1954 FIFA World Cup

The 1954 FIFA World Cup, the fifth staging of the World Cup, was held in Switzerland from 16 June to 4 July. As the year saw the 50th anniversary of FIFA, it was appropriate for football's premier competition to be played in the home of its governing body, and Switzerland was chosen as hosts in July 1946. The tournament was won by West Germany, who defeated Hungary 3-2 in the final, giving them their first title.

Summary
For the first time there was television coverage, and special coins were issued to mark the event. 16 teams qualified for the tournament and an unusual system was used in the first stage. The 16 teams were divided into four groups: each group was comprised of two of the eight seeded teams based on world rankings (Austria, Brazil, England, France, Hungary, Italy, Turkey and Uruguay), plus two unseeded teams.

The official 1954 FIFA World Cup poster.
With seeding determined before the teams had even qualified for the final tournament, the organizers had to replace Spain with Turkey, the team that unexpectedly knocked the Spaniards out. The draw took place in Zürich, on 30 November 1953.
Instead of a conventional round-robin where each team would play three matches, the seeded teams as well as the unseeded teams were spared from playing each other as the unseeded teams were squared up only against the seeded ones in a chance to qualify, so each team played only 2 group matches, unless tied for the second qualifying position by points, which required a play-off. Extra time was played for any games that was tied after 90 minutes, with the result being a draw if the scores were still level after 120 minutes. The two teams finishing at the top of their group went through to the quarter-finals. Uruguay and Austria both won their games, thus finished the group level on points in the qualifying positions, and drew lots to determine who they would play in the next round, as did Brazil and Yugoslavia.
Consequently Switzerland and Italy played each other twice with Switzerland winning the play-off 4-1. The Germans, who had been reinstated as full FIFA members only in 1950 and were unseeded, won the first of two encounters with the seeded Turkish convincingly in Berne at Wankdorf stadium. The Koreans, as the other unseeded team, lost 0-7 and 0-9, with Germany being denied the chance to play such an easy opponent. Sepp Herberger gambled against the seeded team of Hungary by sending in a reserve side to take an expected 3-8 loss, with the only consequence being the additional playoff game against Turkey that was won with ease. Hungary's team captain Ferenc Puskás, considered by many as the best player in the world in that time, was injured by German defender Werner Liebrich, and had to miss the next two matches of his team, only to show up in the final again, still being in a questionable condition.
The quarter-finals saw the favourites Hungary beat Brazil 4-2 in one of the most violent matches in football history, which became infamous as the Battle of Berne. Meanwhile, the World Cup holders Uruguay sent England out of the tournament, also by 4-2. Germany dispatched Yugoslavia 2-0, and Austria beat the host nation Switzerland in the game that saw the most goals in any World Cup match, 7-5.
One of the semi-finals saw Austria, against the DFB team which represented the Federal Republic of Germany, one of three German states of the time. The DFB had qualified against fellow Germans from the French-occupied Saarland, while East Germany had not entered, cancelling international football games after the East German uprising of 1953. With the final at stake, West Germany won 6-1.
The other semi-final, one of the most exciting games of the tournament, saw Hungary go into the second half leading Uruguay 1-0, only for the game to be taken to extra time with a score after 90 minutes of 2-2. The deadlock was broken by Sándor Kocsis with two late goals to take Hungary through to the final, beating a team that had not previously lost a World Cup game. Uruguay then went on to be beaten for a second time as Austria secured third place.