1910 FIFA World Cup

The 1910 FIFA World Cup was the second FIFA World Cup. It took place in Austria from the 10 to 27 April.

Fifteen teams entered the second World Cup as the tournament became a knockout competition instead of the group stage that it was in the previous World Cup. With Uruguay absent because of the civil war, England would take their first title and became the second World Cup champions after defeating Belgium 2-1 in the final.

Background
After the success of the first edition which was played in 1906, talks started about hosting a second edition which was going to be held in Uruguay despite the protests of the European countries who would had to travel thousand of kilometers to compete at the World Cup. But in late 1907, the civil war took place in Uruguay which derailed the thoughts of a World Cup and wouldn't be until 1930 where a FIFA World Cup tournament would be held in South America.

This meant that a replacement had to be found and Austria put their hand up to host the tournament with the new format that took place at the 1908 Summer Olympics where six teams competed in a knockout format. This small success, paved the way for a knockout format for the first time to replace the previous format that occurred at the previous World Cup.

Round 1
The opening round of the second FIFA World Cup had a mixture of thumpings and tight games. and dispatched both of their opponents in  and  respectively as they defeated 5-0 and 4-0. became the first player to score a hat-trick with goals in the 13th, 43rd and the 76th minute. Two of the seven games on the other had to go into a replay with the games between - and - both needing a second match to split the teams.

Other matches included English player, scoring two goals in the 2-0 victory over. A six goal fest between 1908 Olympic silver medalists, and  saw the Nordic team take out the victory 4-2 with two goals from  and a single goal from  and  getting the goals over the more favorited Scots. The last match in the opening round saw a muddy game with rain from the previous night affecting the pitch as the, who was in his debut match scoring the winning goal with only one minute left of the match to book the a spot into the quarter finals.

Quarter Finals
Heading into the quarter finals, the low crowds that plague the first round continued on into the quarters. For the second round in a row, there was a replay with Belgium and the Netherlands playing a nil all draw in their opening match before scored a hat-trick in the replay to give Belgium a spot into the semis for the first time as they defeated the Netherlands 5-1.

Host nation, played in their opening match of the 1910 World Cup against Ireland and they were lucky to get through to the semi-finals after an own goal from Irish player,  gave Austria the victory after initially falling a goal down after  scored in the 35th minute. England booked their second semi-final appearance after goals from, and  secured the victory for England.

Though the most interesting Quarter Final was between Denmark and Argentina was one of the best of the tournament. On paper it looked like it would be Denmark had the strength on paper, but Argentina had the experience in terms of World Cup experience. In the opening half, Argentina got the opening goal in the 24th minute from free-kick before  equlized just before the half-time whistle to make the match interesting for the second half. That second half wouldn't come into play until the 78th minute with scoring a goal which bounced above the Danish keeper to give Argentina the victory and a spot in the semi-finals.

Semi Finals
The opening semi final was between Austria and Belgium. For Belgium this was their first appearance in the World Cup semi-final while for Austria, this was their second appearance. In the opening minutes of the match, Belgium put the pressure on Austria and eventually on the 12th minute of the match, scored the opening goal of the match to give Belgium the lead. though gave Austria the lead before the half with two goals in the space of eleven minutes to give Austria a one goal advantage.

The second half was much like the first half in terms of quality. On the 55th minute, scored his first goal of the tournament to tie the match up at 2-2 with 35 minutes to play left of the match. The following 33 minutes saw the match go either way as the teams attempted to find the winner for a spot in the final. After a couple of missed opportunities in the 76th and the 83rd minute, scored the winning goal in the 87th minute to book Belgium their spot in the World Cup final.

The other semi final saw the match be one way traffic with England showing what they will be playing with after securing a 2-0 win over Argentina. Both goals coming from to score his second and third goal of the tournament. The win giving England the final spot in the 1910 FIFA World Cup final.

Final
Heading into the final, a crowd of 9,000 people attended the match which would eventually would relate to being the third biggest crowd for the entire tournament. Most of the support in the crowd being on the English side of the pitch with some Belgians traveling to Vienna for the final. For England, after the disappointment of the 1906 World Cup where they got knocked out by in the semis and were hoping to put themselves back on the top step of the podium.

The initial start saw Belgium struggle to hold possession as England took hold of the game early on. Eventually in the 11th minute, scored the first goal of the game and his third for the tournament as they put Belgium under the back foot. The pressure from England continued as they kept the lead going into the half-time break.

In the second half, Belgium was the better of the two teams and they would finally get the equalizer in the 56th minute of the game with getting the shot pass the English goalkeeper of  to level the match at one all with 34 minutes left of the match to go. As the search for the winning goal continued for both teams, almost gave Belgium the lead in the 71st minute but his shot just going wide of the goal. also missed a chance only five minutes later.

The final five minutes was a nightmare for the Belgians as their bodies and minds was starting to slip. That slip of the mind, costing Belgium the title with who was playing in his final match after 11 appearances in the English colors scoring the winning goal to seal the title for England. That goal, giving the English supporters the change to go into celebration mode with the final whistle ending the wait for England. Belgium just wondered what could of happened if it went their way.

Goalscorers
5 goals
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3 goals
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2 goals
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1 goal
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1 own goal
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