1962 FIFA World Cup

The 1962 FIFA World Cup, the seventh staging of the World Cup, was held in Chile from 30 May to 17 June. Chile was chosen as host by FIFA in June 1956, as the World Cup returned to the continent of South America after 12 years. It was won by Brazil, who retained the championship by beating Czechoslovakia 3–1 in the final.

he format of the competition stayed the same as 1958: 16 teams qualified, divided into four groups of four. Four teams were seeded in the draw taking place in Santiago de Chile, on 18 January 1962: Brazil, England, Italy and Uruguay.[1] The top two teams in each group advanced to the quarter-finals.

In May 1960, as the preparations were well under way, Chile suffered the largest earthquake ever recorded (9.5 magnitude), which caused enormous damage to the national infrastructure. In face of this, Carlos Dittborn, the president of the Organization Committee, coined the phrase "Because we don't have anything, we will do everything in our power to rebuild," which became the unofficial slogan of the tournament. Stadia and other infrastructure were rebuilt at record speed and the tournament occurred on schedule with no major organizational flaw. Sadly, Dittborn would not live to see the success of his tireless efforts, as he died one month before the start of the tournament. The World Cup venue at Arica was named Estadio Carlos Dittborn in his honor and bears his name to this day.

As the competition began, a shift in strategy was imminent. Modern day defensive strategies began to take hold as the average goals/match dropped to 2.78, under 3 for the first time in competition history (the average has never been above 3 since).
The official 1962 FIFA World Cup poster.

Many famous players did not live up to their reputations in this tournament. Brazil's Pelé, the hero of 1958, was injured in the second group match against Czechoslovakia. The USSR's goalkeeper Lev Yashin, arguably the world's best at the time, was in poor form and cost his team the elimination by Chile (1–2) in the quarter-finals. Bright spots included the emergence of the young Brazilians Amarildo (standing in for Pelé) and Garrincha, the heroics of Czechoslovakia goalkeeper Viliam Schrojf against Hungary and Yugoslavia, and the inspired performance of the host nation Chile, who unexpectedly took third place with a squad of relatively unknown players, thanks to an outstanding team spirit.

The competition was marred by violence. This poisonous atmosphere culminated in the infamous first-round match between host Chile and Italy (2–0), known as the Battle of Santiago. Two Italian journalists had written unflattering articles about the host country. Although only two players (both of them Italian) were sent off by the English referee Ken Aston, the match saw repeated, deliberate attempts from players on both sides to harm opponents, and the Italian team needed police protection to leave the field in safety.

In the first round, Brazil topped their group with Czechoslovakia finishing second, above Mexico and Spain. USSR and Yugoslavia finished above Uruguay and Colombia. Hungary, along with England progressed through to the quarter-finals, while Argentina and Bulgaria were eliminated. England had the same number of points as Argentina but progressed due to a superior goal average; the first time such a requirement had been necessary in a World Cup finals tournament. Switzerland lost all three games while West Germany and Chile both went through over Italy.

Surprisingly, Chile defeated European champions USSR to land themselves a semi-final game against the winner of the England – Brazil game. A brilliant performance from Garrincha, which included two goals in a 3–1 win, saw the South Americans triumph against England. Meanwhile 1–0 wins for Yugoslavia against West Germany—and Czechoslovakia against Hungary—saw the two Slavic states meet in the semi-finals.

Viña del Mar was the original venue for the "South American" semi-final and Santiago for the "Slavic" one. But due to Chile's surprise qualification, the organizers prompted FIFA to switch the venues. This irritated crowds in Viña del Mar and only a little under 6,000 spectators came at Estadio Sausalito to watch Czechoslovakia beat Yugoslavia 3–1, whereas a capacity crowd of 76,600 in Santiago watched Brazil beat the hosts 4–2.[2] This game saw Garrincha sent off for Brazil and Honorino Landa sent off for Chile. Chile eventually went on to take third place in a 1–0 victory over Yugoslavia with the very last play of the match. The same player, Eladio Rojas, had also scored the winning goal in Chile's game against USSR.

Santiago's Estadio Nacional served as the venue for the final itself, and after 15 minutes, Brazil again found themselves a goal behind in the World Cup final, as a long ball from Adolf Scherer was latched onto by Josef Masopust: 1–0 Czechoslovakia. However, just like the previous final four years earlier, Brazil soon hit back, equalising two minutes later through Amarildo after an error by the hitherto flawless Czechoslovak goalkeeper Schroijf. The Brazilians did not stop there and with goals from Zito and Vavá (another Schrojf error) mid-way through the second half, the Czechoslovaks just couldn't get back into the game. The match ended 3–1 to Brazil, a successful defence of the title for only the second time in the history of the competition in spite of the absence of their star player of 1958, Pelé.