Golden Team
Only 14 days before the final, West Germany played the favoured Hungarian Golden Team in the first round of the tournament and suffered a 3–8 loss, their highest World Cup defeat to this day. In the final, Hungary was up by two goals after only eight minutes, so it came as a surprise that the West German team not only quickly equalized but turned the game around in the 84th minute with a goal scored by Helmut Rahn.