Italy World Cup Rewind: Infamy at the Battle of Santiago, 1962

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: February 28, 2014

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Welcome back to Bleacher Report's series of Italy World Cup rewinds, a revisit of the highs and lows of Italy's history in soccer's most prestigious competition.  Today, we will look back to the lows for the first time.  It's one of the most infamous games of soccer in the history of the sport: 1962's Battle of Santiago between the Azzurri and Chile.

 

The Tournament

By 1962 the World Cup had recovered from the 12-year hiatus imposed upon it by World War II and had become a fixture.

The 1954 and '58 tournaments had both been held in Europe.  The nations of North and South America threatened to boycott the tournament—as they had done in 1938—if that trend continued.  Most assumed that Argentina would be the choice, but the Chilean federation mounted an underdog candidacy and ended up running away with the vote.

Preparations were proceeding well until the Valdivia earthquake hit on May 22, 1960.  The quake was the most powerful recorded in human history and left four of Chile's eight intended venues unusable.  Two cities were able to repair their venues in time, and American copper company Braden allowed the federation to use their own undamaged stadium in Rancagua.

Defending champions Brazil brought nine holdovers from their title-winning 1958 squad to Chile and were heavy favorites going into the tournament.

 

The Run-up

The game between Italy and Chile was going to be ill-tempered from the start.  A pair of Italian journalists—Antonio Ghiredelli and Corrado Pizzinelli—had been sending reports back from the Chilean capital of Santiago in the run-up to the tournament.

Their characterization of the city was, to put it lightly, unfavorable.  The two insisted that their reports had been distorted, but what appeared in Italian media made Santiago out to be a poverty-stricken dump ...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football

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