CHRONICLE OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES
— Philippe Doré | 29/06/1924 —

On reflection, of all the teams we studied last week, only one should be singled out, that of Egypt. It deserves to be classified among the first rank groups. In four years, the Egyptians have made phenomenal progress. They eliminated the Hungarians, who were among the favorites. They were then so clearly beaten by Sweden that there was a tendency to consider their victory over Hungary as a stroke of luck. However, this 5-0 result in favor of Sweden does not represent the truth. All witnesses agree that the Egyptian forwards were unlucky and could normally have scored several goals. Conversely, the Swedes only owed it to the clumsiness of the Egyptian goalkeeper to be able to score five goals. There is a curious indication here. This year, it is a South American team which wins the tournament. In a few years. Africa could well have the floor in turn. The Andrade and the Salem showed everything that could be expected, or feared, from the acrobatic flexibility of the Negro players. Perhaps one day we will see the white race eliminated from major sporting events. If we don't see it, our descendants. As Renan said, we would pay dearly to know what will happen in three hundred years.

Let's go back to 1924. In the first row of those eliminated we will talk about the Belgians: they had won the tournament in Antwerp in 1920, this year they finished second to last in the ranking; they only have Lithuania behind them; in the first shock, they were eliminated by 8 goals to 1, in front of the Swedes. The Belgians made the mistake of not realizing that their glories were growing old; they brought us back, almost unchanged, the Antwerp team. The men are four years too old. Tired by a hard season, the famous De Bie-Verbeeck-Swartenbroeks defense accumulated blunders and let the Swedish goals slip through.

If ever there was an inaccurate result, this is it. The Belgian game, in its prime, is better than that. Perhaps, because of the war, there is a temporary hole. But the Belgians, once the best players on the continent, who were the first to match the English professionals, will appeal against this all-too-complete defeat.

The France team did not shine. Against Latvia, they had an extremely easy game, which they won by 7 goals playing with 10 players. However, they seemed poorly united. Baumann having been injured, he had to be replaced at the back by center half Domergue, whose place Batemale took; it was the team's hole in front of the dancing masters of Uruguay. They dominated our half line to such an extent that the defense was overwhelmed and the forwards, forced to retreat constantly, collapsed in the second half. Finally, we lacked heart and courage. Switzerland and Holland showed what a team that brings all its will to the fight can do. France, unfortunately, has shown the opposite. It's very unfortunate. However, in the first half, some of our team did great things. Only two goals were scored in the entire tournament against Uruguay, one by Holland, the other by us, and this goal, signed Nicolas, was one of the most beautiful of the tournament, if not the most beautiful. Clear conclusion, it is the sacred fire that our players lack the most.

Let's form a category with the scientists: Centrals and Scandinavians. Hungary showed us in front of Poland a very good team, solid in defense, scientific everywhere and not having the fault of falling asleep in attack. Their defeat by Egypt was the biggest surprise of this tournament. Nobody, on the contrary, would have been surprised to see Hungary in the final. On the contrary, from the first game of the Bohemians against the Swiss, we saw clearly that they would not go to the end, for a major reason; They play admirably, but they don't know how to score a goal. Their three forwards of the center, the Novák brothers, are unbearable in this respect. They drive the ball faultlessly, get past the most vigilant defences, but instead of finishing the attack, they combine and combine again as if they were never in a good enough position or as if they had been formally forbidden to cause the opposing goalkeeper any trouble. Faced with a determined defence, this attack is powerless. The game has taken on a character of decision and speed that does not allow this art for art's sake. This tournament marked the failure of science, which is not combined with speed.

The Swedes, the day after their victory over the Belgians, seemed to have a great chance. They had presented a team with all the required qualities, leaning neither one way nor the other, athletic, scientific, energetic and fast. There was nothing to be done in this tournament with science alone. There was nothing to be done without science. The Swedes had science and speed, and that radiant youth which is visible in a team which evolves with flexibility as visibly as on a smiling face. A clear victory over Egypt further strengthened the favor which attached to the Scandinavians. In the semi-finals they met the Swiss and no one recognized the beautiful athletes from the first days anymore.

For what? Quite simply because their leaders had been imprudent enough to house them in the Faubourg Montmartre. This is not a place for healthy, pure young athletes. I am convinced that the Swedes did not celebrate. But they breathed a pernicious air to which they are not accustomed. Many of them live in small towns or even the countryside of the Far North and are taken away from their pure air and snow to be transplanted to the Faubourg Montmartre. They no longer eat, no longer sleep, no longer breathe the same way. This is enough to disrupt this delicate, fragile machine that is a team. The Swedes recovered a little afterwards, they took third place from the Dutch. All the same, we never saw the team from the first days again. Let us point out that after the first successes, the best forwards from Sweden were urgently brought in, who had been detained by their occupations. Dahl is the only veteran of the team, the only one who took part in the 1920 Games. Far from improving the attack line, his presence seemed to derail it. It is true that it is not always the stars that make the lines.

Let us add that one of the best goals of the tournament was the one scored by winger Kock against Switzerland. Twenty-five meters away, a free kick was awarded to Sweden, the Swiss team lined up, almost entirely, in front of the goals. Koch sent the ball with such stiffness and precision that it pierced the Swiss line like a cannonball.

Another category, the ardent nations. The least happy was that of Spain. Opposed from the first day to that of Italy, it was only eliminated by the twists of fate. She played an extremely energetic game and as Italy responded with extreme heat, it was the only tough game of the tournament. The wounded were all the more numerous as the Italians were somewhat suspected of having shown some diplomatic wounds. Whatever it was, the referee was afraid to see these things turn into carnage, like the France-America meeting on the oval ball. Following a somewhat heated encounter between the Spanish centre-half Laraza and the Italian centre-forward Della Valle, the referee of the game sent off the Spaniard. In all impartiality, it seemed to us that we could just as easily have added the Italian. Reduced to 10, the Spanish team played with new enthusiasm and dominated without being able to score, their center forward Montjardin being too personal and cutting the forward line in two. However, Spain was not beaten. It took the finger of fate. Italian captain Baloncieri, who plays right inside forward, came down towards the goal where Zamora was waiting for him in excellent position. The Spanish captain Vallana, who plays at full-back and who had played a magnificent game from the start, rushed across Baloncierie's run, picked up the ball in flight and drifted it so unluckily that it rolled into the net. Then, we saw something simple and moving: Vallana collapsed in the back of the net, crying like a child. Zamora, after a first gesture of fury, went to relieve his comrade, who was crying in front of 40,000 spectators, with all his heart.