The 1954 World Cup saw the return of Germany, or
more precisely West Germany, to the finals. The
world was returning to a form of normality which
was to persist until the collapse of Communism in
the former Soviet Union. The death of Stalin the
previous year appeared to presage a possible improvement
in World affairs, an interpretation reinforced by
the end of the Korean War, or at least an armistice,
also in 1953. There were teams from being the Iron
Curtain as well as Europe and the Americas.
From South America the two finalists of the 1950
World Cup provided a formidable entry. The representation
from the Americas was completed by Mexico, which
country had the dubious distinction of having lost
all its World Cup matches; Mexico was placed in
a strong Pool One, additionally comprising Brazil,
Yugoslavia and France, thus there was a real possibility
of this unhappy record continuing.
Western Europe was represented by France, West
Germany, England, Italy and Belgium. Neutral European
countries playing in the World Cup included Sweden,
Yugoslavia, Austria and Switzerland. The Soviet
block countries who played were Czechoslovakia and
Hungary. The latter being far and away the best
team in the World at the time; for their team included
Puskas, Hidegkutti, Bozsik,Kocsis and Czibor, players
who had helped Hungary destroy all before them.
In 1953 this team became the first non-British side
to defeat England in England, by the more than convincing
score line of six-three; a superiority more than
underlined by a crushing seven-one win in Budapest
in 1954, the worst defeat England has ever suffered,
and, demoralisingly for England, before the World
Cup had begun.
Two countries came from almost the opposite ends
of Asia: Turkey, who had surprisingly overcome Spain,
who had done so well at the previous World Cup;
and South Korea, a country traumatised by the recent
war in the Korean peninsular.
The World Cup was gaining increasing status as
a truly world-wide event, although the absence of
African representation was, at least in part, an
unfortunate consequence of the colonial status of
much of that benighted continent. Most of Africa
had to wait until the 1960s before the colonial
yoke was thrown off.
The competition again followed a divisional format,
but with a twist, one which was to have a major
bearing upon the outcome. Each division had assigned
four teams, however, there would be two seeds who
would not play each other, i.e. the top two would
play the bottom two, with the two highest placed
teams going through. This system had a hole, because
of their surprising qualification at the expense
of Spain, who had reached the final pool in the
previous World Cup, Turkey were seeded in Hungary’s
group, even though it was clear, even at the time,
that the West German team was far stronger. The
effect was that Hungary, en route to the finals,
had to play Brazil and Uruguay, far tougher propositions
than Yugoslavia and Austria, who provided Germany’s
opposition.
The divisions were:
Pool 1: Brazil, Yugoslavia, France and Mexico.
Pool 2: Hungary, Turkey, West Germany and South
Korea.
Pool 3: Uruguay, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Scotland.
Pool 4: England, Italy, Switzerland and Belgium.
In their opening match in pool 2 West Germany easily
overcame Turkey 4-1. It was obvious that, should
West Germany lose to Hungary, an all too likely
outcome given that from 1950 to the World Cup Hungary
were unbeaten, they would defeat Turkey in a play-off.
Looking ahead the West Germans saw that coming second
in Pool 2 had the considerable advantage of an easier
route to the final. This conclusion resulted in
an extremely weak West German team being fielded
to face Hungary, thus the Magyars won 8-3 without
being particularly stretched. While this chicanery
may be considered unsporting but legal, no such
defence could be offered on behalf of the German
centre-half Werner Liebrich, whose vicious and quite
deliberate challenge on Puskas put the Hungarian
star out of commission until the final, and even
then the world only saw a diminished Puskas. The
Hungarians were forced to play the closing stages
of this first round 8-3 win over West Germany with
only ten men as substitutes were not permitted then.
It was a pity that Hungary’s opening match had not
been against West Germany, such tactics might then
have appeared riskier. Hungary’s record breaking
nine-nil demolition of South Korea did not occasion
much surprise given the huge disparity between the
teams. Given the huge problems facing South Korea
as a legacy of the Korean War and the fifty years
of Japanese colonial rule, just appearing in Switzerland
was an achievement.
Puskas, who held a Major’s commission in the Hungarian
Army even though he had never held a gun, was perhaps
the outstanding player of the “Magical Magyars”
(a nickname that was fully deserved); his fierce
left shot made him a threat even from distance,
and his stamina meant that there would be no respite
during a match. In eighty-four games for Hungary
Puskas scored no less than eighty-three goals, usually
with his left foot. He remained a member of this
most formidable of Hungarian sides until 1956, when
the Soviet invasion persuaded Puskas, along with
several of his colleagues, who were all on tour
overseas at the time, not to return. Incredibly,
as it now appears, several Italian clubs turned
down the opportunity to sign the “Galloping Major”,
who eventually end up playing in the great Real
Madrid side of the 1950s. There his partnership
with Di Stefano produced a quite lethal goal scoring
machine.
Sandor Kocsis scored eleven times for Hungary in
the 1954 World Cup, and it might have been more,
save that he was played out of position in the Final.
In the thirty-two matches before the World Cup Hungary
conceded only four draws, winning the rest, often
overwhelmingly. In all Kocsis scored seventy-five
goals in sixty-eight matches for Hungary. What made
him unusual for a continental player of that time
was his ability to score with his head, for which
he was nicknamed the “Golden Head”. Like Puskas,
Kocsis did not return to his native Hungary after
the crushing of the Hungarian revolution by Soviet
tanks in 1956. Initially practising his trade in
Switzerland, Kocsis eventually ended up playing
for Barcelona, the great rivals of Real Madrid.
He was part of the Catalan side that lost the 1961
European Cup Final to Benfica of Portugal.
Nandor Hidegkuti tended to play further back than
most centre-forwards of that era, creating many
chances for his compatriots but scoring not a few
himself, most memorably a hat-trick against England
in 1953, the first time ever that England had lost
at home against non-British opposition.
Uruguay the defending champions had never lost
a World Cup match since its inception, thus they
might have been expected to make a splash. They
dually did so at the expense of Scotland, scoring
no less than seven times against a by no means weak
side in their second match. Arguably Pool Three,
along with Pool One were the two strongest groups.
In Pool Three the other nations were Czechoslovakia
and Austria, two of the better European sides; Austria
the second seeds helped put an end to Scottish interest
with a one-nil win in their opening game.
The format of the competition now switched to knockout,
in the quarterfinals West Germany faced Yugoslavia,
Austria Switzerland, England took on the reigning
champions Uruguay, whilst the pick of the matches
was between Hungary and Brazil.
Yugoslavia, which had earlier held Brazil to a
draw, were expected to overcome West Germany. However,
the German tactics of relentless tackling and closing
down any space proved too much for the silken dalliance
that was displayed by the Southern Slavs on the
pitch. Two-nil was a fair, if somewhat unaesthetic
outcome, demonstrating that discipline and careful
planning around a team’s strengths and weaknesses
often count for more than flair.
The match between Austria and Switzerland made
up in entertainment value for what it lost in technique.
A professional team should not lose from a three-nil
lead , which was the situation after twenty-three
minutes. Conceding five goals in ten minutes tells
a story of panic, although scoring one back shows
a sign of some fighting spirit. Thus at half-time
the score was 5-4 to Austria, with a missed penalty
making the margin finer than it should have been.
The second half could not hope to live up to this
even though there were to be three more goals. The
seven-five win for Austria proving both elevating
and enervating as the subsequent semi-final was
to show.
Poor goal keeping proved England’s undoing in their
match against Uruguay, for two of the four goals
conceded should definitely have been saved. Thus
Uruguay successfully eliminated both British contenders.
Hungary and Brazil were arguably the two best sides
in the world at the time, thus many a fan of football
would have turned up for a feast, only to witness
a brawl, from which neither side emerged with any
credit. Some lay the initial blame at Brazil’s door,
observing that a professional side should not react
to some of the niggling tackles of the Hungarian
players; but why did the Hungarians, who even with
Puskas missing were the better team, resort to such
tactics? There is almost an element of a schoolboy
farce in the way the “Battle of Berne” developed.
After seven minutes Hungary were two up, it was
predictable that this lead coupled with the aforementioned
tackling would elicit a Brazilian reaction. Two
successfully taken penalties followed, one for each
side, leaving Hungary’s two goal lead undisturbed
with the score at three-one. After twenty minutes
play in the second half Brazil fashioned a second
goal, however, the exhibition on show was that favoured
by a boxing promoter, not a football purist as Bozsik
and Santos were sent off for fighting. Ten players
each, more fighting, then another Hungarian goal
after eighty-eight minutes matched by a sending
off, a second Brazilian. Yet even with the score
at four-two and the referee’s whistle blown the
“match” was still not over as the Latin Americans
stormed into the Hungarian dressing rooms. For the
first time in the game Puskas played his part, allegedly
hitting Pinheiro the Brazilian centre-half with
a bottle. Pinheiro certainly sustained some injury
somehow as he left with a bandaged five inch head
wound. I suppose it was just as well that the forty
thousand strong crowd did not see the entire “match”.
For the semi-finals Uruguay squared up to Hungary,
whilst West Germany took on an Austrian team reeling
from their incredible quarterfinal against the hosts.
The Austrians understandably changed their goalkeeper
from one who had conceded five; yet his replacement,
Walter Zeman, had previously been dropped because
he was out of sorts. A nervous defence, an off-form
goalkeeper who then proceeded to prove he was off-form
by a series of disastrous misses set the stage for
a calamitous 6-1 defeat for a team that would ordinarily
have been expected to beat West Germany. The devil
really had the best tunes, as this stroke of luck
could be considered a reward for the questionable
tactics earlier in the tournament of the West German
coach.
The other semi-final should have been the final.
Hungary, far and away the best team in the world
verses the two times and defending champions - Uruguay.
Supremely fit Hungary, far and away the most exhilarating
team on earth verses a skilful traditional side
who had two deep central defenders and two attacking
fullbacks. Puskas, injured by brutal West German
tackling in the first round games, was still unavailable
to the Hungarians; however, Uruguay’s captain Varela
was also out, hurt in the quarterfinal win against
England, thus there was a parity of sorts in terms
of missing players. At first it looked as though
Hungary would overrun Uruguay, helped, apparently,
by the heavy rain earlier in the day; for the Magyars
scored in the opening quarter of an hour as a result
of A Kocsis header to Czibor which was blasted into
the back of the net. Yet the traffic was not all
one way as Uruguay’s midfield general Schiaffino
contrived to create opportunities for the South
American side. Shortly after half time, one of the
greatest goals ever seen in a World Cup seemed to
end the match as a contest. A poor clearance from
Carballo at the back of the Uruguayan defence was
intercepted by Buzansky. Instantly Budai and Boszik
charged forward, the latter managing to lay on a
cross to Hidegkuti, who was apparently too far away
to take advantage, yet the quick thinking centre-forward
dived, just managing to head the ball into the back
of the net. Two-nil. Uruguay, with the confidence
of a team never previously beaten in any World Cup,
continued to exude self-belief, chance after chance
was fashioned by Schiaffino, Borges on the left
wing had a shot cleared off the line. Eventually
Hohburg, in the final quarter of an hour of normal
time, managed to exploit a Schiaffino pass and score.
The champion was aroused and fighting, two-one did
not appear an insurmountable deficit, thus the valiantly
rallying Uruguayans managed to repeat nearly the
identical trick in the eight-eighth minute, Hohburg
again scoring from a Schiaffino pass, the effort
of which caused him to faint. The game moved into
extra time. Yet these fantastic exertions had taken
their toll, Uruguay only had one more real chance
early on, the Schiaffino-Hohburg combination yet
again, which resulted in a shot which bounced off
a post. Thereafter the traffic streamed towards
the Uruguayan goal as the much fitter Hungarians
pressed forward. In the second period of extra time,
Kocsis scored twice with headers, body blows from
which Uruguay were too drained to recover. Thus
the two teams that had qualified from Pool Two would
meet in the final, with the additional diabolical
fillip that the West Germans would be considerably
fresher.
The 1954 final would be between the war time allies
Hungary and (West) Germany. Hungary which when a
kingdom in the Hapsburg Empire had encompassed a
much wider area, including Transylvania, the Voivodina
(in modern day Serbia) and Slovakia. The Hungarian
capital Budapest had been completely shattered in
savage fighting in November 1944 when captured by
Malinovskii’s Second Ukrainian Front. For the first
time in a while the Hungarian nation, shackled behind
the Iron Curtain, would have something to celebrate,
for their team was the world’s finest footballing
circus. Bread would have to wait until after the
collapse of the Soviet Union. The horrific injury
inflicted by Liebrich in the first match with West
Germany had kept Puskas out, he now returned to
the Hungarian team. It was and is arguable that
it was a mistake to reinstate Hungary’s finest player,
for he was not fit and his return necessitated some
reshuffling that resulted in players playing outside
their best positions. Nor was there a possibility
to rectify this mistake as substitutions were not
allowed.
On the day of the match (4 July 1954, US Independence
Day!) the heavens opened. West Germany were physically
much more robust than Uruguay, Hungary’s previous
opponents, so this would not necessarily have benefited
Hungary, particularly given Puskas’s injury; nonetheless
the “Magic Magyars” were two up after only eight
minutes. Yet even this short interval had taken
its toll, the injury Puskas was carrying meant that
Hungary had effectively only ten men, worse even
as players would naturally assume Puskas to be capable.
Thus West Germany equalised after less than ten
minutes. The impossible had become the credible.
Underdogs can produce the performance of a lifetime
which is what happened here as Toni Turek the West
German goalkeeper changed from the villain who had
conceded two goals, to the hero who saved everything.
Shot after shot rained in without breaching the
fortress. Then after eighty-three minutes play Rahn
of West Germany burst through the Hungarian defence
and scored. Game over? No, for two minutes later
Puskas equalised, save that the goal was disallowed
for offside, a questionable but final decision.
Thus it came about that one of the weaker teams
in the tournament became World Champions. The Hungarian
team of 1954 vies with the Dutch sides of the 1970s
for the status of the strongest team not to win
the World Cup.