Military "Olympic" Games held in Paris, June 22 to July 6, 1919, after World War I.
The USA football team was selected from among the participants in the
American Expeditionary Forces Championship held May 12-15.
Although entry was restricted to soldiers (which, for many of the participating countries, included most of their young men), teams such as Czechoslovakia, France and Italy treated the tournament as a dress rehearsal for the Olympic Games in 1920 and fielded sides strongly resembling those sent to Antwerp one year later.
In the contemporary Belgian and French press, the Czechoslovak side at this tournament was repeatedly equated to Slavia, the dominant club in Prague before the war (and the backbone of the Bohemian side at the football tournament at the 1911 exhibition in Roubaix), but in fact the majority of their players came from local rivals Sparta.
Before this tournament, the Belgian and French military sides had participated in an international army tournament in London at the beginning of May; after that, its winners, Belgium, had made a trip to Rome in the first half of June, where they won 3-2 against a Czech side (identified as "Victoria from Prague"; presumably Viktoria Žižkov) and 4-3 against their hosts, the Italian military side.
Football Tournament
NB: all matches played at the newly built stade Pershing, near Joinville, Paris
Group A
24- 6 France 4-0 Romania
[Nicolas (2), Rénier, M.Gastiger]
25- 6 Italy 9-0 Greece [half-time 4-0]
[this match was not played on 24 June due to adverse weather conditions]
26- 6 Italy 7-1 Romania [abandoned at 7-1 in 75', Romania walked off]
[according to an article in Dutch daily De Telegraaf of 6 July (p. 8),
the Romanians walked off because of disagreeing with an offside call]
26- 6 France 11-0 Greece [half-time 4-0]
[first half scorers: Rénier (2), Nicolas, Dubly;
second half scorers: Rénier, Dubly, Nicolas (3), Darques, Lhermitte]
28- 6 Greece 3-2 Romania
28- 6 France 2-0 Italy [half-time 1-0]
[Mathieu (pen), Nicolas]
1.FRANCE 3 3 0 0 17- 0 6
2.Italy 3 2 0 1 16- 3 4
3.Greece 3 1 0 2 3-22 2
4.Romania 3 0 0 3 3-14 0
Group B
24- 6 Czechoslovakia 4-1 Belgium [half-time 2-0]
[contemporary newspapers listed two Czech scorers (Sedláček and Janda)
in the first half and three (Pilát, Prošek and Sedláček) in the second,
in spite of giving the result as 4-1 (which is also given in [Han 19]);
Czech sources apparently have Sedláček and Vaník scoring in the first
half and Sedláček and Janda in the second, but these also apparently
claim Belgium scored in the first half, which contradicts the match
reports in the French and Belgian papers, all stating that Vlamynck
scored the consolation goal in the last moments of the match ("toute
dernière seconde")]
25- 6 USA 5-4 Canada [half-time 0-3]
[this match was not played on 24 June due to adverse weather conditions;
the USA were awarded four penalties in the second half by a referee so
partial that the French papers assumed he must have been an American:
"l'arbitre, un Américain, ayant favorisé à outrance ses compatriotes"
(L'Auto, 26 June); La Liberté (26 June) even described the match as a
"splendide étouffement du onze canadien par l'arbitre du match"; later,
on 27 June, L'Auto reported the referee had in fact been Czechoslovak,
just as both linesmen; on Czech referees (and linesmen), see also the
1920 Olympics]
26- 6 Belgium 5-2 Canada
[most Belgian and French newspapers first reported the result as 5-1;
only La Liberté and Excelsior (on 27 June) gave it as 5-2, followed
(on 29 June) by the Brussels paper Le Petit Bleu; also [Han 19] gave
the final score as 5-2; presumably the Canadians scored their second
at the death]
26- 6 Czechoslovakia 8-2 USA
[Czech sources credit Janda, Pilát and Vaník with two goals each and
both Prošek and Sedláček with one]
28- 6 Belgium 7-0 USA
28- 6 Czechoslovakia 3-2 Canada
[Czech sources credit Janda with two goals and Vaník with one]
1.CZECHOSLOVAKIA 3 3 0 0 15- 5 6
2.Belgium 3 2 0 1 13- 6 4
3.USA 3 1 0 2 7-19 2
4.Canada 3 0 0 3 8-13 0
Third Place Match
29- 6 Italy w/o Belgium
[this match was announced in L'Auto of 29 June for 17.00, two hours
after the final, but the Belgians were not interested (as can be
seen on p. 146 of [Han 19], only medals for the 1st and 2nd placed
finishers were awarded at the soccer event), so they forfeited the
match and Italy claimed third place by default]
Final
29- 6 France 2-3 Czechoslovakia [half-time 2-1]
[Deydier 30, Rénier 32; Vaník 10, Janda 84, 87]
[France: Chayriguès; Gamblin, Langenove; Lhermitte, Em.Devic, P.Gastiger;
Lesur, Deydier, Nicolas, Rénier, M.Gastiger:
Czechoslovakia: Klapka; Janda, Pospišil; Vlk, Fivébr, Pešek;
Sedláček, Červený, Pilát, Vaník, Prošek]
The following description of the final is taken from [Han 19], pp. 242-243.
"The game between Czecho-Slovakia and France, which decided the championship, was played Sunday 29 June before a crowd that packed the big Stadium. There were no more ardent fans present than the American soldiers and at the conclusion of the game they carried Janda, the hard playing Czecho-Slovak forward, from the field on their shoul- ders. Janda, by his aggressiveness and good sportsmanship, became one of the most popular players of the tournament. The final score was 3 to 2 goals. France led at midtime 2 to 1 and maintained that lead until the game's eleventh hour. A shift in the regular Czecho-Slovak lineup had put Janda in the backfield with a new man, Cerveny, in his place on the forward line. The second half saw Janda back in his regular position at inside right and from then on the team hit its stride. France hotly contested the Czecho-Slovakia bid for supremacy. The addition of the Gastiger brothers, Langenove, Devic and Deydier had greatly strengthened the team's lineup. Chayrigues, in the French goal, put up a spectacular game and electrified the stands with his brilliant stops. The contest developed into a battle between the Czecho-Slovak forward line and the French defense. Chayrigues' phenomenal play and the long kicks of Gueblin, the husky French back, all but defeated the brilliant attack of the skilful Czecho-Slovak for- ward line. Besides the wonderful work of Janda, the shifty playing of Pilat at center was a big factor in giving the victory to Czecho-Slo- vakia. The Czecho-Slovak team was schooled for several years by "Johnnie" Madden, the Scotch international player. With his corn-cob pipe in his mouth, "Johnnie" watched his charges from the sidelines through- out the series. No one followed the play with keener or more criti- cal eye than he. Nor did any receive the victory in the final game more joyfully than the little Scotchman. The lineup of the Czecho-Slovak team was as follows: Peyr, goal; Pospisil, left fullback; Hojer, right fullback; Pesek, left halfback; Fivebr, center halfback; Loos, right halfback; Prosek, outside left; Vanik, inside left; Pilat, center; Janda, inside right; Sedlacek, out- side right. In the final game Klapka played goal in place of Peyr, Janda and Cerveny played at right fullback in place of Hojer, Vlk played right half back in place of Loos."
Some comments on the above are in order.
1) Gueblin should read Gamblin.
2) The "addition of the Gastiger brothers, Langenove,
Devic and Deydier" had not been motivated by any intention of strengthening
the French team but was made necessary by injuries to Darques, Dubly,
Gravelines, Hugues and Mathieu, who had played in the earlier group matches.
3) While acknowledging the better play of the opponents, the French press
complained about the last two goals, claiming the winner was scored from
an offside position and the equaliser, just before, after an attack on
their goalkeeper; on that goal, the first of the two attributed to Janda,
L'Echo des Sports wrote, in its issue of 30 June 1919 (p. 2 – but note
that the Gallica site displays that page as part of the issue of 1 July 1919,
as indeed all second pages from the issues from the end of June 1919 are
moved one issue forward): "Sur un shot assez dur que Chayriguès
arrête, trois avants tchèques se précipitent sur lui,
l'obligent à lâcher la balle qu'ils rentrent.".
As an aside, it is of interest to note that the Czechs complained about the two goals scored by Belgium in the Olympic final one year later because the first was scored (from a penalty for hands on the goalline) after a charge on their goalkeeper had not been punished, and the second after an alleged offside. L'histoire se répète.
In [iff] No. 23, p. 14, Pierre Cazal wrote that Chayriguès had to leave the field with 15 minutes left to play after a charge by Janda ("the hard playing Czecho-Slovak forward" as he was described above), which resulted in a broken shoulder, and that Janda scored both his goals after that.
That is only partially true. As the above quote from L'Echo des Sports
shows, Chayriguès was on the field when the equaliser was scored; it also
would appear he was injured at that very moment, but no contemporary match
report mentions him leaving the field during the match.
It is however true that he did not leave the field a fit and healthy man,
but the seriousness of his injury was not clear at once, certainly not during or
immediately after the match. L'Auto of 18 August 1919 (p. 3) mentioned "une
petite opération chirurgicale nécessitée par la dureté du Tournoi interallié"
but later, on 4 September 1919 (p. 3) it reported that his condition had taken a
turn for the worse; on 16 September 1919 Sporting (p. 145) stated he faced another,
much more serious operation ("l'opération dont il est menacé est
des plus sérieuses"); a benefit match was played on 25 October
to gather money for the unfortunate 'keeper; on 20 November 1919, La Vie
au grand air (p. 30) wrote resignedly: "Pierre Chayriguès, gardien
de but de l'équipe nationale de France, a été blessé au bras, pendant la
finale d'association des jeux interalliés, si gravement que sa carrière de
sportif semble dès maintenant terminée."
Eventually, Chayriguès was out of action for nearly two years, not
returning to play until the
French cup final on 24 April 1921
in the very same stadium where he had had his shoulder broken; he would also play
ten more matches for the French national side, including two at
the 1924 Olympics.
Sources: [Han 19]; [iff] No. 23; Chroniques bleues; various contemporary Belgian newspapers (available through Belgica Press), various contemporary Dutch newspapers (available through Delpher), various contemporary French newspapers (available through Gallica).
Thanks to Erik Garin and Bojan Jovanović for an earlier version of this document.
Prepared and maintained by Karel Stokkermans for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
Author: Karel Stokkermans
(karel.rsssf@gmail.com)
Last updated: 6 Aug 2025
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