Facing the home team in a World Cup will never be a trivial task – even for a football giant. In 1954, Italy, then two-time champion of the competition, was drawn in the same group as hosts Switzerland and faced the Swiss in two games, due to the most picturesque format the tournament had ever had. She was surpassed in both matches and ended up being eliminated early. However, thanks to the vile contribution of a Brazilian referee, the Azzurri had many reasons to complain about the outcome of the first clash.
In the 1954 World Cup, Italy fell into Group 4, the only all-European group in the competition, alongside England, Switzerland and Belgium. However, one of the innovations in the regulations of that World Cup – which was not popular and was never repeated – provided that the two teams drawn as the top seeds of their groups would not face each other, and each team would play only two matches at this stage of the tournament. In this case, the Azzurri would only have to face the Swiss and Belgians, in that order.
On June 17, 1954, Italy would debut against the host, in Lausanne, with more doubts than certainties. Firstly, the team was still dealing with the direct impacts of the air disaster that killed Grande Torino, one of the greatest teams in the history of football, in 1949, and left it without some of its greatest stars, who died in the accident. Furthermore, the internal climate was not good and coach Lajos Czeizler was under pressure.
One of the few foreign coaches in Italy’s history, and the last of them, the Hungarian Czeizler faced quite a challenge. The team’s environment was very different from what he had at his disposal at Milan, in his best performance in Serie A, when he became an idol for ending a 44-year drought without Scudetti Rossoneri by commanding the trio formed by Gunnar Gren, Gunnar Nordahl and Nils Liedholm, which he took with him from Sweden, on his return to Belpaese, where he had previously worked.
If everything had flowed naturally in Lombardy, in the Nazionale he had to overcome an obstacle course. There were raids between directors and athletes, top hats that tried to impose wills and even lineups, players full of whims and demands from a club press, which did not respect the professional code of ethics and made biased analyses, depending on the teams for which certain players played.
For his debut, Czeizler certainly displeased the Florence newspapers, as he left out the players from Fiorentina, third placed in Serie A 1953-54, and bet six of his 11 chips on Inter, two-time champion. The efficiency of Alfredo Foni’s catenaccio meant that five of these athletes had defensive characteristics, despite striker Benito Lorenzi being one of the team’s great hopes, alongside the Bianconero Giampiero Boniperti. The other good offensive names were Ermes Muccinelli (also from Juventus) and Egisto Pandolfini and Carlo Galli, from Roma.
The controversial referee Vianna made absurd decisions and even threw a punch at Boniperti, captain of Italy (Keystone/Getty)
The lady of the house, in turn, was trained by the technician who invented the so-called Swiss bolt, a stratagem considered a precursor to the Italian catenaccio. The Austrian Karl Rappan had presented the concept to the world in the 1938 World Cup and repeated the idea with a good generation. However, despite the defensive nature of the scheme, the Swiss team had its most prominent names in its attackers: Josef Hügi, Jacques Fatton and Roger Vonlanthen, who would later play for Inter and Alessandria.
The fact is that, during the match, the world had the impression that Switzerland played with 12 players – yes, we are talking about the planet, since that World Cup was the first to be broadcast on television. And the 12th man was not the host fans, but the Brazilian referee Mário Vianna, who had a controversial career marked by conflicts of interest.
A member of the Special Police of the Getúlio Vargas dictatorship, Vianna began blowing the whistle in the 1930s and, possessing a robust physique, developed a rigorous and aggressive style, at a time when referees fought with athletes and even fans. This tough attitude, however, seems to have been tamed in the Alps, when the judge from Rio de Janeiro stayed, with several perks, at the Swiss Sports School, in Magglingen, where the Swiss team was concentrated for the World Cup.
Around 18 minutes after Vianna authorized the start of the game between Switzerland and Italy, the hosts opened the scoring with Robert Ballaman, after a cross from Fatton. The Azzurri tried to react and dominated the remainder of the initial stage, although they had many difficulties in breaking through the opponent’s defense. Until, at 44, after a ball sent into the area, archer Eugène Parlier missed his goal and, in the end, captain Boniperti left everything the same.
In extra time, Italy found the net again. Galli passed two opponents, hit the post and, on the rebound, Lorenzi scored. However, Vianna surprisingly canceled the move, to the fury of the Azzurri, who attacked the referee: a circle formed, with pushes from both sides. First, according to reports from the author of the goal, the Brazilian would have claimed that the play was invalidated due to offside – which there was not, as the Italian was clearly behind two Swiss defenders – and, secondly, due to the Roman player’s foul, who didn’t even touch him. opponents. In short, an obscene marking.
Italy tried to overcome the opponent’s defense at any cost, but stopped in the Swiss trap (Keystone/Getty)
Time passed and Italy even hit the post, with Muccinelli. But, in the 78th minute, it was Switzerland who scored – in another controversial move. Sepp Hügi counterattacked and beat Omero Tognon, tugging his shirt, and finished to beat Giorgio Ghezzi, scoring the winning goal for Switzerland. At the final whistle, the Italians attacked Vianna, who was covered in insults, kicks in the rear, pushing and punching. On the other hand, he would also have punched Boniperti.
That would not be Vianna’s only controversy in the 1954 World Cup. Later, in the quarter-finals, the Rio native acted as a commentator for a Brazilian radio – something unthinkable nowadays for an active judge – and, to make matters worse, he became very nervous about the elimination of Brazil against Hungary. At the time, he said that the Englishman Arthur Ellis, who refereed the game, had helped the Hungarians because he was a “thug and a communist”. He also accused the arbitration committee of a “clique of thieves”. For this, he was banned by FIFA. After that, he started working at Rádio Globo and even coached some teams, confirming how much he despised the notion of conflict of interest.
And Italy? Well, the Nazionale reacted against Belgium, with a 4-1 defeat, and had the chance to take revenge on Switzerland in that same World Cup, due to the aforementioned competition regulations: in the event of a tie on points between second and third placed, an extra game would be played to decide which one would advance to the knockout stages. And this happened because the hosts lost 2-0 to England.
In Basel, then, Switzerland and Italy faced each other on June 23, less than a week after the Lausanne duel and three days after their other commitments in Group 4. A tiebreaker that, for the Italians, perhaps should not have been disputed, as the home team won by a resounding 4 to 1. A result shrouded in suspicion for Lorenzi, known for being an athlete full of tricks – and who, for this reason, earned the nickname “Veleno” or “poison”, in Portuguese.
“I’m not saying they were doped, because I have no proof. But they had played two games in three days, like us, and so they must have been as tired as we were. But they physically crushed us. Later, in the quarterfinals, suspicions grew. They played against Austria and were ahead by many goals, but they conceded several more in a row and the game ended 7-5 for the Austrians! A fall [física] very strange”, he told journalist Aldo Pacor.
In the extra game, Italy and Switzerland had no problems with the refereeing, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t have controversies (Popperfoto/Getty)
Despite suspecting yet another Swiss fraud, Lorenzi also identified flaws in Italy. The striker states that he asked Czeizler not to play, as he was too tired, but received the coach’s refusal – “for 20 minutes, I did wonders; then I disappeared”, he confided to Pacor. The Interista also disapproved of the fact that the tough Rino Ferrario, from Fiorentina, was not chosen by the Hungarian coach to be Hügi’s marker.
One of the many capricious players in that squad, the midfielder also did not accept the exclusion well and cursed the coach in front of the delegation and journalists, while boarding the bus heading to the St. Jakob stadium. For Lorenzi, the commander lacked pulse throughout the expedition to Switzerland. “Czeizler was a calm and kind guy. A philosopher. But with the Azzurri you had to use a stick with a carrot at the end.” In other words, the group needed to be guided. As did the severe Vittorio Pozzo, two-time world champion in 1934 and 1938.
In the end, Czeizler sent a team without the injured Boniperti onto the field, with several other changes. And also with tired and unmotivated players. With that, Hügi opened the scoring in the 14th minute, after connecting with Vonlanthen and hitting Giovanni Viola’s counterfoot. At the beginning of the second half, Switzerland went all out and almost expanded with Charles Antenen. It wouldn’t take long to do so, however: at 48, on a corner kick, Fulvio Nesti dozed off and Ballaman appeared free to push the ball into the net.
Trying to draw strength from unthinkable places, Italy once again ran into the Swiss lock. And it would only reduce the loss in a fortuitous move: after a cross in the area, Charles Casali tried to clear the ball and sent it towards Nesti’s head, who redeemed himself by making the correct movement to test it into the net. A goal that did not change the trajectory of the match.
Without legs, the Azzurri went on the attack, but only exposed themselves to Swiss counterattacks. And it was in this way that, in the final stretch of the fight, Vonlanthen added two more assists to his account: first for Hügi to shoot at 85, saving a doppietta on his 24th birthday, and, at 90, he even dribbled past Viola before rolling in for Fatton to close out the scoring. The hosts qualified to face neighbors Austria in the quarter-finals and were defeated in the match in which the most goals were recorded in the history of the World Cup (12).
For Italy, the elimination resulted in the dismissal of Czeizler and the reformulation of the entire coaching staff, with the arrival of Foni, two-time Serie A champion with Inter, to command. It didn’t do much good, actually: the Nazionale continued in a lean period, even with good coaches and talented generations in later years. The bad times lasted until 1968, when the Azzurri won their first Euro and were able to exorcise some ghosts.
Switzerland 2-1 Italy
Switzerland: Parlier; Bocquet, Neury, Flückiger; Casali, Kernen; Fatton, Hügi, Vonlanthen; Ballaman, Meier. Technician: Karl Rappan. Italy: Ghezzi; Vincenzi, Giacomazzi; Tognon, Nesti, Neri; Pandolfini, Boniperti; Muccinelli, Galli, Lorenzi. Coach: Lajos Czeizler. Goals: Ballaman (18′) and Hügi (78′); Boniperti (44′) Referee: Mário Vianna (Brazil) Local e data: Olympique de la Pontaise stadium, Lausanne (Switzerland), on June 17, 1954
Switzerland 4-1 Italy (extra game)
Switzerland: Parlier; Bocquet, Neury, Kernen; Casali, Eggimann; Fatton, Hügi, Vonlanthen; Ballaman, you are welcome. Technico: Karl Rappan. Italy: Viola; Magnini, Giacomazzi; Tognon, Nesti, Mari; Pandolfini, Segato; Muccinelli, Lorenzi, Frignani. Coach: Lajos Czeizler. Goals: Hügi (14′ and 85′), Ballaman (48′) and Fatton (90′); Nesti (67′) Referee: Benjamin Griffiths (Gales) Local e data: St. Jakob stadium, Basel (Switzerland), on June 23, 1954
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2024-06-24 02:24:27
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