1954 FIFA World Cup

The **1954 FIFA World Cup** was the tenth FIFA World Cup, was held in Chile between June 12 and July 12. After the brief extension to 20 teams, the competition dropped back down to a sixteen format.

In the final it would be Hungary who would take out the trophy after they defeated fellow first-time finalists in Romania 5-1 at Santiago.

## Background

After the partial success of the 1950 FIFA World Cup where the draw was twenty teams, there was suggestions that the 20 team format will stay in the next World Cup. But the host Federation (Federación de Football de Chile) declared that they won't be having the sixteen team competition as they didn't want to see blowouts in their competition and damage the model of the Cup. During the 1952 Summer Olympics, it was declared that the competition would drop back to a sixteen team format to follow the 1934 format.

## Bids

Only two nations bid for the World Cup with Chile and Argentina putting their hand up to host the 1954 edition after the FIFA rotation was put that into play. But when the Argentines withdrew from bidding it was decided that Chile would win the rights for the World Cup on April 21, 1948.

## Qualifying

Main article: 1954 FIFA World Cup qualification
Qualifying for the 1954 World Cup started in 1952 with North America holding the first qualifying matches. The fourteen spots were separated into ten spots for Europe, one spot for North America, two spots for South America and one spot going to Asia.

File:Flag of Austria.svg Austria
File:Flag of France.svg France
File:Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Great Britain
File:Flag of Hungary 1949-1956.svg Hungary
File:Flag of Portugal.svg Portugal
File:Flag of Romania.svg Romania
File:Flag of the Soviet Union (1923-1955).svg Soviet Union
File:Flag of Spain (1945 - 1977).svg Spain
File:Flag of Sweden.svg Sweden

File:Flag of SFR Yugoslavia.svg Yugoslavia
**North America**
File:Flag of Mexico (1934–1968).png Mexico
**CONMEBOL**
File:Flag of Chile.svg Chile
File:Flag of Paraguay.svg Paraguay
File:Flag of Uruguay.svg Uruguay
**Asia**
File:Flag of South Korea.svg Korea

## Seeding

* File:Flag of SFR Yugoslavia.svg Yugoslavia (2)
* File:Flag of France.svg France (6)
* File:Flag of Chile.svg Chile (27) (Host)
* File:Flag of Hungary 1949-1956.svg Hungary (12)
* File:Flag of Austria.svg Austria (13)
* File:Flag of Romania (1952-1965).svg Romania (13)
* File:Flag of Uruguay.svg Uruguay (15)
* File:Flag of the Soviet Union (1923-1955).svg Soviet Union (21)
* File:Flag of Portugal.svg Portugal (23)
* File:Flag of Turkey.svg Turkey (31)
* File:Flag of South Korea.svg Korea (36)
* File:Flag of Spain (1945 - 1977).svg Spain (41)

## Group Stage

### Group A

Group A was what some would call the group of death with Sweden, Hungary, Uruguay and Spain in the group. In a close group, it would be the likes of Hungary with the goal scorer of Sandor Kocsis who score three of the five goals to have Hungary end top of the group with Sweden just finishing ahead of Spain by only a single goal when Spain had to come from two down after Juan Hohberg score the two goals for Uruguay.

### Group B

Group B would see Yugoslavia take out the group victory after they did win all three of their matches in Group B. Rajko Mitić would aid in the team as he scores three goals throughout the group stage. Joining Yugoslavia would be Austria with Erich Probst aiding them with three for himself with all them coming off in the group match against Portugal where it was a 5-0 demolition for Austria and putting Portugal last in the group.

### Group C

In Group C, the only nation to not score a goal for the whole tournament was in this group with Korea not getting any goals while the goalkeeper (Hong Deok-young) let in thirteen goals in the three matches to put Korea on the bottom. During these thirteen, two hat-tricks were scored in the games against the Soviet Union (who was on debut) and France with only the former one getting through to the knock-out stage. The other nation to get through was Romania who surprised everyone by finishing top of the group.

### Group D

Group D had the host nation in Chile and a debutant in Turkey. The other two teams being Great Britain and Mexico to fill the group. For the British team they would dominate the group as they defeated all of their opponents by at least a goal with Nat Lofthouse scoring four in the group victory. Coming in second was Mexico after they defeated the two opponents that they required to take out the second place while Chile and Turkey would only score a point against each other with Chile rooted to the bottom because of scoring fewer goals than Turkey.

## Knockout Stage

### Quarter Finals

The quarter finals would see two brand new teams in the top 4 for the first time with Hungary and Romania both making it through to the semi-finals after they dispatched the Soviet Union and the defending champions in Sweden. The other two qualifiers had difficult quarter finals but for Yugoslavia and Austria they would make a return to the semi-final for the first time since 1926.

### Semi Finals

With all the semi-finalists never making it through to the final, we would see a newcomer lift the World Cup trophy and the semi-finals. In the semi-finals themselves, Romania and Hungary would make it through to the final after dispatching their opponents while not letting in any goals on the opposite end. The first semi-final would see Sándor Kocsis scoring a double to bring down Yugoslavia from making another final.

The second semi saw a much tougher affair with Romania needing to go to the 84th minute to than scoring two quick goals in the time to record a memorable victory which to this day is something that the team wouldn't forget.

### Third Place Playoff

In the curtain raiser to the Final it was Yugoslavia who would take out third place with a three-nil victory over Austria in the match with Bernard Vukas scoring two goals in the victory.

### Final

The final would see history being created with Sándor Kocsis being in the first player in World Cup history to score a World Cup hat-trick in the final which would be proven to be helpful as Hungary would go on and lift the title after they defeated Romania to record their first (and to date only) World Cup trophy. For Romania, they had fallen short once again after the 1952 Summer Olympics result where they lost to the Soviet Union in the final.

## Goalscorers

8 goals

* File:Flag of Hungary 1949-1956.svg Sándor Kocsis

5 goals

* File:Flag of Romania (1952-1965).svg József Perényi
* File:Flag of SFR Yugoslavia.svg Rajko Mitić

4 goals

* File:Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Nat Lofthouse
* File:Flag of the Soviet Union.svg Vsevolod Bobrov

3 goals

* File:Flag of Austria.svg Erich Probst
* File:Flag of France.svg Just Fontaine
* File:Flag of Hungary 1949-1956.svg József Tóth
* File:Flag of SFR Yugoslavia.svg Bernard Vukas

2 goals

* File:Flag of Austria.svg Ernst Stojaspal
* File:Flag of the United Kingdom.svg John Charles
* File:Flag of Hungary 1949-1956.svg Nándor Hidegkuti
* File:Flag of Mexico (1934–1968).png José Luis Lamadrid
* File:Flag of Mexico (1934–1968).png José Naranjo
* File:Flag of Romania (1952-1965).svg Titus Ozon
* File:Flag of Romania (1952-1965).svg Ion Suru
* File:Flag of Turkey.svg Suat Mamat
* File:Flag of Uruguay.svg Carlos Borges
* File:Flag of SFR Yugoslavia.svg Branko Zebec

1 goal

* File:Flag of Austria.svg Ernst Ocwirk
* File:Flag of Austria.svg Theodor Wagner
* File:Flag of Chile.svg Molina
* File:Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Bobby Johnstone
* File:Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Dennis Wilshaw
* File:Flag of France.svg Guillaume Bieganski
* File:Flag of France.svg Raymond Kopa
* File:Flag of France.svg André Strappe
* File:Flag of Hungary 1949-1956.svg Mihály Lantos
* File:Flag of Mexico (1934–1968).png Tomás Balcázar
* File:Flag of Mexico (1934–1968).png Ranulfo Cortés
* File:Flag of Mexico (1934–1968).png Carlos Septién
* File:Flag of Paraguay.svg Atilio López
* File:Flag of Portugal.svg José Águas
* File:Flag of Romania (1952-1965).svg Valeriu Calinoiu
* File:Flag of Romania (1952-1965).svg Zoltan Farmati
* File:Flag of Romania (1952-1965).svg Tudor Paraschiva
* File:Flag of the Soviet Union (1923-1955).svg Valentin Nikolayev
* File:Flag of the Soviet Union (1923-1955).svg Aleksandr Petrov
* File:Flag of the Soviet Union (1923-1955).svg Vasili Trofimov
* File:Flag of Spain (1945 - 1977).svg Gaínza
* File:Flag of Spain (1945 - 1977).svg Miguel
* File:Flag of Spain (1945 - 1977).svg Pasieguito
* File:Flag of Spain (1945 - 1977).svg Venancio
* File:Flag of Sweden.svg Åke Jönsson
* File:Flag of Sweden.svg Sven-Ove Svensson
* File:Flag of Sweden.svg Henry Thillberg
* File:Flag of Uruguay.svg Javier Ambrois
* File:Flag of SFR Yugoslavia.svg Zlatko Čajkovski
* File:Flag of SFR Yugoslavia.svg Tomislav Crnković
* File:Flag of SFR Yugoslavia.svg Miloš Milutinović

Own goal

* File:Flag of Portugal.svg Carvalho (against Austria)