Most likely none of us were even born back then — certainly not me — but today is the perfect day to talk about the Battle of Bordeaux, in 1938. In today’s Drop of Nostalgia, we’re going way back in time to revisit Brazil’s national team at the FIFA World Cup.
In the third World Cup ever held, Brazil opened its campaign with an insane 6-5 victory over Poland and was then drawn against Czechoslovakia in the quarter-finals. And that’s when things got heated for the Seleção…
Led by Leônidas da Silva, Brazil took part in one of the most violent matches of its era. The game entered World Cup history as the first to feature three expulsions, a record that would only be surpassed 68 years later at the 2006 World Cup (Portugal 1-0 Netherlands).
The first match ended 1-1 and was filled with controversy. The Brazilian newspaper Jornal dos Sports accused the Europeans of excessive violence, claiming that “with a different referee, we would have won.” Brazil played most of the match with only nine men and suffered important absences for the replay, scheduled just 48 hours later.
To put things into perspective, Czechoslovak goalkeeper František Plánička played for more than half an hour with a dislocated collarbone after colliding with Perácio, while top scorer Oldřich Nejedlý fractured his right foot. On the Brazilian side, Perácio was battered, and Leônidas, after taking countless blows, was unable to play.
On that June 12, 1938, Brazil took the field wearing its white kit, which was the nation’s primary uniform at the time. The famous yellow shirt would only appear in 1954. That collared jersey is now one of the rarest in Brazilian football history and did not even feature the CBD crest, the organization that preceded today’s CBF.
The campaign took Brazil to its first-ever World Cup semi-final, but the team was defeated 2-1 by Italy. Without the injured Leônidas, in a decision that remains controversial, Brazil had to settle for the third-place match, defeating Sweden 4-2. The 1938 World Cup ended as Brazil’s best campaign up to that point, with 14 goals scored, seven of them by Leônidas.
