1954 FIFA World Cup — Football’s 83 moment?
The inspiration behind this piece is, of course, the movie 83. It was the first Hindi movie I saw in the theatre since 2019, and I have to say I enjoyed it a lot. Watching Kapil Dev’s fabled (almost mythical) 175*, albeit reel, was very special, probably because there was no taping of that match to go back to.
The movie got me thinking if there is a football equivalent of India’s 1983 Cricket World Cup win. Now, this might just be my bias since I love German football and reading about its history, but the first thought that came to my mind was West Germany’s victory in the 1954 FIFA World Cup.
The biggest similarity was the David vs Goliath story, how they overcame extraordinary odds (and opponents) to win the whole thing. Against West Germany stood the Hungarian Golden Team. Led by their legendary captain Ferenc Puskas, the team had heavyweights like Sandor Kocsis (star striker), Nandor Hidegkuti (deep-lying playmaker or false 9), Zoltan Czibor (magical winger), and Jozsef Bozsik (midfield maestro) among others. Hungary’s reputation was built on the fact that they had gone undefeated since mid-1950, which included two humiliating wins (6–3 and 7–1) over the founders of modern football, England.
Hungary’s cricketing equivalents during the 70s and 80s were the West Indies. With names like Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd, Desmond Haynes, and Gordon Greenidge in batting, followed by the pace line-up of Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Andy Roberts, and Malcolm Marshall, the game was over even before it began. Opponents were terrified to even step on the pitch. The Windies has not only won the previous two Cricket World Cups, but they had done it without a single defeat.
Interestingly, the finalists of both the tournaments had played each other before in the group stages. In 1954, West Germany and Hungary found themselves in Group 2 alongside Turkey and South Korea. With a scoreline of 8–3, the Magyars steamrolled past the Germans. It is also believed, however, that West Germany’s manager Sepp Herberger didn’t field a full-strength team that day. He wanted to save a few surprises for a possible meeting in later stages while pushing Hungary’s overconfidence to the brim.
India, in 83, caused a major upset in their opening match itself when they beat West Indies by 34 runs. The group stages were such that all teams faced each other twice. Thus, the Windies managed to gain revenge by defeating India at Lords by 66 runs. This made the opening day upset look like a fluke, with the defending champions once again gaining the upper hand.
In their run-up to the final, West Germany had to overcome two very good teams in Yugoslavia and Austria. But they were fortunate to avoid heavyweights like England, Brazil, and 2-time winners Uruguay. India, on the other hand, defeated former runners-up Australia and England to reach the final, making it a more comprehensive effort.
In the finals, both the underdogs found themselves at backfoot very early in the game. Hungary was up by two goals within the first 8 minutes itself. By sheer determination, a lot of luck, and some breath-taking football by Helmut Rahn, West Germany pulled two back within the next 10 minutes. The scoreboard read 2–2 by the 18th minute. From then onwards, the Germans put up very stiff resistance, fighting tooth and nail for each ball until Rahn scored the winner in the 84th minute.
Batting first in the 1983 final, India too was in for a shock when Gavaskar got out at the score of just 2. Apart from Srikkanth, no other Indian batsman got past 30 and the team was 6 wickets down for just 111. Important contributions from tailenders helped India put up a fighting total of 183. After the early wicket of Greenidge, Haynes and Richards were putting up a strong partnership before Madan Lal got them both out. Post this, India put on a disciplined bowling performance and managed to restrict the Windies at 140.
At this point, a word on Ferenc Puskas and Viv Richards. The former was the captain of the Hungary team while the latter was a figurative leader for the Windies. Both these names have gone down in history as one of the greatest ever exponents of their respective sports. At the same time, both of them came close to winning the concerned finals. Two minutes after Rahn made the score 3–2 in favor of West Germany in the 84th minute, Puskas appeared to have equalized for Hungary. But the goal was deemed offside (wrongly, as per some of the viewers). Richards, who had scored a century against India in the tournament before, was sailing at 33 of 27 before Kail Dev pulled a belter of a catch.
One could also try and compare the two winning captains, Kapil Dev and Fritz Walter. Obviously, these victories wouldn’t have been possible without the individual brilliance of these two stars. But their contribution off the field was quite different. India was able to win the 1983 World Cup because Kapil Dev was crazy enough to believe they could. Walter, instead, was a silent leader, much more cautious and introverted. But someone his team could always depend upon. The man who made Walter believe that he was leading a team of winners, was their manager Sepp Herberger. Herberger's decades of meticulous (and borderline obsessive) planning led to this.
In terms of aftermath, 1983 marked a very important moment for the sport of cricket itself. It found a new home, where hundreds of millions of passionate Indians started worshiping it like a religion. Today, IPL is one of the richest sports leagues in the world and a cricketer like Virat Kohli ranks among the most endorsed celebrities in the world. Could all of this have been possible without 83?
The impact of the 1954 FIFA World Cup win for West Germany was much more cultural than monetary. After losing two World Wars and being divided into East and West, the German national spirit had taken a major hit. Joy and happiness were rare and expensive commodities in post-war Germany. Winning the World Cup uplifted the national spirit, making the citizens realize even they can win and experience joy in life.
Alas, both the cases marked an inflection point for two of the strongest teams ever assembled, regardless of the sport. It was the beginning of the end for the terrifying Windies side and the mighty Magyars. In the coming years, Hungary did have a few good tournaments while West Indies too won the T20 World Cup a couple of times. But they are both now a shadow of their former selves.
Before moving to the conclusion, I also tried to think of some other similarities between the (West) Germany football team and the Indian cricket team in major tournaments. West Germany’s most decisive and dominant international win was Euro 1972. In the qualification (equivalent to the quarterfinal) they famously beat England 3–1 at Wembley and went on to decimate the Soviet Union by 3–0 in the final. India’s equivalent of that is the 1985 World Championship of Cricket. Considered to be one of the strongest teams India ever fielded, they won every match they played in the tournament, most of them quite comfortably.
Then we have the home World Cup victories, West Germany in 1974 and India in 2011, robust and pragmatic for the most part, except the finals. West Germany had to come from behind against Johan Cruyff’s Netherlands while India chased down a mammoth total following Jayawardene’s century.
In the end, it's fair to say that there were similarities and differences in both stories. At best, however, they remind us that odds are just a number at the end of the day; miracles do happen in real life and humans are extraordinary creatures capable of doing the unthinkable. At best, they remind us why we love sports so much.
