16 countries participated in the main stage of the fifth World Cup. Hosts Switzerland and champions Uruguay qualify directly. The remaining 14 countries come through the qualifiers.
12 countries participated from Europe - Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, England, Scotland, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Italy, Hungary, West Germany, France, Czechoslovakia. Two countries from Latin America come to the main stage - Brazil and Uruguay. They are accompanied by Mexico in North America and South Korea in Asia. Scotland, Turkey and South Korea made their debut on the World Cup stage with this event.
group phase
The tournament started by dividing 16 countries into four groups. Each group had four countries. Surprisingly not all teams in the group played against all teams. Each group had two qualified and two unqualified teams. Selected countries play with unselected countries! As a result, each country plays two games. From there, the top two countries in each group advance to the quarter-finals.
Group-1 (Two teams selected) Brazil, France (Two teams not selected) Yugoslavia, Mexico
Group-2 (Two teams drawn) Hungary, Turkey (Two teams drawn) West Germany, South Korea
Group-3 (Two teams drawn) Uruguay, Austria (Two teams drawn) Czechoslovakia, Scotland
Group-4 (Two teams selected) England, Italy (Two teams not selected) Switzerland, Belgium
From Group-1, Brazil and Yugoslavia had 3 points each. Brazil is the best in the group by goal difference, runners-up Yugoslavia. France is third with 2 points from one win. Mexico was at the bottom losing all the matches.
Hungary, the hot favorite of the tournament, became the group champion with 4 points after two wins from Group-2. A playoff match between West Germany and Turkey with one win each. West Germany won there 7-2 to reach the quarter-finals. Turkey is third. South Korea returned empty-handed after losing both matches.
5 matches of this group total 4 hat tricks! Hungary's legendary striker Sandor Kocsic scored a hat-trick in their first match against South Korea. He scored four goals in the next match against West Germany. Turkey's Burhan Sargun scored a hat-trick against South Korea. West Germany's Maximilian Morlock scored three goals against Turkey in the replay match.
Uruguay and Austria got two wins each from Group-3. Last season's champion Uruguay took the top spot in goal difference, Austria was the runner-up. Czechoslovakia and Scotland lost against these two teams. In this group, Uruguay's Carlos Borges scored a hat-trick against Scotland and Austria's Probst scored a hat-trick against Czechoslovakia.
England went to the last four with 3 points from Group-4 with one win and a draw. Italy and Switzerland fight for the next place with one win each. England teamed up with Switzerland after beating two-time world champions Italy 4-1 in the play-off match. Bottom team Belgium got 1 point from the draw.
Quarter finals
Austria-Switzerland and Uruguay-England meet in two quarter-finals on June 26. Austria beat Switzerland 7-5. In this match, Theodor Wagner and Joseph Hugi scored a hat-trick for Austria. Uruguay beat England 4-2 in the other match.
West Germany beat Yugoslavia 2-0 on June 27. Hungary beat Brazil 4-2 to reach the last four.
semi-final
West Germany beat Austria 6-1 in Basel on June 30 to reach the final. Fritz Walter and Ottmar Walter scored the team's winning goals.
In the other semi-final in Lausanne, the Hungary-Uruguay match ended in a 2-2 draw. Hungary (4-2) won the match with Kocsic's double in extra time to advance to the final.
Austria finished third after beating Uruguay 3-1 in the third place match on 3 July.
Final
July 4, 1954. The Wankdorf Stadium in Bern is ready for the event. About 63,000 visitors were present.
In the first 8 minutes of the match, Hungary took a 2-0 lead with the goals of Zibor and Puskas. In the first appearance in the group stage, the team scored 8 goals against West Germany. It looked like Amit Shakti's Hungary was going to have another goal celebration.
To everyone's surprise, West Germany turned around. The team finally won the title after defeating Hungary 3-2 with Morlock's double goals. Their victory over star-studded Hungary was so stunning that the final became known as the 'Miracle of Bern'.
The fifth season was a record World Cup. 140 goals in 26 matches! Goals per match 5.38. This is the highest goal average in any World Cup so far. Eight hat-tricks is still the record for most hat-tricks in a single tournament.
image source FIFA
I recently saw the movie based on this game. Very human. Directed by Sonke Wortmann. With Louis Klamroth, Peter Lohmeyer, Johanna Gastdorf, Mirko Lang, Lukas Gregorowicz.