The English line-up was decided by a FA committee. Every player was nominated for a certain position and had to play this position.
The Hungarian line-up was decided by their coach. Especially their forwards didn´t care about positions.
You can see why Hungary won and England was very confused the whole game.
Extra info: The statistic was around 35:5 shots on goal for Hungary.
Extra info: The statistic was around 35:5 shots on goal for Hungary
And England scored 3? Damn
Always felt bad for Gil Merrick. Very good goalkeeper by all accounts, one of the Birmingham City all time great players and managers, servant of the club for decades. Is known around the world for conceding 11 to Hungary when it probably wasn't his fault.
In football its is a widespread belief that in order to be remembered you need to win silverware.
Hungary of that time is one of the exceptions to that rule.
I love how English can confuse someone if they're not well-conversant with the language.
How do you mean? Did i say something wrong
I think he was just joking about silverware and hungry.
The only slight grammatical error was putting “its is”. And even then that’s so nit picky. The sentence was perfectly worded.
It's grand, but the structure of your first sentence could be quite complicated for a non-native speaker.
Nonsense. Hungary '54 and Netherlands '74 lost in final, but are still remembered fondly.
It’s hardly “nonsense”. OP said that Hungary are one of the exceptions. There’s not that many teams who didn’t win a tournament who end up remembered to that extent.
Hungary are unusual too in that they only had a brief period with those players. If they were from a different country and stayed together as a group they would have had another go in 1958.
This Hungary team only had 1 major tournament. Hungary withdrew from the 1950 WC, afaik it was because of the 1952 Olympics (which they won and I have no idea how highly it was regarded back then), then they played in the 1954 WC (there were no Euros at the time, it only started in 1960), and then the 1956 revolution happened.
Yes that’s what I was referring to in my post. It was a brief period where they were the best.
The Olympics was regarded as relatively important then. Not to everyone but much more than now. It’s why the game against England had added prestige as they were arriving as Olympic champions.
So exactly what OP said then.
Nonsense, it's exactly what OP said.
Totally disagree, Hungary '54 and Netherlands '74 are remembered even though they didn't win silverware IMO
Though you just mentioned the same 2 teams as the other reply. Those are the 2 major exceptions (obviously there's others too)
Though you just mentioned the same 2 teams as the other reply.
Ya think?
Ist’s the match of the century the 1970 WC semi final match Germany against Italy ?
Yes.
Not surprising that the 3-6 would be the match of hte century in Hungary, though.
Depends, some consider France Brazil in 1986
What would have been if the Communists didnt go rampant. Hungary might have been an elite team till today.
The true travesty of the communist era laid bare.
They making a comeback
The odds of them having that sort of team again though are tiny. Even brazil struggle to replicate teams like the wc70 team.
If anything communism had a focus on competing at a global level in sports hence why the Soviet Union got to a semifinal, Poland got to two (or three can't remember) and czechoslovakia even won the euros.
they were still a top team well into the seventies (just checked, and i think the first time they dropped out of the Elo top 10 post-WW2 was 1974).
i mean they had a good team, Florian Albert was European Footballer of the Year in ‘67. Just I think they always tried to compare themselves to the ‘52 team and they weren’t able to
i mean it’s also would be a ‘what-if’ that if Hungary won in ‘54, does the uprising have in ‘56
To this day we hold "memorials" for the 3:6 but how come 7:1 doesn't get the same treatment?
Because that was the first time England lost a game at home. The second time it happened they already knew England was bad and Hungary was very good.
*First time England lost at Wembley
Actually Ireland was the first team to beat England at home. September 1949. 2-0 at Goodison Park.
Doesn't quite fit the narrative that they could only be beaten by the exotic Mighty Magyars though.
Playing against Ireland in Liverpool is an away game for England
😂😂
Scotland first beat England in 1877 and were the first team to beat them at Wembley. Wales and Ireland (original Ireland football team for the entire island) both beat England multiple times in England before 1953 but Hungary were the first continental European team to beat England in England which is why it's so well known.
that was the first time England lost a game at home.
It wasn't. It was the first home game they lost to a team from the European continent though.
The second time it happened they already knew England was bad and Hungary was very good.
I know what you mean, but genuinely that England team weren't 'bad', Hungary were that good.
When I was in Budapest for the EL final I saw a huge mural of this result painted on some random residential building
Made me feel bad for Gil Merrick, who is slathered on there Even though as far as I can tell he was sort of left out to dry by a bad formation
Next to Ramsey, what does '11-Esbol mean'?
Just looked it up and saw that Ramsey scored a penalty kick. 11-esbol would mean 11 meters and thus a penalty I think lol
Always forget Alf Ramsey was a player, in my head he's always a middle aged bald man with a posh accent.
The galloping major 👑
Billy Wright still at the shops decades later
born in 1924 and still in the mud. absolute shambles
My great grandpa used to tell me about Hungarian Laka Konjica when I was a wee lad. He told me that there was no football fan who didn't love them
I've only ever known Italy vs Germany in the 1970 WC referred to as "The Game of the Century." The stadium in Mexico even has a sign commemorating as such.
Was this to do with the Hungarians not using the only formation (the oddly named traditional 5-3-2) that the England players understood so they were stuck rigidly marking thin air?
In the quote he says England were playing a WM formation, which was 3-2-2-3.