Brazil 6-5 Poland: 1938 World Cup Eleven-Goal Battle in Mud

# Brazil 6-5 Poland: Eleven Goals in the Mud

5 June 1938. Strasbourg, France. World Cup Round of 16. Brazil vs Poland. Rain—the kind that turns the entire pitch into a mud bath. Within ten minutes, both teams' white shirts had become the same shade of brown.

Polish striker Ernst Wilimowski scored four goals—the first player in World Cup history to net a hat-trick in a knockout match (and then one more). His movements through the mud looked like a man swimming through sludge. But all four goals were in a losing cause. Because Brazil had Leônidas da Silva—the 'Black Pearl', the most popular footballer in Brazil before Pelé. He also scored four goals, including the winner in extra time. Brazil won 6-5.

After the match, players from both sides embraced—not out of friendship, but because they had both survived. 120 minutes in the mud, eleven goals—this wasn't a football match, it was a survival game. After the game, Leônidas tried to take off his boots—the mud had glued them to his feet—and said: 'That match, we weren't playing football. We were fighting a war. I've never been so tired—and never so happy.'