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// Workers AI · dad joke modeDid 1954 FIFA World Cup goer bring a ball? It was a kick to attend.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Football World Cup 1954)

1954 FIFA World Cup
Fussball-Weltmeisterschaft
Schweiz 1954 (German)
Championnat du Monde de Football
Suisse 1954 (French)
Campionato mondiale di calcio
Svizzera 1954 (Italian)
Campiunadis mundials da ballape
Svizra 1954 (Romansh)
Tournament details
Host countrySwitzerland
Dates16 June – 4 July
Teams16 (from 4 confederations)
Venues6 (in 6 host cities)
Final positions
Champions West Germany (1st title)
Runners-up Hungary
Third place Austria
Fourth place Uruguay
Tournament statistics
Matches played26
Goals scored140 (5.38 per match)
Attendance768,607 (29,562 per match)
Top scorerHungary Sándor Kocsis (11 goals)
← 1950
1958 →

The 1954 FIFA World Cup was the fifth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football tournament for senior men's national teams of the nations affiliated to FIFA. It was held in Switzerland from 16 June to 4 July. Switzerland was selected as the host country in July 1946.[1] At the tournament, several all-time records for goalscoring were set, including the highest average number of goals scored per game. The tournament was won by West Germany, who defeated tournament favourites Hungary 3–2 in the final for their first World Cup title. Uruguay, the defending champions, were eliminated by Hungary in the semi-finals and would lose to Austria in the match for third place.

The highest scoring match of a men’s World Cup happened in the quarter-finals of this tournament, when Austria defeated hosts Switzerland 7–5.

Host selection

[edit]

Switzerland was awarded the tournament unopposed at a meeting in Luxembourg City on 22 July 1946, the same day Brazil was selected to host the 1950 World Cup.[1]

Qualification

[edit]

The hosts (Switzerland) and the defending champions (Uruguay) qualified automatically. Of the remaining 14 places, 11 were allocated to Europe (including Egypt, Turkey, and Israel), two to the Americas, and one to Asia.

Scotland, Turkey, and South Korea made their World Cup debuts at this tournament (Turkey and Scotland had qualified for the 1950 competition but both withdrew). South Korea became the first independent Asian country to participate in a World Cup tournament. Austria appeared following a hiatus from 1934. Several teams, such as Hungary and Czechoslovakia were back into the tournament after missing out the 1950 World Cup.

German teams as well as Japan were allowed to qualify again, after having been banned from the 1950 FIFA World Cup. West Germany qualified against fellow Germans from the Saarland (which then was a French protectorate), while East Germany did not enter, having cancelled international football matches after the East German uprising of 1953. Argentina declined to participate for the third successive World Cup.

List of qualified teams

[edit]

The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.

Summary

[edit]

Format

[edit]

Group stage

[edit]

The 1954 tournament used a unique format. The sixteen qualified teams were divided into four groups of four teams each. Each group contained two seeded teams and two unseeded teams. Only four matches were scheduled for each group, each pitting a seeded team against an unseeded team. This contrasts with the usual round-robin in which every team plays every other team: six matches in each group. Another oddity was that extra time, which in most tournaments is not employed at the group stage, was played in the group games if the score was level after 90 minutes, with the result being a draw if the scores were still level after 120 minutes.[2]

Two points were awarded for a win and one for a draw. The two teams with the most points from each group progressed to the knockout stage. In the case of a tie between two teams for second place, the two tied teams competed in a play-off to decide which team would progress to the next stage, with extra time and drawing of lots if necessary.[2][3] Had all four teams in a group been tied on points, there would have been two further play-offs – one play-off between the two seeded teams, and the other between the two unseeded teams, again with extra time and drawing of lots if necessary – with the winner of each play-off progressing to the quarter-finals.[2]

Qualified countries

Two of the four groups ended up requiring play-offs – one between Switzerland and Italy, and the other between Turkey and West Germany. In each match, the unseeded team (Switzerland and West Germany) repeated an earlier victory against the seeded team (Italy and Turkey) to progress. The fact that two group matches were played twice, while other group opponents never faced each other at all, attracted criticism; newly elected FIFA President Rodolphe Seeldrayers declared that this group format would be abandoned in future world cups.[4]

Quarter-finals

[edit]

For each of the first two quarter-finals, one team progressing from group 1 was drawn against one team progressing from group 2. For the remaining two quarter-finals, this procedure was repeated for groups 3 and 4.[2] Before the tournament, it was stated that in the event of a quarter-final being tied after 90 minutes, 30 minutes of extra time would be played, followed by drawing of lots if necessary.[2] Later, it was stated that a quarter-final could be replayed in this situation.[5] The draw was scheduled to be held on Sunday 20 June, though in fact it was delayed into the early morning of Monday 21 June.[6]

Semi-finals

[edit]

For the semi-finals, a further draw was held, with each semi-final featuring one team from groups 1–2 against one team from groups 3–4.[2] In the event of a semi-final being tied after extra time, it would be replayed once, followed by drawing of lots if necessary.[2]

The draw for the semi-finals, held on Sunday 27 June, was delayed by a complaint from the Hungarian team concerning the manner in which their quarter-final against Brazil had been played.[7][5]

Final

[edit]

The final would be replayed if scores were level after extra-time. If the replay was also tied, the winner would be decided by the tournament organising committee,[2] or by drawing of lots.[8]

Seeding

[edit]

Before qualification was complete, the eight seeded teams were determined by FIFA. They were Austria, Brazil, England, France, Hungary, Italy, Spain, and Uruguay.

These seedings were thrown into disarray when, in an unexpected result, Turkey eliminated Spain in qualification. FIFA resolved this situation by giving Turkey the seeding that had previously been allocated to Spain.[9]

Notable results

[edit]

The Germany national football team, then limited to the area of West Germany only, had been reinstated as full FIFA members only in late 1950, had played only 18 games since, and were unseeded. When meeting the seeded Turkish side at Wankdorf stadium in Berne, the Turks scored early, but the Germans convincingly won the encounter, which would turn out as the first of two within six days.

The South Koreans, the other unseeded team, lost 7–0 and 9–0 against the seeded sides of Hungary and Turkey. West Germany, being denied the chance to play such an easy opponent, had to face the seeded team of Hungary, a favourite to win the World Cup. Sepp Herberger, the West German coach, did not want his A-squad to suffer a possible defeat against a strong opponent while trying to qualify for a rather meaningless first place, and gambled by going the easier route into the play-offs and sending in a reserve side which lost 8–3 in Basel. A benefit was that the Hungarians did not get to know the best German players in case both teams would meet again - which they did, in the final, along with referee William Ling. Now two teams were tied for second place on 2 points, and with no tie breaking procedures in effect, even though West Germany had beaten Turkey head-to-head, they had to play-off against each other, a match-up that West Germany easily won for the second time within six days, this time in Zürich.

Hungary's team captain Ferenc Puskás, considered by many as the best player in the world in that time, was injured by West German defender Werner Liebrich, and had to miss Hungary's next two matches. Puskás played for Hungary in the final, despite still being in a questionable condition.[10]

In the quarter-finals, the favourites Hungary beat Brazil 4–2 in one of the most violent matches in football history, which became infamous as the Battle of Berne. Meanwhile, the World Cup holders Uruguay sent England out of the tournament, also by 4–2. West Germany dispatched Yugoslavia 2–0, and Austria beat the host nation Switzerland in the game with the most goals in any World Cup match, 7–5.

In the first semi-final, West Germany beat Austria 6–1.

In the other semi-final, one of the most exciting games of the tournament, Hungary led Uruguay 1–0 at halftime, but the game went to extra time with a 2–2 score after 90 minutes. The deadlock was broken by Sándor Kocsis with two late goals to take Hungary through to the final, with Uruguay finally losing their unbeaten record in World Cup Final matches. Uruguay then went on to be beaten for a second time as Austria secured third place.

Final: "The Miracle of Bern"

[edit]

At the Wankdorf Stadion in Berne, 60,000 people watched the final between West Germany and Hungary, a rematch of a first-round game, which Hungary had won 8–3 against the reserves of the German team. The Golden Team of the Hungarians were favourites, as they were unbeaten for a record of 32 consecutive matches, but they had had two tough knockout matches. It started raining on match day–in Germany this was dubbed Fritz-Walter-Wetter ("Fritz Walter's weather") because the West German team captain Fritz Walter was said to play his best in the rain, a result of having contracted malaria during the war. Adi Dassler of Adidas provided the West German team with a new kind of shoes, with exchangeable studs that were replaced during halftime.

Card autographed by coach Sepp Herberger and the 11 German players that appeared in the final

Hungary's Ferenc Puskás played again in the final, even though he was not fully fit. Despite this he put his team ahead after only six minutes and with Zoltán Czibor adding another two minutes later it seemed that the pre-tournament favourites would take the title. However, with a quick goal from Max Morlock in the 10th minute and an equaliser by Helmut Rahn in the 19th, the tide began to turn.

The second half featured telling misses by the Hungarian team. Barely six minutes before the end of the match, the popular German radio reporter Herbert Zimmermann delivered the most famous line in the German commentary, recommending that "Rahn should shoot from deep", which he did. The second goal from Rahn gave West Germany a 3–2 lead while the Hungarian reporter György Szepesi burst into tears. Later, Zimmermann called Puskás offside before he kicked the ball into Toni Turek's net with 2 minutes left. While referee William Ling pointed to the centre spot, linesman Griffiths signalled offside. After a one-minute consultation, Ling disallowed the claimed equaliser.

The West Germans were handed the Jules Rimet Trophy as World Cup winners, while the crowd sang along to the tune of the national anthem of Germany – there was disquiet in the stadium as the Germans fans decided to sing the anthem's first stanza Deutschland über alles,[11] instead of the uncontroversial third Unity and Justice and Freedom which was supposed to be sung at official events according to a 1952 decree. In Germany the success is known as the "Miracle of Bern" (Das Wunder Von Bern), and was memorialised in a 2003 film of the same name. For the Hungarians, the defeat was a disaster, and remains controversial for apparent refereeing errors and claims of doping.

One controversy concerns the 2–2 equaliser. Hungarian goalie Gyula Grosics jumped to catch Fritz Walter's corner shot, but Hans Schäfer obstructed him (in plain sight of TV cameras), allowing the ball to reach Rahn, who then scored. Another controversy concerns allegations of doping. Though teammates steadfastly denied this rumour, German historian Guido Knopp claimed in a 2004 documentary for German public channel ZDF[12] that the players were injected with shots of vitamin C at half-time, using a needle earlier taken from a Soviet sports doctor. This resulted in both the better condition of the West German team in the second half and the wave of jaundice among their players following the tournament. A Leipzig University study in 2010 posited that the West German players had been injected with the banned substance methamphetamine.[13]

Most controversial was the offside ruling for Puskás's intended 87th-minute equaliser. The camera filming the official footage was in a bad position to judge the situation, but eyewitnesses claimed that the referee was wrong, including West German substitute player Alfred Pfaff.[14] In 2004, North German regional public channel NDR aired unofficial footage appearing to show that Puskás was onside.[15]

Venues

[edit]

Six venues in six cities (1 venue in each city) hosted the tournament's 26 matches. The most used stadium was the St. Jakob Stadium in Basel, which hosted 6 matches. The venues in Bern, Zurich and Lausanne each hosted 5 matches, the venue in Geneva hosted 4 matches, and the venue in Lugano only hosted 1 match.

Bern Basel Lausanne
Wankdorf Stadium St. Jakob Stadium Stade Olympique de la Pontaise
46°57′46″N 7°27′54″E / 46.96278°N 7.46500°E / 46.96278; 7.46500 (Wankdorf Stadium) 47°32′29″N 7°37′12″E / 47.54139°N 7.62000°E / 47.54139; 7.62000 (St. Jakob Stadium) 46°32′00″N 06°37′27″E / 46.53333°N 6.62417°E / 46.53333; 6.62417 (Stade olympique de la Pontaise)
Capacity: 64,600 Capacity: 54,800 Capacity: 50,300
Geneva Lugano Zürich
Charmilles Stadium Cornaredo Stadium Hardturm Stadium
46°12′33″N 6°07′06″E / 46.2091°N 6.1182°E / 46.2091; 6.1182 (Charmilles Stadium) 46°01′25″N 8°57′42″E / 46.02361°N 8.96167°E / 46.02361; 8.96167 (Cornaredo Stadium) 47°23′35″N 8°30′17″E / 47.39306°N 8.50472°E / 47.39306; 8.50472 (Hardturm Stadium)
Capacity: 35,997 Capacity: 35,800 Capacity: 34,800

Squads

[edit]

The 16 finalists named squads of 22 for the finals, though South Korea only named 20 players in their squad. Unlike recent tournaments, there were no requirements for teams to name three goalkeepers; most teams did, but 6 did not. Some teams also chose to leave some of their named squad at home, only bringing them to Switzerland if necessary.

Match officials

[edit]

Group stage

[edit]

All times listed are local time (CET, UTC+1).

Group 1

[edit]

Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Brazil 2 1 1 0 6 1 +5 3 Advance to the knockout stage
1  Yugoslavia 2 1 1 0 2 1 +1 3
3  France 2 1 0 1 3 3 0 2
4  Mexico 2 0 0 2 2 8 −6 0
Source: FIFA
Brazil 5–0 Mexico
 [Report 1]
Attendance: 13,470
Referee: Raymon Wyssling (Switzerland)
Yugoslavia 1–0 France
 [Report 2]
Attendance: 16,000
Referee: Benjamin Griffiths (Wales)
Brazil 1–1 (a.e.t.) Yugoslavia
 [Report 3]
Attendance: 24,637
Referee: Charlie Faultless (Scotland)
France 3–2 Mexico
 [Report 4]
Attendance: 19,000
Referee: Manuel Asensi (Spain)

Group 2

[edit]

Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Hungary 2 2 0 0 17 3 +14 4 Advance to the knockout stage
2  West Germany 2 1 0 1 7 9 −2 2[a]
3  Turkey 2 1 0 1 8 4 +4 2[a]
4  South Korea 2 0 0 2 0 16 −16 0
Source: FIFA
Notes:
  1. 1 2 Second place decided over through play-off: West Germany 7–2 Turkey.
West Germany 4–1 Turkey
 [Report 5]
Attendance: 28,000
Referee: Jose da Costa Vieira (Portugal)
Hungary 9–0 South Korea
 [Report 6]
Attendance: 13,000
Referee: Raymond Vincenti (France)
Hungary 8–3 West Germany
 [Report 7]
Attendance: 56,000
Turkey 7–0 South Korea
 [Report 8]
Attendance: 4,000

Play-off

[edit]
West Germany 7–2 Turkey
 [Report 9]
Attendance: 17,000
Referee: Raymond Vincenti (France)

Group 3

[edit]

Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Uruguay 2 2 0 0 9 0 +9 4 Advance to the knockout stage
1  Austria 2 2 0 0 6 0 +6 4
3  Czechoslovakia 2 0 0 2 0 7 −7 0
3  Scotland 2 0 0 2 0 8 −8 0
Source: FIFA
Uruguay 2–0 Czechoslovakia
 [Report 10]
Attendance: 20,500
Austria 1–0 Scotland
 [Report 11]
Attendance: 25,000
Referee: Laurent Franken (Belgium)
Uruguay 7–0 Scotland
 [Report 12]
Attendance: 34,000
Austria 5–0 Czechoslovakia
 [Report 13]
Attendance: 26,000
Referee: Vasa Stefanovic (Yugoslavia)

Group 4

[edit]

Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  England 2 1 1 0 6 4 +2 3 Advance to the knockout stage
2   Switzerland 2 1 0 1 2 3 −1 2[a]
3  Italy 2 1 0 1 5 3 +2 2[a]
4  Belgium 2 0 1 1 5 8 −3 1
Source: FIFA
Notes:
  1. 1 2 Second place decided over through play-off: Switzerland 4–1 Italy
Switzerland 2–1 Italy
 [Report 14]
Attendance: 43,000
England 4–4 (a.e.t.) Belgium
 [Report 15]
Attendance: 14,000
Referee: Emil Schmetzer (West Germany)
Italy 4–1 Belgium
 [Report 16]
Attendance: 24,000
Referee: Carl Erich Steiner (Austria)
England 2–0  Switzerland
 [Report 17]
Attendance: 43,500
Referee: Istvan Zsolt (Hungary)

Play-off

[edit]
Switzerland 4–1 Italy
 [Report 18]
Attendance: 30,000
Referee: Benjamin Griffiths (Wales)

Knockout stage

[edit]

Bracket

[edit]
 
Quarter-finalsSemi-finalsFinal
 
          
 
27 June – Geneva
 
 
 West Germany2
 
30 June – Basel
 
 Yugoslavia0
 
 West Germany6
 
26 June – Lausanne
 
 Austria1
 
 Austria7
 
4 July – Bern
 
  Switzerland5
 
 West Germany3
 
27 June – Bern
 
 Hungary2
 
 Hungary4
 
30 June – Lausanne
 
 Brazil2
 
 Hungary (a.e.t.)4
 
26 June – Basel
 
 Uruguay2 Match for third place
 
 Uruguay4
 
3 July – Zürich
 
 England2
 
 Austria3
 
 
 Uruguay1
 

Quarter-finals

[edit]
Austria 7–5  Switzerland
 [Report 19]
Attendance: 35,000
Referee: Charlie Faultless (Scotland)
Uruguay 4–2 England
 [Report 20]
Attendance: 28,000
Referee: Carl Erich Steiner (Austria)
West Germany 2–0 Yugoslavia
 [Report 21]
Attendance: 17,000
Referee: Istvan Zsolt (Hungary)
Hungary 4–2 Brazil
 [Report 22]
Attendance: 40,000

Semi-finals

[edit]
West Germany 6–1 Austria
 [Report 23]
Attendance: 58,000
Referee: Vincenzo Orlandini (Italy)
Hungary 4–2 (a.e.t.) Uruguay
 [Report 24]
Attendance: 45,000
Referee: Benjamin Griffiths (Wales)

Match for third place

[edit]
Austria 3–1 Uruguay
 [Report 25]
Attendance: 32,000
Referee: Raymon Wyssling (Switzerland)

Final

[edit]
West Germany 3–2 Hungary
 [Report 26]
Attendance: 62,500

Goalscorers

[edit]

With 11 goals, Sándor Kocsis was the top scorer in the tournament. In total, 140 goals were scored by 63 players, with four of them credited as own goals.

11 goals
6 goals
4 goals
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
1 own goal

FIFA retrospective ranking

[edit]

In 1986, FIFA published a report that ranked all teams in each World Cup up to and including 1986, based on progress in the competition, overall results and quality of the opposition.[16][17] The rankings for the 1954 tournament were as follows:

R Team G P W D L GF GA GD Pts.
1 West Germany265012514+1110
2 Hungary254012710+178
3 Austria354011712+58
4 Uruguay35302169+76
Eliminated in the quarter-finals
5 Brazil1311185+33
6 England431118803
7 Yugoslavia1311123−13
8  Switzerland44202111102
Eliminated in the group stage
9 Turkey231021011−12
10 Italy4310267−12
11 France121013302
12 Belgium4201158−31
13 Mexico1200228−60
14 Czechoslovakia3200207−70
15 Scotland3200208−80
16 South Korea22002016−160

In film

[edit]

The final scene of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1979 film The Marriage of Maria Braun takes place during the finals of the 1954 World Cup; in the scene's background, the sports announcer is celebrating West Germany's victory and shouting "Deutschland ist wieder was!" (Germany is something again); the film uses this as the symbol of Germany's recovery from the ravages of the Second World War.

Sönke Wortmann's 2003 German box-office hit The Miracle of Bern (in German: Das Wunder von Bern) re-tells the story of the German team's route to victory through the eyes of a young boy who admires the key player of the final, Helmut Rahn.

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 "Host announcement decision" (PDF). FIFA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 January 2012. Retrieved 14 June 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Aujourd'hui commence le tour final de la Coupe du Monde de football". Journal du Jura (in French). Bienne, Switzerland. 16 June 1954. p. 5. Archived from the original on 30 November 2024. Retrieved 5 September 2022 – via e-newspaperarchives.ch.
  3. ↑ Risolo, Donn (2010). Soccer Stories: Anecdotes, Oddities, Lore, and Amazing Feats. University of Nebraska Press. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-8032-3014-9.
  4. ↑ "La Coupe du Monde". Nouvelliste Valaisan. St Maurice, Switzerland: 6. 25 June 1954.
  5. 1 2 "Die Fußball-Weltmeisterschaft". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in German). Zürich, Switzerland: 7. 26 June 1954. Archived from the original on 30 November 2024. Retrieved 5 September 2022.
  6. ↑ "Der neue Spielplan". Der Bund (in German). Bern, Switzerland: 4. 21 June 1954. Archived from the original on 30 November 2024. Retrieved 5 September 2022.
  7. ↑ "Tirage au sort des demi-finales". La Liberté (in French). Fribourg, Switzerland: 7. 28 June 1954. Archived from the original on 3 December 2024. Retrieved 5 September 2022.
  8. ↑ Jessen, Christian; Stahl, Volker; Eggers, Erik; Schlüper, Johann-Günther (2003). Fußballweltmeisterschaft 1954 Schweiz: Das Wunder von Bern. Kassel: Agon-Sportverlag. pp. 27ff. ISBN 9783897842182.
  9. ↑ "History of the World Cup Final Draw" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 July 2013. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
  10. ↑ "FERENC PUSKAS – International Football Hall of Fame". Ifhof.com. 2 April 1927. Archived from the original on 1 June 2020. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
  11. ↑ German Anthem -1954 Soccer Worldcup, 8 October 2014, archived from the original on 11 November 2021, retrieved 23 June 2021
  12. ↑ "Das Wunder von Bern – Die wahre Geschichte". broadview.tv (in German). Archived from the original on 20 April 2008. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
  13. ↑ "Germany's 1954 World Cup winners 'were doped'". Agence France-Presse. 6 October 2010. Archived from the original on 30 April 2011. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
  14. ↑ Ewiger Knaben Wunderhorn Archived 27 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine (DER SPIEGEL, 18/2004)
  15. ↑ "Das Trauma von Bern: Die unbekannte Seite des legendären Endspiels". Wndrtv. Archived from the original on 5 June 2008. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
  16. ↑ "page 45" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 June 2010. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
  17. ↑ "FIFA World Cup: Milestones, facts & figures. Statistical Kit 7" (PDF). FIFA. 26 March 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 May 2013.

Reports

[edit]
  1. ↑
  2. ↑
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  4. ↑
  5. ↑
  6. ↑
  7. ↑
  8. ↑
  9. ↑
  10. ↑
  11. ↑
  12. ↑
  13. ↑
  14. ↑
  15. ↑
  16. ↑
  17. ↑
  18. ↑
  19. ↑
  20. ↑
  21. ↑
  22. ↑
  23. ↑
  24. ↑
  25. ↑
  26. ↑
[edit]
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