1950 Brazil Trivia

1. How many teams actually competed in this tournament?

From Quiz 1950 FIFA World Cup

Answer: 13

16 originally qualified but India withdrew, leaving Group 3 with just 3 teams. Also Scotland and Turkey withdrew, leaving Group 4 with just 2 teams.

From Quiz The World Cup of Withdrawals

Answer: Scotland

Even before the World Cup 1950 was a fact, the British Nations had planned their traditional British Home Championship, in 1950. Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland and England participated in this tournament. In their wisdom, FIFA decided to use this tournament as qualification group 1, and because of the strength of British football, the first two of the tournament would automatically qualify. Scotland came in second after a narrow 0-1 loss against England at Hampden Park, but they already stated beforehand that they would only go if they became British Champions. Since England was champion, Scotland withdrew. Their spot was then offered to France. The Republic of Ireland of course is not a British Nation. They played four qualification matches in group 5 with Sweden and Finland. They lost twice against Sweden, won one and drew one against Finland. Only Sweden qualified from this group.

From Quiz 1950 FIFA World Cup

Answer: Brazil, Spain, Sweden and Uruguay

Brazil finished top of Group 1, a single point ahead of Yugoslavia. Spain finished top of Group 2, winning all their games, and finishing four points clear of all the other three teams in their group: England, Chile, and the USA. Sweden finished top of Group 3 (which consisted of only three teams), a point clear of former world champions Italy. Uruguay were lucky to be in Group 4, as both Turkey and Scotland from that group withdrew, so Uruguay just had to beat Bolivia once, and they did so 8-0.

From Quiz World Cup: Brazil 1950

Answer: Rio de Janeiro

The inaugural match between Brazil and Mexico, was played in the famous Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil won 4-0.

From Quiz 1950 FIFA World Cup

Answer: Uruguay

Uruguay won their 2nd world title there in Brazil. After their 8-0 annihilation of Bolivia and entry to the Final Round Group Stage with Sweden, Spain, and Brazil. They drew with Spain 2-2, and were slightly lucky to do so. They then picked up 2 points from a narrow 3-2 win over Sweden. Then, at the Maracana, Uruguay picked up what is considered as one of the biggest upsets in the history of football, a 2-1 victory.

From Quiz World Cup: Brazil 1950

Answer: A draw (2-2) against Switzerland

This draw came as a shock for Brazil. Only three days before, the Swiss lost 0-3 against Yugoslavia. Thus, Brazil was forced to beat Yugoslavia in order to finish in first place, and qualify to the final round. For the record, Brazil won 2-0.

From Quiz The World Cup of Withdrawals

Answer: They didn't qualify, were invited later on, accepted, and withdrew again

Group 3 was one of the few groups where teams were actually battling for qualification. In the preliminary round, Yugoslavia dispatched Israel comfortably with an 11-2 aggregate over two games. Then France and Yugoslavia twice played to a 1-1 draw in their home and away games. The deciding game on neutral ground (Florence, Italy) ended 3-2 after extra time in Yugoslavia's favour. After this elimination, France was offered Scotland's place, and initially accepted the offer. When they realised that the large distances in Brazil meant travelling more than 3000 kms between venues, they withdrew again. The World Cup was now two teams short (no one qualified from Group 2 as they all withdrew: Austria, Turkey and Syria).

From Quiz 1950 FIFA World Cup

Answer: -8

They bagged just 2 goals (in a 4-1 loss to Yugoslavia and a 2-1 loss to Switzerland) and conceded 10 in their three matches (the two told before and a 4-0 loss to Brazil). Bolivia also got a goal difference of -8 stemming from their 8-0 loss to Uruguay.

From Quiz World Cup: Brazil 1950

Answer: They beat Chile (2-0).

England scored a goal in each half (Mortensen and Mannion). At the time, little did they know that this was to be their only victory of the tournament. Subsequently they lost to the USA and Spain, with identical scores of 0-1.

From Quiz The World Cup of Withdrawals

Answer: They weren't allowed to play barefoot

Burma withdrew, so India had a walkover. Next they had to play either Indonesia or The Philippines, but both teams withdrew before even playing each other. India qualified without playing a game, but then withdrew, because FIFA didn't allow them to play barefoot. As much as it sounds like an April Fool's joke, all sources, including the official FIFA site, declare that India refused to come to Brazil because they didn't agree with the FIFA regulation requiring all teams to use appropriate footwear. This time, FIFA didn't even bother to invite another nation to take India's place. The World Cup was now three teams short (the qualifiers from Group 2 and Group 3 had withdrawn).

From Quiz 1950 FIFA World Cup

Answer: Uruguay

Uruguay's goal difference was +8 from their 8-0 victory over Bolivia. Brazil was +6 from scoring 8 goals and conceding 2. Yugoslavia's was +4 from scoring 7 goals and conceding 3. Spain's was +5 from scoring 6 goals and conceding 1.

From Quiz World Cup: Brazil 1950

Answer: It was the first defeat conceded by the reigning champions.

In 1934, Uruguay (who were the reigning Champions) did not participate in that year's edition, therefore technically, they were not defeated. In 1938, reigning champions Italy successfully defended their title with four wins out of four attempts.

From Quiz The World Cup of Withdrawals

Answer: 0

A total of eight South American nations originally signed up for the event. As hosts, Brazil was automatically qualified. Chile and Bolivia qualified without playing when favourite Argentina withdrew. Uruguay and Paraguay had walkovers too when Peru and Ecuador withdrew. At least South America sent enough teams.

From Quiz 1950 FIFA World Cup

Answer: Ermes Muccinelli

The 23-year old striker was able to bag the goal in the 75th minute. Riccardo Carapellese scored Italy's first goal in the 7th minute. Hasse Jeppson scored two of Sweden's three, in the 25th and 68th minutes. Sune Andersson scored Sweden's other in that match, in the 33rd minute.

From Quiz World Cup: Brazil 1950

Answer: Thirteen

In the second round, Brazil embarked on an initial goal-scoring spree. They flattened Sweden (7-1) and Spain (6-1). On the other hand, Uruguay managed only a draw against Spain (2-2) and a narrow win against Sweden (3-2).

From Quiz The World Cup of Withdrawals

Answer: None

What a relief this must have been for FIFA. The US, Mexico and Cuba were scheduled to play for two tickets to Brazil, and they actually did. To simplify things, instead of playing home and away games, they agreed to play all six games as a small tournament in Mexico City in September 1949. Mexico comfortably won that tournament (4 wins, 17-2 goals). Having drawn the first game 1-1, the United States grabbed the second qualification spot after beating Cuba 5-2 in the second. Still, because of the many withdrawals from beyond the Atlantic, the World Cup finals tournament was three teams short, which led to a rather bizarre group distribution. Two groups had the normal four teams, one group had only three teams, and one group had only two teams.

From Quiz World Cup: Brazil 1950

Answer: Ghiggia

In the 61st minute of the final game, with the score set at 1-1, Ghiggia scored to put Uruguay in the lead against Brazil, to the shock of the majority of the (circa) 200,000 watching the game at the Maracana Stadium.

From Quiz 1950 FIFA World Cup

Answer: Three

The first was by Mexican Hector Ortíz in the 89th minute of Mexico's 4-1 loss to Yugoslavia, so it was just a consolation goal. The second was by American Joe Maca in the 48th minute of USA's First Round match against Chile. This penalty equalised for USA after they went 2-0 down in the first half. Chile would go on to win the match 5-2. The final one was also insignificant as it was by Swede Sune Andersson in their 7-1 loss to Brazil in the Final Round.

From Quiz World Cup: Brazil 1950

Answer: Bolivia

Bolivia had little chance to score a goal in the tournament. They only played one game, and this was against the eventual World Cup Winners. The eight goal difference (0-8)is proof of the disparity that existed between both sides.

From Quiz The World Cup of Withdrawals

Answer: It wasn't actually the final

The World Cup 1950 is unique in many ways, one of them is that it is the only one without a final. Probably because Brazil wanted to increase their chances of winning, the last four teams didn't play semifinals and finals, but a round robin. The idea was that Brazil might lose a point by accident, but playing before a home crowd all the time, the win couldn't escape them in the end. They were very sure of their eventual win, medals were printed, a victory song composed. Brazil had every reason to be confident, Sweden and Spain were very good teams, but they were demolished by the host nation 7-1 and 6-1 respectively. Uruguay on the other hand barely beat Sweden 3-2 and only managed a 2-2 draw against Spain. Although it was a round robin group, the last two games felt like a third place match between Spain and Sweden, and a final between Uruguay and Brazil. Very often these matches are referred to as such but they weren't. A draw would have been enough for Spain to clinch third place, and for Brazil to win the title. In theory, Spain could even have won second place. As for the spectators: with an estimated 200,000+ people inside Maracana stadium (official attendance was 199,854), this game set a record for best watched football game of all-time.

From Quiz 1950 FIFA World Cup

Answer: 22

They beat Mexico 4-0 in the First Round, they drew 2-2 with Switzerland in the First Round, they beat Yugoslavia 2-0 in the First Round, they beat Sweden 7-1 in the Final Round, they beat Spain 6-1 in the Final Round, and lost 2-1 to Uruguay in the Final Round.

From Quiz World Cup: Brazil 1950

Answer: Against Sweden - four goals

Ademir excelled in the second round match between Brazil and Sweden. He scored four times, making the score 1-0, 2-0, 4-0 and 5-0 respectively. Not surprisingly, Brazil won the game (7-1).

From Quiz The World Cup of Withdrawals

Answer: 4

Uruguay was World Champion, and they only played 4 games to get there. Had everything gone to plan they would have played 12 games: 6 in the qualifying rounds, 3 in the group stages and 3 in the final round. As it turned out, they didn't play any qualifyers, only one game in the group stages (a 8-0 drubbing of Bolivia) and then three in the final group against Spain, Sweden and Brazil. For comparison, when Italy won the Cup in 2006, they needed a total of 17 games.

From Quiz 1950 FIFA World Cup

Answer: Chico, Zarra, and Alcides Ghiggia

Chico bagged his four with two against Spain and two against Sweden. Zarra got his four with one in a Final Round 3-1 loss to Sweden, one in a 1-0 victory over England, one in a 2-0 victory over Chile and one in a 3-1 victory over USA. Alcides Ghiggia achieved his four with one against Bolivia, one in their Final Round 2-2 draw against Spain, one in their Final Round 3-2 draw with Sweden and the winner in their decisive match against Brazil. Englishman Stan Mortensen scored one of England's two in the tournament, both being in the 2-0 victory over Chile, in the 39th minute.

This is category 5037

= Top 5% Rated Quiz, Top 10% Rated Quiz, Top 20% Rated Quiz, A Well Rated Quiz
= added recently, = Editor's Pick = FunTrivia Editor = Gold Member
Teachers / educators: FunTrivia welcomes the use of our website and quizzes in the classroom as a teaching aid or for preparing and testing students. See our education section. Our quizzes are printable and may be used as question sheets by k-12 teachers, parents, and home schoolers.

 ·  All questions, answers, and quiz content on this website is copyright FunTrivia, Inc and may not be reproduced without permission. Any images from TV shows and movies are copyright their studios, and are being used under "fair use" for commentary and education.