Football at the 1952 Summer Olympics

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The 1952 Olympic football tournament signalled the arrival (to Western Europeans at least) of the 'Golden Team'; the 'Magical Magyars': Hungary. Ferenc Puskás, the great Hungarian known as the 'Galloping Major' for his military title, said of the 1952 competition: "It was during the Olympics that our football first started to flow with real power." It was during the Games, too, that Stanley Rous of the Football Association, taken by the impression the Magyars were leaving on everyone present, first invited the Hungarians to play a friendly at Wembley the next year.

Contents 1 Background 2 Squads 3 The Competition 3.1 Preliminary round 3.2 First round 3.3 Quarter-finals 3.4 Semi-finals 3.5 Bronze medal match 3.6 Final (Gold medal match) 4 Medalists 5 References

[edit] Background

By the time of the competition the Hungarians had developed into one of the great sides in history. They had amassed an incomparable record, undefeated since May 14, 1950, but had been largely confined to the Eastern European Communist satellite states. When they had ventured outside their ken they had pulverised the Finns and Swedes. But these were mere glimpses. Their reputed supremacy was still a matter of some conjecture.

The competition also saw the first real mass entry from Eastern Europe. 6 nations from beyond the Iron Curtain were competing, all drawn to play in the preliminary round. The Soviet Union being drawn with Bulgaria and the Hungarians with Romania. Meanwhile the Scandinavian countries were exempted into the first round.

[edit] Squads

• Main article: Football at the 1952 Summer Olympics - Men's team squads

[edit] The Competition

There was nothing convincing about their win against the Romanians whom they were first drawn up against. Kocsis' goal in the second half enabled the Hungarians to record a narrow victory. In Lahti, Great Britain had succumbed to Luxembourg in an eight goal encounter and elsewhere there were solid victories for the Italians and Brazilians (5-1 victors over the Dutch). In Helsinki the Yugoslavs were drawn up against the Indians. The Indians, for whatever reason, had dispensed with the need to wear boots; a decision that cost some players frost-bite, most of them bruising and contributed to the size of their 10-1 loss.

Hungary now made three changes when drawn against Italy and all was different, running out clear winners by 3 goals to nil. Of the rest it appeared that their likely challengers would be the Austrians who were defeating the Finns and the Swedes, managed by George Raynor; easy winners against Norway. Yugoslavia, meanwhile, were having a torrid time against Russia. 5-1 up with 15 minutes of their first round match to go, the Yugoslavs, understandably, put their feet up. Arthur Ellis, the match referee, recorded what happened next in his book 'The Final Whistle' (London, 1963): 'Russia forced the most honourable draw ever recorded! Bobrov, their captain, scored a magnificent hat-trick. After Russia had reduced the lead to 5-2, he, almost single-handed, took the score to 5-5, scoring his third in the last minute. For once, use of the word sensational was justified'. Although Bobrov's early goal in their replay presaged a miraculous recovery, Yugoslavia recovered sufficiently to put out their opponents easily in the second half. The Soviet side had been expected by Moscow to win the 1952 Games, and their defeat by Yugoslavia was not mentioned in the Soviet press until after Stalin's death the following year.

The Yugoslavs took care of the Danes and Germans to reach the final. Hungary, scoring freely, against the Turks then the Swedes, would join them. And they would easily beat Yugoslavia, silver-medallists for the second successive Games, 2-0 in the Helsinki final with goals from Puskás and Zoltán Czibor. In the third place game Sweden would defeat the Olympic amateur team from Germany (de:Deutsche Fußballnationalmannschaft der Amateure) .

[edit] Preliminary round

Jul 15, 1952 12:00	Poland	2–1	France	Lahti Referee: Karel van der Meer (NED) Attendance:
	Trampisz  31' Krasowka  49'	Report	Leblond  30'

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Jul 15, 1952 12:00	Hungary	2–1	Romania	Turku Referee: Nikolai Latychev (URS) Attendance: 14.000
	Czibor  21' Kocsis  73'	Report	Suru  86'

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Jul 15, 1952 12:00	Yugoslavia	10–1	India	Helsinki Referee: John Best (USA) Attendance: 20.000
	Vukas  2'  62' Mitić  14'  43' Zebec  17'  23'  60'  87' Ognjanov  52'  67'	Report	Ahmed Khan  89'

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Jul 15, 1952 12:00	Denmark	2–1	Greece	Tampere Referee: Waldemar Karni (FIN) Attendance: 7.000
	Petersen  36'  37'	Report	Emmanouilides  85'

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Jul 16, 1952 12:00	USSR	2–1 (a.e.t.)	Bulgaria	Kotka Referee: Istvan Zsolt (HUN) Attendance: 10.000
	Bobrov  100' Trofimov  104'	Report	Kolev  95'

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Jul 16, 1952 12:00	Italy	8–0	United States	Tampere Referee: Arthur Ellis (GBR) Attendance: 10.000
	Gimona  3'  51'  75' Pandolfini  16'  62' Venturi  27' Fontanesi  52' Mariani  87'	Report

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Jul 16, 1952 12:00	Brazil	5–1	Netherlands	Turku Referee: Giorgio Bernardi (ITA) Attendance: 16.000
	Humberto Tozzi  25' Larry  33' (p.k.)  36' Jansen  81' Vavá  86'	Report	van Roessel  15'

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Jul 16, 1952 12:00	Luxembourg	5–3 (a.e.t.)	Great Britain	Lahti Referee: Vincenzo Orlandini (ITA) Attendance:
	Roller  60'  95'  97' Letsch  91' Gales  102'	Report	Robb  12' Slater  101' Lewis  118'

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Jul 16, 1952 12:00	Egypt	5–4	Chile	Kotka Referee: John Nilsson (SWE) Attendance:
	Elfar  27' Mechaury  43' Eldizwi  66'  75'  80'	Report	Jara  7'  78' Vial  14'  88'

[edit] First round

Jul 19, 1952 12:00	Finland	3–4	Austria	Helsinki Referee: William Ling (GBR) Attendance: 33.053
	Stolpe  11'  34' Rytkönen  36'	Report	Gollnhuber  8' (p.k.)  30' Stumpf  59' Grohs  79'

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Jul 20, 1952 12:00	Brazil	2–1	Luxembourg	Kotka Referee: Mayan Macancic (YUG) Attendance:
	Larry  42' Humberto Tozzi  49'	Report	Gales  86'

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Jul 20, 1952 12:00	Yugoslavia	5–5 (a.e.t.)	USSR	Tampere Referee: Arthur Ellis (GBR) Attendance: 17.000
	Mitić  29' Ognjanov  33' Zebec  44'  59' Bobek  46'	Report	Bobrov  53'  77'  87' Trofimov  75' Petrov  89'

Jul 22, 1952 12:00	Yugoslavia	3–1	USSR	Tampere Referee: Arthur Ellis (GBR) Attendance: 17.000
	Mitić  19' Bobek  29' (p.k.) Čajkovski  54'	Report	Bobrov  6'

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Jul 20, 1952 12:00	Germany	3–1	Egypt	Turku Referee: Giorgio Bernardi (ITA) Attendance:
	Klug  33' Schröder  38'  61'	Report	Eldizmwi  64'

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Jul 21, 1952 12:00	Denmark	2–0	Poland	Turku Referee: Finn Balstad (NOR) Attendance: 8.000
	Seebach  17' S. Nielsen  69'	Report

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Jul 21, 1952 12:00	Sweden	4–1	Norway	Tampere Referee: Johan Aksel Alho (FIN) Attendance: 4.200
	Brodd  23'  35' Rydell  81' Bengtsson  89'	Report	Sorensen  83'

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Jul 21, 1952 12:00	Hungary	3–0	Italy	Helsinki Referee: Karel van der Meer (NED) Attendance: 20.000
	Palotás  11'  20' Kocsis  83'	Report

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Jul 21, 1952 12:00	Turkey	2–1	Netherlands Antilles	Lahti Referee: Carl Jorgensen (DEN) Attendance:
	Tokac  9' Bilge  76' (p.k.)	Report	Briezen  79'

[edit] Quarter-finals

Jul 23, 1952 12:00	Sweden	3–1	Austria	Helsinki Referee: Vincenzo Orlandini (ITA) Attendance: 10.000
	Sandberg  80' Brodd  85' Rydell  87'	Report	Grohs  40'

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Jul 24, 1952 12:00	Germany	4–2 (a.e.t.)	Brazil	Helsinki Referee: Arthur Ellis (GBR) Attendance:
	Schröder  75'  96' Klug  89' Zeitler  120'	Report	Larry  12' Zózimo  74'

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Jul 24, 1952 12:00	Hungary	7–1	Turkey	Kotka Referee: Waldemar Karni (FIN) Attendance: 20.000
	Palotás  18' Kocsis  32'  90' Lantos  48' Puskás  54'  72' Bozsik  70'	Report	Guder  57'

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Jul 25, 1952 12:00	Yugoslavia	5–3	Denmark	Helsinki Referee: Waldemar Karni (FIN) Attendance: 10.000
	Čajkovski  19' Ognjanov  35' Vukas  41' Bobek  78' Zebec  81'	Report	Lundberg  63' Seebach  85' J. Hansen  87'

[edit] Semi-finals

Jul 28, 1952 12:00	Hungary	6–0	Sweden	Helsinki Referee: William Ling (GBR) Attendance: 22.000
	Puskás  1' Palotás  16' Lindh  36' (o.g.) Kocsis  65'  69' Hidegkuti  67'	Report

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Jul 29, 1952 12:00	Yugoslavia	3–1	Germany	Helsinki Referee: Waldemar Karni (FIN) Attendance: 20.000
	Mitić  3'  24' Čajkovski  30'	Report	Stollenwerk  12'

[edit] Bronze medal match

August 1, 1952 12:00	Sweden	2–0	Germany	Helsinki Referee: Vincenzo Orlandini (ITA) Attendance: 20.000
	Rydell  11' Löfgren  86'	Report

[edit] Final (Gold medal match)

August 2, 1952 12:00	Hungary	2–0	Yugoslavia	Olympic Stadium, Helsinki Attendance: 60,000 Referee: Arthur Ellis (GBR)
	Puskás  70' Czibor  88'	Report

[edit] Medalists

Gold:	Silver:	Bronze:
Hungary Gyula Grosics Jenő Dálnoki Imre Kovács László Budai Ferenc Puskás Zoltán Czibor Lajos Csordás Jenő Buzánszky Gyula Lóránt Mihály Lantos József Bozsik József Zakariás Nándor Hidegkuti Sándor Kocsis Péter Palotás	Yugoslavia Vladimir Beara Branko Stanković Tomislav Crnković Zlatko Čajkovski Ivan Horvat Vujadin Boškov Tihomir Ognjanov Rajko Mitić Bernard Vukas Stjepan Bobek Branko Zebec Dušan Cvetković Milorad Diskić Ratko Čolić Slavko Luštica Zdravko Rajkov Vladimir Čonč Vladimir Firm	Sweden Karl Svensson Lennart Samuelsson Erik Nilsson Holger Hansson Bengt Gustavsson Gösta Lennart Lindh Sylve Bengtsson Gösta Löfgren Ingvar Rydell Yngve Brodd Gösta Sandberg Olof Ahlund

[edit] References

• RSSSF Archive
• FIFA

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