(Asked on Quora). My answer.
Hungary was very fortunate to have enjoyed not one but two spells of Golden Generation Football (the 1938 and 1954 teams). Once in a while a small nation produces a rarefied core of 11 players that challenge with the big boys.
Hungary was very fortunate to have enjoyed not one but two spells of Golden Generation Football (the 1938 and 1954 teams). Once in a while a small nation produces a rarefied core of 11 players that challenge with the big boys.
The 1954 Hungarian World Cup team. source: talkSport
The Czechs showed this in 1962 and 1976 (when they won the European Championship) as did the Bulgarians in 1994 and the Croats in each of 1998 and 2018. I would add Uruguay and this current Belgium squad to the mix as well.
However with smaller nations there often isn’t enough size momentum to carry the country through the lean years between these golden periods.
On the other hand large football nations with a strong league system and therefore a more vast cohort of players to draw from, can afford to putter around between World Cups with less brilliant squads. They can survive with respectable results until the next Golden generation.
Brazil for example have won five World Cups having competed in all the tournaments since its inception in 1930. In the Pre-war years they sat in the shadow of Italy (who won in 1934 and 1938) but were nevertheless still present on the Greatest stage.
In 1950 they lost at home in the final to Uruguay (one of the biggest upsets in the game) but were mediocre in 1954. However the embers were burning . They were still on the scene and this infused the Garrincha/Pele golden age team that won the title in 1958 and 1962.
Garrincha - The Dark Horse candidate for the Greatest of All-Time source Goal.com
The same is true of West German/German football. The West Germans surprisingly won in 1954, strung along as ‘present’ in 1958 and 1962, before emerging as a power in 1966. Their Golden Age team was the arguably the Premier force in World football in the 70s and early 80s The West Germans won two European Championships (1972, 1980) and a World Cup in 1974. They were runners-up in the European Championship of 1976 and the World Cup of 1982.
Fortunately for West Germany a second Golden Age team emerged soon afterwards that allowed them to claim their third World Cup in 1990. Then they receded into the background with World Cup quarter-final losses in 1994 and 1998 (despite their 1996 win in the European Championship which in retrospect was somewhat of a false dawn).
Germany were abysmal in Euro 2000 when they uncharacteristically failed to emerge from the Group stage and only managed to work their way to the World Cup final in 2002 courtesy of a string of big name upsets elsewhere, that cleared the road for them. This same team was even walloped 5–1 at home by England only months earlier.
However it was the drive of being a large and consistently competitive football country that was pushing them through until the next Golden generation. TIt started to emerged in 2006, played in the shadow of the Great Spanish team, before realizing its potential with a win in World Cup 2014.
Germany celebrating their 2014 World Cup Final Final win source: time Magazine
Returning to Hungary.
I am glad that you brought this up. The Mighty Magyars, as the 1954 team is affectionately referred to, is arguably, alongside the Dutch of 1974 and the Brazilians of 1982, the best team not to have won the World Cup.
In the run up to the tournament final that the Hungarians eventually lost 3-2 to the come-from-behind West Germans the Hungarians performed brilliantly. They defeated South Korea 9-0, West Germany 8-3 (they met at the group level), Brazil 4-2 and then knocked off defending Champions Uruguay 4-2. Three very big scalps.
This was an incredible unit that included Ferenc Puskás , who is widely considered to be one of the greatest players of all-time. Puskás netted 84 times in 85 appearances for Hungary (he later on played four times for the Spanish National team..three of which were in World cup 1962). Puskás emerged as a Real Madrid legend scoring 156 goals in 180 appearances for Los Blancos .
Ferenc Puskás source: The Guardian
Sándor Kocsis was another Hungarian superstar of the same age vintage. Like Puskás he ended his career in Spain. Although Kocsis was a Barcelona legend.
Sándor Kocsis in action against the Old Enemy the USSR. source: These Football Times
Both Puskás and Kocsis left Hungary following the brutal Soviet crackdown on the Hungarian revolution of 1956. This was a tremendous loss that prematurely ended an incredible team. Who can blame them? Freedom matters more than football.
However its long tern impact on Hungarian football persisted for some time. The country failed to emerge from the group stage in 1958, was knocked out in the Quarter-finals in each of 1962 and 1966 and for the tournaments 1978-1986 saw its run in the finals eclipsed at the first group hurdle. 1986 was the last World final tournament that Hungary qualified for.
So like so many smaller countries they await a Golden generation. In the mean time they simply don’’t have enough sustaining muscle to weather what looks to be a long time in obscurity. I wish them well.
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