The 1930 World Cup

[Ref]

1. The 1930 World Cup is one of only two tournaments that did not stage a third-place game. The 1950 competition in Brazil is the other.
2. Argentina's Francisco Varallo is the last survivor of the first World Cup final. Born Feb. 5, 1910, the former Argentine striker has outlived all 21 other players from the 1930 final.
3. Bertram Patenaude of the U.S. is recognized by FIFA as having netted the first hat trick in World Cup history, scoring all three goals in a 3-0 win over Paraguay on July 17. However, some historians say Argentina's Guillermo Stabile was the first to do it, with three goals two days later against Mexico. Some match reports list the American's second goal against Paraguay as credited to Thomas Florie.
4. Only 300 fans attended Romania's 3-1 win over Peru on July 14 in the first round, the lowest recorded attendance for a single game in World Cup history.
5. Brazilian referee Almeida Rego mistakenly stopped the July 15 game between France and Argentina when he blew the final whistle six minutes too early. After fierce protests from the French players, he realized his error and re-started the match. Argentina, leading 1-0 before Rego's mistake, held on for the win.
6. Romania only agreed to play in the World Cup after King Carol gave the players time off from their work so they could compete and guaranteed that their jobs would be waiting for them upon their return from Uruguay.
7. The day after the 1930 final, July 31, was declared a national holiday in Uruguay.
8. Peru's Mario de Las Casas has the distinction of being the first player in World Cup history to be expelled. He was sent off in Peru's 3-1 loss to Romania in the first round.
9. The first goal scored on a penalty shot in the World Cup was by Manuel Rosas of Mexico. He beat Argentine goalkeeper Angelo Bossio.
10. While a worldwide audience of 320 million watched the draw for the 2006 World Cup unfold on television last December, the draw for the 1930 World Cup did not take place until the teams arrived in Uruguay just days before the tournament was slated to begin.

QUICK FACTOIDS

Number of participating teams: 13
Top scorer: Argentina's Guillermo Stabile (8 goals)
Number of games: 18
Total goals scored: 70
Average goals per game: 3.89
Highest scoring game: Argentina's 6-3 win over Mexico on July 19.
Total attendance: 434,500
Average attendance: 24,139
MATCH OF THE TOURNAMENT:

Uruguay's 4-2 victory over Argentina in the final. Down 2-1 at halftime and buoyed by the sea of rabid fans packed into Montevideo's Centenario stadium, Uruguay came alive in the final 45 minutes to defeat its South American rival.
MAN OF THE TOURNAMENT:

Guillermo Stabile. Nicknamed El Enfiltrador – The Infiltrator, Stabile sat out the first game and was only called into duty in Argentina's second contest when a teammate could not play. The Argentine ace went on to bag eight goals in four matches – including a hat trick against Mexico – to finish as the top scorer in the tournament.
SPOTLIGHT:

The first goal in World Cup history was scored by Lucien Laurent in the 19th minute of France's 4-1 win over Mexico.
Laurent was playing in the French first division when he was called into service to fight in World War 2. He was taken prisoner by the Germans and spent three years as a POW before being released in 1943. He returned home and played three more years before retiring from the game.
Laurent, the only surviving member of the 1930 French team to see France win the 1998 World Cup on home soil, died April 11, 2005 in Besançon. He was 97.
AND ANOTHER THING..

The entire tournament was played in one city – Montevideo – and only three stadiums were used to host all 18 games: Centenario (built specifically for the World Cup), Pocitos and Parque Central.
Centenario was not completed in time for the start of the World Cup – three months of rain slowed things down. Five days into the tournament, construction on Centenario was completed and Uruguay christened the new stadium by defeating Peru 1-0 in its opening match.
Centenario could hold approximately 100,000 spectators, but attendance for the Uruguay-Argentina final was held back to 90,000. The largest crowd of the tournament was 93,000 for Uruguay's 6-1 win over Yugoslavia in the semifinals.