A game of football in 1937


A blog post by Jurryt van de Vooren has sent me off on a journey of discovery.

Jurryt’s post shares a record of shots taken in the Western Europe v Central Europe football game played to celebrate Olympic Day in the Netherlands on 20 June 1937. He asks if this is the first example of a record of shots taken in association football.

He includes a picture of Beb Bakhuys scoring in the game.
There is a Revue der Sporten record of the game. It has this single picture:

The article includes a notation of the sequence of shots in the game. Jurryt shared this in his post.

A record of the shots made in the 1937 game between Western and Central Europe
Central Europe won the game 3v1.The score at half time was 1v0.
Ferenc Sas scored two goals for Central Europe (17 minutes and 48 minutes). The third goal was scored by Oldřich Nejedlý in the 75th minute.
Beb Bakhuys scored West Europe’s goal in the 87th minute.
The timing of the goals allows for the following allocation of shots in the game.

  • 0-17 minutes: 6 shots (4 Western Europe (WE), 2 Central Europe (CE)).
  • 17-45 minutes: 17 shots (8 WE, 9 CE) 1 goal scored.
  • 45-47 minutes: 1 shot (WE).
  • 48-74 minutes: 14 shots (9 WE, 5 CE) 1 goal scored.
  • 75-86 minutes: 7 shots (5 WE, 2 CE) 1 goal scored.
  • 87-90 minutes: 2 shots (1 WE, 1 CE) 1 goal scored.

The game was refereed by Arthur James Jewell … the only Great Britain involvement in a mainland Europe event.(Arthur refereed at the 1936 Olympic Games and was the referee for the 1938 FA Cup Final.)

The crowd was estimated to be 50,000. 
The teams were:
Western Europe
Hans Jakob (Germany); Bob Paverick (Belgium) [replaced after 65 minutes by Constant Joacim (Belgium)]; Bertus Caldenhove (Netherlands); Albin Kitzinger (Germany); Ludwig Goldbrunner (Germany); Edmond Delfour (France); Ernst Lehner (Germany); Raymond Braine (Belgium); Bep Bakhuys (Netherlands); Kick Smit (Netherlands); Stan Vanden Eynde (Belgium).
The unused reserves were: Leo Halle (Netherlands); Bas Paauwe (Netherlands); Roger Courtois (France); Bernard Voorhoof (Belgium)
Central Europe
Aldo Olivieri (Italy); Willibald Schmaus (Austria) [replaced after 36 minutes by Pietro Rava (Italy)]; Karl Sesta (Austria); Gyula Lázár (Hungary); Michele Andreolo (Italy); Pietro Serantoni (Italy); Oldřich Nejedlý (Czechoslovakia); György Sárosi (Hungary); Silvio Piola (Italy); Giuseppe Meazza (Italy); Ferenc Sas (Hungary).
The unused reserves were: Bohumil Klenovec (Czechoslovakia); László Cseh (Hungary); Wilhelm Hahnemann (Austria).
An official record of the event notes:

Bob Paverick was a late replacement for Paul Janes (Germany), whose mother died two days before the match. Michele Andreolo was born as Miguel Andreolo in Uruguay.

A medal from the game appeared for sale on eBay in December 2016.
The medal awarded for participation in the 1937 Olympic Day game between Western Europe and Central Europe.
I hope this is the start of a detailed account of the game and the participants in it for both teams.

Photo Credits

Beb Bakhuys goal (Jurryt van de Vooren)
Netherlands players (Revue der Sporten)
Wie scoten en hoe? (Revue der Sporten)
1937 Medal (eBay)

Postscript

Darren O”Shaughnessy’s tweet

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