Polish Roster In World Cup Soccer France 1938

Brazil v Poland was a football match held during the 1938 FIFA World Cup in France and still remembered by many Polish fans as Poland's first ever FIFA World Cup match. It is also Brazil's highest-scoring match in a FIFA World Cups tournament. The match held the record for highest-scoring World Cup match until 1954, when Austria beat Switzerland 7–5.

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The teams

Brazil

All of the players called up by Adhemar Pimenta traveled to France:

*Batatais - goalkeeper (Fluminense)
* Walter - goalkeeper (Flamengo)
* Domingos da Guia - defender (Flamengo)
*Jaú - defender (Corinthians)
* Machado - defendfer (Fluminense)
* Nariz - defender (Botafogo)
* Afonsinho - midfielder ( São Cristóvão)
* Argemiro - midfielder ( Portuguesa Santista)
*Brandão - midfielder (Corinthians)
* Britto - midfielder ( America-RJ)
*Martim - midfielder (Botafogo)
* Zezé Procópio - midfielder (Botafogo)
* Hércules - forward (Fluminense)
*Leônidas - forward (Flamengo)
* Lopes - forward (Corinthians)
* Luisinho - forward ( Palestra Italia)
*Niginho - forward ( Vasco da Gama)
* Patesko - forward (Botafogo)
* Perácio - forward (Botafogo)
*Roberto - forward (São Cristóvão)
*Romeu Pellicciari - forward (Fluminense)
* Tim - forward (Fluminense)

Out of those, Batatais, Walter, Machado, Argemiro, Lopes, Perácio, Romeu Pellicciari, Hércules and Zezé Procópio had never played any matches for the national team before.

Poland

To Strasbourg, France, where Poland was going to play its first game versus Brazil (5 June 1938), Kałuża and Spoida took 15 players:

* Ewald Dytko - midfielder ( Dąb Katowice),
* Antoni Gałecki - defender (ŁKS Łódź),
* Wilhelm Góra - midfielder (Cracovia),
* Edward Madejski - goalkeeper (not representing any club at that time),
* Erwin Nyc - midfielder (Polonia Warszawa),
* Władysław Szczepaniak - defender (Polonia Warszawa),
* Leonard Piontek - forward (AKS Chorzów),
*Ryszard Piec - forward (Naprzód Lipiny),
*Wilhelm Piec - forward (Naprzód Lipiny),
* Fryderyk Scherfke - forward (Warta Poznań),
* Ernest Wilimowski - forward ( Ruch Chorzów),
* Gerard Wodarz - forward (Ruch Chorzów),
*Walter Brom - goalkeeper (Ruch Chorzów),
* Edmund Giemsa - midfielder (Ruch Chorzów),
* Stanisław Baran - midfielder ( Warszawianka Warszawa).

On the roster, there were two athletes who had never before put on a white-red jersey - midfielder Stanisław Baran and goalkeeper Walter Brom (who was then 17 years and 4 months old - up to this day Brom is the youngest goalkeeper on FIFA's World Cup list of participants).

In Poland, on stand-by reserve, seven players stayed behind. Those were:

* Ewald Cebula ( Śląsk Świętochłowice),
* Józef Korbas (Cracovia Kraków),
* Kazimierz Lis ( Warta Poznań),
* Edmund Tworz (Warta Poznań),
* Antoni Łyko (Wisła Kraków)
* Bolesław Habowski (Wisła Kraków),
* Jan Wasiewicz (Pogoń Lwów).

Preparations

Brazil

By 1930s, Brazil was not yet regarded as the world's top team. The team had participated in the two first World Cups, but with lackluster performances and preparations marred by behind-the-scenes infighting: In 1930, the São Paulo football federation fell out with CBD and refused to provide any of its players to the national team, and the Brazilian team, composed solely of players from Rio de Janeiro clubs, was eliminated in the group stage after a loss to Yugoslavia. In 1934, the country's football was undergoing a schism between professionals and amateurs, with CBD on the amateurs' side, and as a result, the squad was composed of Botafogo (the only team of significance that remained amateur) players supplemented with players from professional teams hired by CBD to play on the World Cup. The team once again fell on the first stage, losing to Spain by 3-1.

However, the preparation for 1938 had been calm and free of internal disputes, and the team had qualified to the tournament by default after its opponent, Argentina, withdrew from the qualification. so, Brazil, coming for the first time with maximum strength, was believed to be a very good, high quality team. The Brazilians later proved it - after defeating Sweden (4-2) they finished the 1938 tournament in 3rd place. It was this performance that gained them their reputation and marked the beginning of Brazil as a new football power.

As the shirts of both teams at the time were white, Brazil played with its improvised training uniform, without embroidered shields and in a different shade of blue than the shorts. It was the first time that Brazil wore blue in an official match, which would only be repeated in the 1958 final.

Poland

The Polish team, on its end, had played its qualification matches against Yugoslavia. After winning by 4-0 in Warsaw, they lost the return match in Belgrade by 1-0 and advanced on goal difference.

Interesting is the fact that the Polish team was gathered together just a week before the game. This was due to the Polish Football League games - coaches of the teams did not want their best players to leave their sides earlier because in the 1930s, like majority of world's athletes then, most Polish athletes were amateurs - they had to work on a daily basis. Thus, the training camp in Wągrowiec (near Poznań) lasted for a week only - just enough for some players to get acquainted with each other. A few days before the game, the Poles got into the train and went to Strasbourg.

The team that was called up to the Cup was largely the same as the one that had played in the qualification, with only keeper Adolf Krzyk and striker Jerzy Wostal absent from the final list. by then, relatively few players still remained from the team that had reached fourth place in the 1936 Olympics