournament even started, let him play and be the top scorer of the tournament. Fontaine set the record for most goals scored in a single FIFA World Cup finals tournament (13), scoring one quadruple, one hat-trick and two braces. He has also scored the fourth most goals of any player in the World Cup history, beaten only by Ronaldo (15 goals in 3 WC), Gerd Müller (14 goals in 2 WC), and Miroslav Klose (14 goals in 3 WC).
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This was the first event televised to over 60 countries, albeit not in Eastern Europe because the system there was incompatible.
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Brazil introduced its innovative 4-2-4 system at the 1958 World Cup, a completely different schema from that used in football at the time. Shortly after Brazil’s triumph in Sweden, most teams in all around the globe switched over to 4-2-4 formation.
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One of the best players of all time appeared in the World Cup in Sweden: a 17 year old known as Edson Arantes do Nascimento, Pelé. Pelé was born on 23 October 1940, almost at the same time his rival in the final, Gunnar Gren, made his Sweden debut. Additional data, Pelé was the youngest scorer of the tournament, and Gren the oldest scorer of the 1958 World Cup.
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