Sixty years ago, on 4 July 1954, at bern's Wankdorf Stadium, West Germany became the first unseeded team to win the World Cup. This was of great significance to German football, which was just beginning at the time, and to the entire country under reconstruction, without which German football might not have been as glorious as it is today. A few years ago, the Germans made the final into a movie, and "The Miracle of Bern" inspired those who aspired to make miracles. Taking advantage of germany's four consecutive World Cup semi-finals, let's talk about the Bern miracle.
Hungarian football flourished rapidly after the end of World War II, not only with impressive records and amazing footwork, but also with far ahead of its tactical thinking. They inherited the legacy of the "Danube School", a style of football that appeared in the Danube River basin countries such as Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic between the two world wars.
When they came to Switzerland for the 1954 World Cup, Hungary had been unbeaten for 3 years (another way of saying that it was 4 years unbeaten, involving whether or not to admit certain matches). They are grouped with South Korea, West Germany and Turkey in an odd format, with a single round robin in the group stage, but each team only plays against two opponents in the same group.
In the first game, the Hungarian team swept south Korea 9-0, followed by West Germany, West German coach Herberg sent a large number of substitutes, Hungary won 8-3, player Ecker said, "In front of the Hungarian team we want to perform better, but the result makes us depressed." "But hungary suffered heavy losses, captain Puskas was injured, and in the final he recovered at most half, not suitable for playing at all, but still started.
Before the final, Herberg had already shown players twice the video of Hungary's victory over England at Wembley. The number one star was Captain Walter, who fought in World War II, was in the Luftwaffe field, played a lot of games with an army-organized team, so his skills were not wasted, but he contracted malaria during the war, and he liked cloudy days and rain, because sunny days and high temperatures would lead to malaria attacks. On the day of the final, Walter often went to the balcony to watch the weather, and it rained heavily at noon, and he was very excited. The West Germans had a secret weapon: adidas-made sneakers that could be removed and exchanged for different sizes, and the rain on the day of the finals mudded the field, so they used longer studs.
Hungary, which was poorly equipped, was still strong, and after the start of the final, it took a 2-0 lead in less than 10 minutes, Puskas and Zibor scored one goal each, but less than 10 minutes later, West Germany equalized. Six of the starters are from Kaiserslautern, who know each other well, and captain Walter is comfortable in the cool weather.
Hungary then attacked back-and-forth, with West Germany resisting, with the 35-year-old goalkeeper Turek playing well and the frame helping. West Germany did not blindly defend, the attack was equally active, near the end of the game, Hungary's defender Lantos pushed the ball out, just landed at the feet of the unguarded Larne, he took two shots, left foot pump, the ball stepped on the left goalpost to drill the net, Hungary then counterattacked, but the goal of Puskas was judged to be offside.
It was perhaps the most incredible final in World Cup history, with West Germany winning, and while the victory was less convincing and there were suspicions that they had taken doping, it was all a story. West Germany rejoiced and began to emerge from the shadow of World War II.
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