Little-known stories about the only Southeast Asian team that participated in the world's biggest football festival in 1938

The World Cup is a difficult dream to come true for Southeast Asian countries, but few people know that 84 years ago, at the World Cup held in France, a representative from a place considered a lowland region once participated.

The 1938 World Cup was the third edition of the World Cup. After the previous two editions were dominated by European and South American nations, the leaders wanted other continents to join the party. Apart from hosts France and defending champions Italy, Europe would take up the remaining 11 spots while South America had two. The final spot would go to an Asian representative.

84 years ago, a representative from a place considered a football backwater was present.

Indonesia was then a Dutch colony and was called the Dutch East Indies. Backed by the mother country, the Dutch East Indies were selected to compete in the qualifiers and face Japan. However, the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War forced Japan to withdraw. FIFA did not want the Dutch East Indies to qualify without playing a qualifying match, so they arranged for them to play another match against the United States in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The Americans did not come, so the Dutch East Indies automatically qualified for the 1938 World Cup.

That year, the World Cup was played in a knockout format, with eight teams advancing to the quarterfinals. The Dutch East Indies played Hungary. In Reims, 10,000 local spectators turned up to see the first Asian team to play in a World Cup. However, when the Dutch East Indies stepped out, everyone mistook them for the Dutch team. They were wearing orange like their mother country, and even sang the Dutch national anthem before the match.

List of Dutch East Indies players who played in the 1938 World Cup.

Interestingly, the captains of the Dutch East Indies and Hungary, Achmad Nawir and Gyorgi Sarosi, were both doctors. Both featured intellectual looks with their glasses and slicked-back hair. It would be 60 years before a player was allowed to wear glasses at a World Cup, and that was Edgar Davids, who suffered from glaucoma.

At that time, Hungary was not the Ferenc Puskas super team of the 1950s, but they were still very formidable. After only 13 minutes, the net of the Dutch East Indies shook. 2 minutes later, the score was doubled. At the end of the first half, Hungary led 4-0. In the second half, they 'only' scored 2 more goals, completing a resounding 6-0 victory.

The result meant that the Dutch East Indies would return home immediately afterwards, setting a record that has never been broken: the only team to be eliminated from the World Cup after just one match. However, the Dutch East Indies had nothing to be sad about . Firstly , Hungary were too strong. They defeated hosts France 3-1 in the quarter-finals, eliminated Brazil in the semi-finals (winning 2-1) and only lost 2-4 to Italy in the final.

The Dutch East Indies were easily crushed by Hungary in the first match.

Next , the Dutch East Indies was hastily formed, gathering amateur players who were both small (weighing an average of only 55kg) and did not know much about football tactics.

Anyway, this was a great experience for the Southeast Asian boys. After the World Cup, they also stopped by the Netherlands, played 3 friendlies with clubs (won 1, lost 2), then played the final match against the Dutch team, who were also eliminated in the first round of the World Cup. In many nationalistic stories in Indonesia, the Dutch East Indies colonial team defeated the mother country at the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam, a slap in the face to the colonialists. In reality, they lost 2-9.

Indonesia declared independence in 1945, but its links to the Netherlands remain. Giovanni van Bronckhorst, the captain of the Netherlands at the 2010 World Cup, was born to both Indonesian parents, and became the first person of Asian descent to captain a World Cup final. For the 2022 World Cup, the Netherlands' preliminary squad includes Pascal Struijk, a centre-back of Indonesian descent. His paternal grandparents were Dutch East Indies who had previously settled in the motherland.

World Cup 1938

1. Venue: France
2. Number of participating teams: 15
3. Champion: Italy
4. Runner-up: Hungary
5. Third place: Brazil
6. Fourth place: Sweden
7. Top scorer: Leonidas (Brazil) - 7 goals