1954 FIFA WORLD CUP
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Qualifying countries.
The '1954 FIFA World Cup', the fifth staging of the World Cup, was held in Switzerland from June 16 to July 4. As the year saw the 50th anniversary of FIFA, it was appropriate for football's premier competition to be played in the home of its governing body, and Switzerland was chosen as hosts in July 1946. The tournament was won by West Germany, who upset Hungary 3-2 in the final, giving them their first title.
Qualification
Main articles: 1954 FIFA World Cup qualification
Summary
For the first time there was television coverage, and special coins were issued to mark the event. 16 teams qualified for the tournament and an unusual system was used in the first stage. The 16 teams were divided into four groups: each group was comprised of two of the eight seeded teams based on world rankings (Austria, Brazil, England, France, Hungary, Italy, Turkey and Uruguay), plus two unseeded teams.
The official 1954 FIFA World Cup poster.
Instead of a conventional round-robin where each team would play three matches, the seeded teams as well as the unseeded teams were spared from playing each other as the unseeded teams were squared up only against the seeded ones in a chance to qualify, so each team played only 2 group matches, unless tied for the second qualifying position by points, which required a play-off. Extra time was played for any games that was tied after 90 minutes, with the result being a draw if the scores were still level after 120 minutes. The two teams finishing at the top of their group went through to the quarter-finals. Uruguay and Austria both won their games, thus finished the group level on points in the qualifying positions, and drew lots to determine who they would play in the next round, as did Brazil and Yugoslavia.
Consequently Switzerland and Italy played each other twice with Switzerland winning the play-off 4-1. The Germans, who had been reinstated as full FIFA members only in 1950 and were unseeded, won the first of two encounters with the seeded Turkish convincingly in Berne at Wankdorf stadium. The Koreans, as the other unseeded team, lost 0-7 and 0-9, with Germany being denied the chance to play such an easy opponent. Sepp Herberger gambled against the seeded team of Hungary by sending in a reserve side to take an expected 3-8 loss, with the only consequence being the additional playoff game against Turkey that was won with ease.
The quarter-finals saw 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. Germany dispatched Yugoslavia 2-0, and Austria beat the host nation Switzerland in the game that saw the most goals in any World Cup match, 7-5.
One of the semi-finals saw Austria, against the DFB team which represented the Federal Republic of Germany, one of three German states of the time. The DFB had qualified against fellow Germans from the French-occupied Saarland, while East Germany had not entered, cancelling international football games after the East German uprising of 1953. With the final at stake, Austria 6-1.
The other semi-final, one of the most exciting games of the tournament, saw Hungary go into the second half leading Uruguay 1-0, only for the game to be taken to extra time with a score after 90 minutes of 2-2. The deadlock was broken by Sándor Kocsis with two late goals to take Hungary through to the final, beating a team that had not previously lost a World Cup game. Uruguay then went on to be beaten for a second time as Austria secured third place.
Final: "The Miracle of Bern"
The Wankdorf Stadion in Berne saw 60,000 people cram inside to watch 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 two tough playoff matches. It had started raining on game day - in Germany this was dubbed "Fritz-Walter-Wetter" (''Fritz Walter's weather'') because the German team captain Fritz Walter was said to play his best in rainy weather. Adi Dassler had provided shoes with exchangeable studs.
Card autographed by coach Sepp Herberger and the 11 German players that appeared in the final
The final saw Hungary's Ferenc Puskás playing even though he was not fully fit. Despite this he put his team ahead after only 6 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, and the equalizer of Helmut Rahn in the 19th, the tide began to turn.
The second half saw telling misses from the Hungarian team. Barely 6 minutes before the end of the match, the popular German radio reporter Herbert Zimmermann gave the most famous German piece of commentary, recommending ''Rahn should kick from the backfield'', which he did. The second goal from Rahn gave Germany a 3-2 lead while the Hungarian reporter Gyorgy Szepesi burst into tears. Later, Zimmermann called Puskás offside before he kicked the ball into Toni Turek's net with 2 minutes left. The offside was flagged by linesman Griffiths and the claimed equalizer was not allowed by referee Ling.
The Germans were handed the Jules Rimet trophy and the title of World Cup winners while the crowd sang along to the tunes of the national anthems of Germany. In Germany the success is known as The Miracle of Bern, upon which a 2003 film of the same name was based. For the Hungarians, the defeat was a disaster.
The 11 goals scored by Kocsis of Hungary not only led the World Cup, but bettered the previous record (set by Brazilian Ademir in the previous tournament) by two goals. However, Kocsis' mark was broken by Just Fontaine's 13 goals in 1958.
Venues
Six cities hosted the tournament:
★ Basel, St. Jakob Stadium
★ Berne, Wankdorf Stadium
★ Geneva, Charmilles Stadium
★ Lausanne, Stade Olympique de la Pontaise
★ Lugano, Cornaredo Stadium
★ Zürich, Hardturm Stadium
Squads
For a list of all squads that appeared in the final tournament, see ''1954 FIFA World Cup squads''.
Results
First round
Group 1
| Team | Pts | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| '3' | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 1 | |
| '3' | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | |
| '2' | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | |
| '0' | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
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Group 2
| Team | Pts | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| '4' | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 3 | |
| '2' | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 9 | |
| '2' | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 4 | |
| '0' | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 16 |
----
----
----
Play-off:
Group 3
| Team | Pts | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| '4' | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | |
| '4' | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | |
| '0' | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 7 | |
| '0' | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 8 |
----
----
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Group 4
| Team | Pts | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| '3' | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 4 | |
| '2' | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| '2' | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 3 | |
| '1' | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 8 |
----
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Play-off:
Knockout stage
Quarter-finals
----
----
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Semi-finals
----
Third place match
Final
Awards
| 1954 World Cup Winners |
|---|
 West Germany 'West Germany' 'First title' |
Scorers
External links
★ 1954 FIFA World Cup on FIFA.com
★ Details at RSSSF
★ History of the World Cup-1954
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