The English line-up was decided by a FA committee. Every player was nominated for a certain position and had to play this position.
The Hungarian line-up was decided by their coach. Especially their forwards didn´t care about positions.
You can see why Hungary won and England was very confused the whole game.
Extra info: The statistic was around 35:5 shots on goal for Hungary.
Extra info: The statistic was around 35:5 shots on goal for Hungary
And England scored 3? Damn
The Hungary coach decided to play without a keeper.
Gyula Grosics was one of the most revolutionary players on the team, arguably the first great sweeper-keeper.
I’ve heard about 100 different people be called ‘the first sweeper-keeper’ so I’ve learned to take that expression with a grain of salt
Selected like a cricket team.
Was this to do with the Hungarians not using the only formation (the oddly named traditional 5-3-2) that the England players understood so they were stuck rigidly marking thin air?
In the quote he says England were playing a WM formation, which was 3-2-2-3.
I’ve only ever known Italy vs Germany in the 1970 WC referred to as “The Game of the Century.” The stadium in Mexico even has a sign commemorating as such.
Estadio Azteca. Hosted the best team (1970 Brazil), the best match (ITA v GER 1970) and the best goal (Maradona v England)
Ist’s the match of the century the 1970 WC semi final match Germany against Italy ?
Depends, some consider France Brazil in 1986
Yes.
Not surprising that the 3-6 would be the match of hte century in Hungary, though.
What would have been if the Communists didnt go rampant. Hungary might have been an elite team till today.
i mean it’s also would be a ‘what-if’ that if Hungary won in ‘54, does the uprising have in ‘56
Bro what you on about💀
? wdym, it has been written about plenty how the loss was a really bad hit on morale for the Hungarian public, obviously its not the only reason, but it obviously had some part
they were still a top team well into the seventies (just checked, and i think the first time they dropped out of the Elo top 10 post-WW2 was 1974).
i mean they had a good team, Florian Albert was European Footballer of the Year in ‘67. Just I think they always tried to compare themselves to the ‘52 team and they weren’t able to
I thought 1954 was their peak when they reached the world cup final?
i mean the '52 squad won the Olympics, where they beat Sweden 6-2 in the semi-finals, its really the same squad, just 2 years older. In '54 you also had Puskas injured until finals and such
If anything communism had a focus on competing at a global level in sports hence why the Soviet Union got to a semifinal, Poland got to two (or three can’t remember) and czechoslovakia even won the euros.
Communists are long gone and now Hungarians are Putin’s most coward puppets, so it must be something with them… destined to lose, that’s their heritage
They making a comeback
The odds of them having that sort of team again though are tiny. Even brazil struggle to replicate teams like the wc70 team.
The true travesty of the communist era laid bare.
My great grandpa used to tell me about Hungarian Laka Konjica when I was a wee lad. He told me that there was no football fan who didn’t love them
Why were England considered good by this time? They already had crashed out in the first round in Brazil losing two matches including against an amateur side.
1954 worldcup was for them
Always felt bad for Gil Merrick. Very good goalkeeper by all accounts, one of the Birmingham City all time great players and managers, servant of the club for decades. Is known around the world for conceding 11 to Hungary when it probably wasn’t his fault.
Something something Puskas and that Hungary team being really good. They would have won the final if Puskas wasn’t kicked off the field every game and there was normal refereeing in those days.
In football its is a widespread belief that in order to be remembered you need to win silverware.
Hungary of that time is one of the exceptions to that rule.
Nonsense. Hungary '54 and Netherlands '74 lost in final, but are still remembered fondly.
Totally disagree, Hungary '54 and Netherlands '74 are remembered even though they didn’t win silverware IMO
Though you just mentioned the same 2 teams as the other reply. Those are the 2 major exceptions (obviously there’s others too)
Though you just mentioned the same 2 teams as the other reply.
Ya think?
So like 2 teams over the last 70 years? (Id personally add Brazil and the Netherlands 1998 as well)
So exactly what OP said then.
Nonsense, it’s exactly what OP said.
It’s hardly “nonsense”. OP said that Hungary are one of the exceptions. There’s not that many teams who didn’t win a tournament who end up remembered to that extent.
Hungary are unusual too in that they only had a brief period with those players. If they were from a different country and stayed together as a group they would have had another go in 1958.
This Hungary team only had 1 major tournament. Hungary withdrew from the 1950 WC, afaik it was because of the 1952 Olympics (which they won and I have no idea how highly it was regarded back then), then they played in the 1954 WC (there were no Euros at the time, it only started in 1960), and then the 1956 revolution happened.
Yes that’s what I was referring to in my post. It was a brief period where they were the best.
The Olympics was regarded as relatively important then. Not to everyone but much more than now. It’s why the game against England had added prestige as they were arriving as Olympic champions.
I love how English can confuse someone if they’re not well-conversant with the language.
How do you mean? Did i say something wrong
I’m referring to how the other guy in the thread completely missed the point of your argument.
Your comment made perfect sense just to clarify.
I think he was just joking about silverware and hungry.
The only slight grammatical error was putting “its is”. And even then that’s so nit picky. The sentence was perfectly worded.
It’s grand, but the structure of your first sentence could be quite complicated for a non-native speaker.
Most people’s minds, when fluent in a language, will often literally autocorrect mistakes like that and only recall them if they deliberately attempt to, you’re fine
Honestly the Hungary team that lost the 54 final is more famous than the Germany team that won it.
That Hungary team only lost one match between 1951 and 1956… the 1954 World Cup final
And they beat germany 8-3 in the group stage but somewhow couldnt beat them in the final
It’s amazing what a lot of rain and mud bundled with removable studs does to a mf.
Not in Germany
No, they are not. The general public doesn’t even know about them. They are pretty irrevant. Uruguay who won last during the stone ages are remembered more fondly
To this day we hold “memorials” for the 3:6 but how come 7:1 doesn’t get the same treatment?
Because that was the first time England lost a game at home. The second time it happened they already knew England was bad and Hungary was very good.
*First time England lost at Wembley
The second time it happened they already knew England was bad and Hungary was very good.
I know what you mean, but genuinely that England team weren’t ‘bad’, Hungary were that good.
that was the first time England lost a game at home.
It wasn’t. It was the first home game they lost to a team from the European continent though.
Actually Ireland was the first team to beat England at home. September 1949. 2-0 at Goodison Park.
Doesn’t quite fit the narrative that they could only be beaten by the exotic Mighty Magyars though.
Playing against Ireland in Liverpool is an away game for England
😂😂
Scotland first beat England in 1877 and were the first team to beat them at Wembley. Wales and Ireland (original Ireland football team for the entire island) both beat England multiple times in England before 1953 but Hungary were the first continental European team to beat England in England which is why it’s so well known.
My grandfather was very proud of that result too. Not sure if this is true, but apparently the English training camp was in Balatonboglár, near where he lived at the time, and they were training here for a week (according to him anyway).
He kept saying a funny line in Hungarian which could be translated like this:
“Az angolok egy hétre jöttek, és 7:1re mentek”.
The english came for one week (1:7), and went back with 7:1 :)
One week sounds like “one seven” because seven and (a) week is the same word (hét) in Hungarian.
When I was in Budapest for the EL final I saw a huge mural of this result painted on some random residential building
Made me feel bad for Gil Merrick, who is slathered on there Even though as far as I can tell he was sort of left out to dry by a bad formation
According to Jonathan Wilson in his book “inverting the pyramid”, this game was a massive turning point in the understanding of formations. I don’t remember exact quotes but the English players were so confused by Nándor Hidegkúti’s false 9 role that they just helplessly watched unending Hungarian attacks and conceding lots of goals.