Switzerland 1954

The World Cup, staged in Switzerland at the foot of the Alps, was to soar to new heights in 1954.  The qualifying rounds featured a higher number of nations than ever before (38), including several from Asia (Japan, Korea and China) and Africa (Egypt), giving the event a truly global dimension.  16 teams took part in the Finals, 3 more than in Brazil four years earlier.  This figure remained constant until the 1982 World Cup in Spain, when it rose to 24. 

The magical Magyars 

The quality of football in the games at Basle, Bern, Lausanne, Zurich and Geneva, the five host cities, reached dizzying heights in 1954.   In 26 matches, an incredible total of 140 goals were scored, making an average of 5.38 goals per game.  Needless to say, this is still the record for the number of goals scored in a World Cup finals competition.  The Hungarians, Olympic gold medal winners two years earlier, and unbeaten since May 1950 (31 games: 27 wins and 4 draws), were the incontestable favourites.  From the outset of this fifth World Cup, the “magical Magyars”, who included in their ranks French Puskas, Jozsef Boszik and Sandor Kocsis, showed their class by thrashing Korea (9-0) and an admittedly under-strength German side, 8-3 (see the eye-witness account below).

In the quarter finals, Hungary, still on a roll, beat Brazil (4-2) in a high-tension match that ended in the dressing rooms when players, managers and the two delegations came to blows! 

Surprises came with two other European teams.   Firstly, Switzerland, in defeating Italy and provoking the latter’s “humiliating” first-round exit from the competition.  The Swiss were eventually eliminated by Austria in an epic struggle (5-7, another record!).   Secondly, the Germans, who confidently pursued their wa through to the Final and another meeting with their first-round conquerors, the Hungarians.  The spectators were expecting the Hungarian magic to work again; and indeed, Hungary rapidly went two goals ahead.  But it wasn’t to be.  In ten memorable minutes the Germans had fought back to equalise, and more was yet to come.  after the Hungarians hit the post, Helmut Rahn scored the winner for Germany with only six minutes remaining, when the Hungarian goalkeeper, Hyula Grosics, slid on the wet grass as he was about to go for the ball!  Wankdorf in Bern was thus the scene for one of the biggest ever World cup surprises on that Sunday, 4 July 1954.  For the Germans, as we now know, this first World Cup trophy was to pave the way to continued success.

FRITZ WALTER:
“WE ROSE TO THE CHALLENGE” 

Of all his 61 outings for his country, Fritz Walter, the former captain of the German team, born on 31 October 1920, particularly remembers the 1954 World Cup Final.  “The Hungarians, who hadn’t lost since May 1950, were the easy favourites.  It was raining on the morning of the Final, and our coach, Sepp Herberger – whom we all called ‘the boss’ – gave us heart by declaring:  this is just Fritz’s kind of weather.  We put our first-round defeat by Hungary into perspective by remembering that six first-choice players had been left out for that game:  a tactical decision which nobody in Germany understood.  Then, trailing 2-0 after only eight minutes of play, we rose to the challenge.  My zodiac sign is the scorpion:   sensitive, cool-headed and proud, only stinging when provoked.  Perhaps this was one of the reasons for our triumph.