The two football world cups Hungary could have won – Video
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In fact, one of the finals is well-known; it happened with the “unbeatable” Golden Team in 1954, in Bern. There Hungary lost against West-Germany on a controversial match. The other one is less known even in Hungary though it happened only 16 years earlier.
1938: the world cup does not come to Hungary
In fact, this was the third of its kind held in France from 4 to 19 June. Interestingly, since the venue was not in Latin-America for the second time consequently,
Uruguay and Argentina did not enter the competition.
The host and the title holder (Italy) were automatically qualified. Thus, from the 14 remaining places 11 were given to Europe, 2 to the Americas and one to Asia. Though Austria qualified, because of the Anschluß they could not take part in the championship. Therefore, their first opponent, Sweden progressed directly to the second-round.
In fact, Hungary started the tournament well with a 6-0 against the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). This was followed by Switzerland’s 2-0 knockout which enabled Hungary to progress into the semi-finals. There the Hungarian team met Sweden who suffered a 5-1 defeat in Paris, Parc des Princes stadium.
The final took place in the Olympique stadium where
Hungary’s national team met Italy, the title holder.
The Italian team scored the first goal after which Pál Titkos managed to equalise. However, Italy quickly regained the lead eight minutes later with a goal from Silvio Piola. This was extended to 3 – 1 in the 35th minute. Even though Captain György Sárosi scored a second goal for Hungary it was only enough to reduce the deficit. Finally, in the 82nd minute Silvio Piola put Italy up 4–2. This meant that Italy retained the world cup.
Here you can watch the goals of the final on video:
1954: the Golden Team loses
In 1954 the tournament was hosted by Switzerland and the Hungarian Golden Team was the absolute favourite. After WWII
West-Germany was able to qualify again
while East-Germany refused to enter the competition. Furthermore, Argentina declined to participate again.
The Hungarian Golden Team easily won their group defeating e.g. the reserves of West Germany 8 to 3. However, after that very difficult matches waited. Firstly, they beat Brazil 4 to 2 in one of the most violent matches of the football History, which became infamous as the
The Hungarian team should be awarded the cup as the West Germans were on drugs. At least a star and footnote should acknowledge that the cheating team won.