Italy 1934

Pozzo and his formidable team, 9 of whom had won World Cup winners medals the previous June.
They played England at Highbury on 14.11.34.
England won a highly controversial match 3-2.

1934 World Cup-Team of the Tournament

Ricardo Zamora (Spain)
Often cited as the greatest goalkeeper of his generation, 33 year old Zamora was playing for Madrid at the time of the 1934 finals. Spain played 2 matches in the tournament, winning one.
An interesting choice considering that 2 other legendary goalkeepers,

Gianpiero Combi and František Plánička went on to the final, both as captains.

Jacinto Quincoces (Spain)
The 29 year old Madrid defender was usually deployed in the central 'stopper' position. 

Eraldo Monzeglio (Italy)
27 year old Monzeglio of Bologna went on to be a double World Cup winner, representing Italy 35 times.

Luis Monti (Italy)
The 33 year old Juventus half back had featured in the 1930 Team of the Tournament when representing his native Argentina.

Attilio Ferraris (Italy)
The 30 year old played for Roma at the time of the World Cup win.

Leonardo Cilaurren (Spain)
21 year old  Cilaurren played for Athletic Bilbao. 

Giuseppe Meazza (Italy)
The 23 year old Ambrosiana player had already won 22 international caps by the time the 1934 World Cup came around. He went on to represent Italy 53 times and is one of the true all time greats.
 

Raimundo Orsi (Italy)
Born in Argentina, 32 year old Orsi of Juventus scored 3 goals at the finals, including Italy's opening goal in the final.

Enrique Guaita (Italy)
23 year old Guaita was another of the Orundi. A Roma player at the time of the World Cup victory, he scored 1 goal in the finals.

Matthias Sindelar (Austria)
31 year old  Sindelar (Austria Vienna) scored 1 goal at the finals. Austria were semi-finalists, losing to Italy.

Oldřich Nejedlý (Czechoslovakia)
The 24 year old Sparta Prague inside left won the Golden Boot with 5 goals, including a hat trick in the semi final. 

Giuseppe Meazza

Meazza's career as a player spanned 20 years (1927-47) and he won 53 international caps between 1930-39.
For Internazionale (Ambrosiana) Meazza scored 242 goals in 365 games. He was Capocannoniere on 3 occasions and scored 33 international goals in his 53 appearances, winning 2 World Cups.
Let's look at the early phase of Meazza's career:  

Season 1927-28:  2 goals on his first team debut age 17. 12 goals in 33 games. 
Season  1928-29:  Top scorer in the national championships with 38 goals in 29 matches.  This included 2 5 goal matches and 6 goals in 1 match (against Venezia). 
Season 1929-30:The first season of Serie A- Capocannoniere with 31 goals.

Not bad considering that Milan rejected him as a 14 year old for being undersized,
 and his first coach at Internazionale's youth side played him as a defender! 

Pozzo vs Chapman

Stadio Nazionale del Partito Nazionale Fascista

Vittorio Pozzo was a friend and admirer of Herbert Chapman. When England traveled to Rome to play their first ever match against Italy in May 1933 Herbert Chapman was nominally the head coach of England - a progressive step for the FA when one considers that they did not appoint a national coach/ manager until 1950. However, Chapman did not select the team- this was still done by a committee. If Chapman had lived one wonders how many of his progressive ideas might have been taken on.

 

Commemorative medal 

The Italian XI had an average of 25 caps. England fielded 6 new caps.There were 50,000 at the Stadio Nazionale del Partito Nazionale Fascista to see Ferrari put the hosts in front in the 4th minute. Cliff Bastin equalised in the 24th and the game ended in a 1-1 draw.

*	Gianpiero Combi	Juventus	G	Harry Hibbs	Birmingham City
	Virginio Rosetta	Juventus	B	Roy Goodall (c)	Huddersfield Town
	Umberto Caligaris (c)	Juventus	B	Eddie Hapgood	Arsenal	*
	Mario Pizziolo	Fiorentina	H	Alf Strange	Sheffield Wednesday
*	Luis Monti	Juventus	H	Tom White	Everton	*
*	Luigi Bertolini	Juventus	H	Wilf Copping	Leeds United	*
	Raffaele Costantino	Roma	OR	Albert Geldard	Everton	*
*	Giuseppe Meazza	Ambrosiana	IR	James Richardson	Newcastle United	*
*	Angelo Schiavio	Bologna	CF	George Hunt	Tottenham Hotspur
*	Giovanni Ferrari	Juventus	IL	Billy Furness	Leeds United	*
*	Raimundo Orsi	Juventus	OL	Cliff Bastin	Arsenal
*	1934 World Cup Winners			Debutants		*