November 25 – England Stunned
IN the current climate of doom surrounding the England national team, we’d like nothing more than to raise you spirits with a tale of English heroics on the pitch, or talk about something else altogether.
However, we would be seriously neglecting our duties if we did not mark today’s subject properly.
It was on this very day in 1953 that one the most important matches ever was played at Wembley stadium.
England, the inventors and self-appointed masters of the game took on the apprentices of Hungary, expecting to hit them for six, or at least three or four.
Instead the Mighty Magyars of Hungary dished out the spanking, beating England 6-3 in their own back yard. It was the first time England had lost a home match to any team from outside the British Isles.
The Hungarian team were the Olympic champions at the time and contained players such as Puskas and Sándor Kocsis while England lined up with a considerable number of big-hitters such as Stanley Matthews, Billy Wright, Alf Ramsey and Stan Mortensen.
In those days the phrase ‘there are no easy international games’ had not been invented because, well, there were easy international games, and this was supposed to to be one of them.
The English were totally unprepared for what the Hungarians would throw at them, as the Magyars bamboozled their hosts with a new formation which tore them to shreds.
They were also perfectly comfortable swapping positions fluidly in a style of play similar to the Dutch total football system which would be made famous years later.
Playing an unfamiliar formation, and wearing confuising numbers on their shirts, the England defence had no idea who to mark, resulting in the Hungarians taking the lead after just 90 seconds. They added three more before half time, while England managed two in response to go in 4-2.
Any hope of England coming back to salvage some pride against the upstarts was soon lost as Bozsik scored and Nándor Hidegkuti popped up to complete his hattrick. Alf Ramsey scored a penalty late on to make the score 6-3 to the visitors and mark a seismic shift in the football hierarchy.
Sportingly the England fans applauded their conquerers off the pitch as their humbled team began the post mortem on what had been the most shocking match of their careers.
One man who was watching the match was future England manager Sir Bobby Robson, and he summed up the game’s impact at the time: “We saw a style of play, a system of play that we had never seen before. None of these players meant anything to us. We didn’t know about Puskás. All these fantastic players, they were men from Mars as far as we were concerned.
“They were coming to England, England had never been beaten at Wembley – this would be a 3-0, 4-0 maybe even 5-0 demolition of a small country who were just coming into European football. They called Puskás the ‘Galloping Major’ because he was in the army – how could this guy serving for the Hungarian army come to Wembley and rifle us to defeat? But the way they played, their technical brilliance and expertise – our WM formation was kyboshed in 90 minutes of football.
“The game had a profound effect, not just on myself but on all of us. That one game alone changed our thinking. We thought we would demolish this team – England at Wembley, we are the masters, they are the pupils. It was absolutely the other way.”
You can watch some highlights of the match below and come back tomorrow to take your mind off English failures by reading about a man who tried to copyright a chant.
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