The 1954 World Cup: Victory For Germany

By Author: Kellen Sears
Total Articles: 381
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1954 was the fifth time that the World Cup was the football association. This year it took place in the host country of Switzerland and it lasted from June 16 to July 4. The host country of Switzerland had been chosen back in 1946 and were delighted to be the stage where many records would end up being set.

There were 16 teams that played in the tournament and the games were played in 6 different host cities. Scoring records were set at this tournament, including the highest amount of goals scored per game (on average). The top four teams in the tournament were Uruguay at fourth, Austria at third, Hungary at second, and the title was taken by West Germany who defeated Hungary with a score of 3-2 in the final game.

The format for the 1954 tournament was much different than it had been in the past. Rather than doing a round robin, the 16 teams were split up into four groups that each included four teams. Within each of these groups there were 2 unseeded teams as well as 2 seeded teams. There was also a new rule allowing teams to keep playing after 90 minutes if they were tied, all the way up to the 120 minute ...
... mark. Playoffs were played when teams were tied in points to see who would make it the next stage of the tournament.

Seeding was determined by world rankings and before the teams had even qualified for the final tournament, Spain was replaced by Turkey. Germany was actually one of the unseeded teams and had only been let back into FIFA in 1950. They started off by beating Turkey in the first of two different matches and didn't get to play an easy team like Korea who got blown out by 7 and 9 points respectively. The Germans then took on Hungary but lost 3-8. The main note from that game was that the German player Werner Liebrich actually injured Hungarian player Ferenc Pusksas who was largely regarded as the best player in the world. Ferenc would sit out the next two games, but would play in the final. He still was questionable at that time, so many have wondered what it would have been like had he not gotten injured.

In the quarter-finals, Brazil lost 2-4 against Hungary and was known as an extremely violent match. It is often referred to as the "Battle of Berne". England was taken out by Uruguay and Yugoslavia lost to Germany. The host team of Switzerland also lost at this time to Austria but the game had the most goals ever scored in a World Cup. The final score was 7-5.

The final match was between Hungary and West Germany in the Wankdorf Stadion in front of over 60,000 fans. Hungary went into the match being the favorites having won 32 consecutive matches. At the first of the game, Ferenc Puskas put the Hungarians up 1 after only 6 minutes. Just a short while later Hungarian player Zoltan Czibor would score another. The Germans answered with two goals of their own and finished if off by a second goal from Rahn out of the backfield. In the end the Germans walked away with the Jules Rimet trophy.

AUTHOR:-
Kellen Sears writes reviews on various sporting events including the bet on soccer websites. In this piece of write up he highlights on soccer game and soccer betting odds. He takes the readers opinion on soccer betting.