The World Cup at La Meinau

The Stade de la Meinau has only ever hosted one World Cup match, but it was a match that went down in history. It was 80 years ago, in 1938, and Brazil’s Leônidas remains its eternal hero.

THE SECOND HIGHEST-SCORING MATCH IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD CUP

Brazil, who take on Costa Rica this afternoon in St. Petersburg, played one of the most memorable matches of their rich World Cup history in Strasbourg. The date is 5th June 1938. It’s a rainy, crazy Sunday afternoon. Brazil and Poland are facing off in the last 16. It’s raining cats and dogs — and goals. Eleven in total, making it the second highest-scoring match in the history of the competition, behind Austria v. Switzerland (7–5) in 1954.

HE SCORES WITH HIS SOCK!

His name was Leônidas da Silva. 24 years old. Legend has it that he played the match barefoot but the referee denied him this option when he came back onto the pitch at half-time. However, Leônidas’s boots remained stuck in the Meinau pitch, which was turning into a mud field with every passing minute. The Brazilian ended up losing a shoe, and it was in his socks that he scored the Seleçao’s final goal of the game in extra time, in the 104th minute. It was his third, as well as the goal that ended up bringing the heroic Polish players to their knees in the pouring rain. Brazil won 6–5, and the 20,000 spectators in the Alsatian arena succumbed to the charm of the die-hard party animal — the first in a long line of Brazilians known just as much for their dribbling skills as for their night-time shenanigans.

UNDER THE GAZE OF A CERTAIN ALICE ROUX…

80 years ago, at La Meinau. A day when Leônidas stole the spotlight from Poland’s Ernst Wilimowski, the first player to score four goals in a World Cup game. All this took place under the gaze of a pregnant young woman, a certain Alice Roux who, on 18th October that year, would give birth to a little boy in the town of Colmar. Guy was his name. An anecdote confirmed by the former AJ Auxerre manager: “That’s right, I was there. I didn’t see the goals but it was still the first of thirteen World Cups that I’ve been to.”

[Translated from: http://www.rcstrasbourgalsace.fr/actualites/1938-leonidas-enchante-la-meinau]