The beautiful game has been proven over the years to bridge gaps, bring people together and give hope where politically there may not be. Over the next few days I am going to be taking single games which changed the world, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worst and sometimes only for 90 minutes, but all powerful nonetheless.
Last week, I looked into the most recent of these games, which took place in Kabul, Afghanistan on Tuesday. The game signaled the first International in the war torn country for a decade and the first against Pakistan since 1977.
Today we travel back to 1954 Europe and Switzerland where the World Cup was taking place. It had only been 9 years since the end of World War 2 and the first World Cup since the wars end which a German side was allowed to compete. West Germany, as they were then, had started off the campaign with varying results with a 4-1 win against Turkey followed by an 8-3 loss to Hungary. The last game was a 7-2 win again against Turkey meant that the Germans finished second in the group and progressed.
In the Quarter Finals Germany beat Yugoslavia before beating Austria in the Semi Finals and setting up another meeting with Hungary in the Final. That meant that with the exception on Turkey, every team Germany faced, they had invaded at some point!
Courtesy: FIFA
To the Final itself now and remember that Hungary had already beat the Germans earlier in the tournament, 8-3. Fortunately for Germany it also hadn’t invaded the country hosting the World Cup either so maybe the fans were not as hostile as maybe they could have been? Also we now understand the Germans were very cunning in football as they had been in War and in the 8-3 loss earlier on in the tournament they had played a reserve side. Along with that they were equipped by Adidas with newly developed screw-in studs which meant they would be good no matter what the weather by just screwing in different studs. The Final, as it happened, turned out to be a wet affair. The Germans with their hi-tech boots held the advantage.
Even with all that in place after only 8 minutes pf play the Germans found themselves 2-0 down. The German resolve kicked in though and they had tied up the game ten minutes later. Half time arrived at 2-2 and despite many attempts by the Hungarians in the second half it was 6 minutes from time when the Germans struck for the Final time and bring the trophy home for the first time.
So this World Cup had it all with Germany playing recent historical enemies at every level of the competition and then defeating the pre match favorites. After the Final there were rumors that the German side had been injected with drugs before the match but this didn’t dampen the excitement back in Germany.
It was a turning point in German history and brought pride back to a people on their knees. The German National Anthem was played, the first time since the Second World War that had happened at a major sporting event. Since then the Germans have gone onto win the World Cups in 1974 and 1990 as West Germany although none as the united Germany after the Berlin Wall came down. Add to those three World Cup wins, four Final defeats and three Euro wins and three more appearances in the Final since 1960.
Jason Bardwell
www.facebook.com/bobbard
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