"The beautiful game"

Recently, I’ve started to question my love for football. The game that I fell in love with years ago is changing rapidly, and as the era of diving, WAGs, inflated egos, wages and ticket prices continues its suppressive rule, I take a look back and realise just how beautiful the game really can be.

Berne, Switzerland, 14th July 1954, shortly before 7:00PM. A moment of magic from one man unites a country crippled by disgrace and sadness. A country packed full of horror, repression and destruction can finally smile again. A country bursting with poverty, shame and shock is finally able to be proud again.

You see, that’s the brilliance of football. I am, of course, referring to Helmut Rahn’s 84th minute winner for West Germany in the World Cup Final of 1954. Not even 10 years after the Germans had surrendered in World War Two, the country had been dragged up off its knees and was floating on the air of pure delight and pride.

On paper, the Germans had no chance. Gusztáv Sebes’ Hungary, including arguably one of the best players to ever grace a football pitch, Ferenc Puskás, were unbeaten in a staggering 32 games, a truly incredible run that had lasted 5 years along the way. The Hungarians were simply awesome. In 1953, a year before the iconic World Cup of ‘54 took place, they made history with the 6-3 annihilation of England, becoming the first team outside of the UK to win at Wembley in the process.

Whilst the Hungarians entered the tournament in a similar fashion to the assured student who’d constantly been revising for an exam months in advance, the Germans represented the student who’d picked up his textbook the night before and just hoped for the best. The country was still banned from competing at the 1950 World Cup, and had only played in a handful of games leading up to the tournament.

Hungary were widely seen as the favourites for the tournament, and when the eventual finalists met in the group stages they showed why, sweeping the Germans aside in a convincing 8-3 victory. Whereas the Hungarians reached the quarter-finals with all the elegance of a brand-new Lexus SC, West Germany’s means of transport into the knockout stages was more in the style of Delboy’s ‘Reliant Robin’ running low on fuel, eventually topped up prior to the 7-2 play-off win over Turkey.

Sebes’ team of professionals continued to go through the gears, winning the now infamous Battle of Berne 4-2 against a Brazilian side that had impressively finished runners up on their own turf in 1950. Even better was to follow at the semi-final stage, as the Hungarians, without key player Puskás, beat Uruguay 4-2 after extra time, becoming the first country to beat the South American country in a World Cup game in the process and securing their place in a final that the majority believed they’d be sure to win.

The German team of amateurs had started to improve rapidly, earning a hard-fought victory over Yugoslavia in the quarters, before demolishing Austria 6-1 in the semis, finally giving their war-torn country something to shout about.

Despite the Germans’ impressive tournament, many considered there to be only one winner when the two sides lined up on the 4th July, 1954. The Hungarians had brutally taken teams apart for years, and got off to a flyer, finding themselves 2-0 up after just 8 minutes. But this wasn’t the same German team that had entered the tournament. This team had grown, matured and developed a sense of determination to do their country proud. Who knows what it was that caused the change?! Perhaps the “krise” that the country had been going through brought the players together. It was clear nevertheless, that the Germans wanted success, and within 10 minutes of going 2-0 down, they were right back in the game at 2-2. Finally, after 84 minutes, Helmut Rahn scored the goal that would have a massive impact on millions of Germans, bringing momentary joy to a nation anguished by their depressing situation. ‘Das Wunder von Bern’ became a reality. West Germany were world champions.

For me, as a mad football fanatic, it is stories such as ‘Das Wunder von Bern’ that make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and re-kindle my love for the game. And thankfully, stories like that of the German team in 1954 are not isolated, as the recent success of the Iraqi national team shows.

It’s arguable that Iraq’s recent development and subsequent success at a footballing nation is even more impressive than that of the Germans in 1954. Sadly for the Arabic nation, multiple wars hindered the promising progress made by the country in the mid 1980s (Iran qualified for the 1986 World Cup and had enjoyed success in many inter-Asian tournaments). Under the depressing rule of Uday Hussein, brother of Saddam, results started to drop. Players were threatened with violence and prison if they made errors and in 1996 Iraqi football reached its lowest ebb, finding themselves ranked 139 in the world in the FIFA rankings, their lowest ever standing. Things finally started to pick up, and the clear improvement was shown on a global stage when Iraq qualified for the 2004 Olympics. It was here where Iraq really caught the eye, beating not only respected nations such as Australia and Costa Rica but also a Portugal team including world stars Cristiano Ronaldo, Jose Bosingwa and also Fernando Meira on their way to finishing 4th and just missing the bronze medal. Once again, a nation savaged by the evil vultures of war had something to smile about, bringing joy to those suffering back at home.

The thought of the joy brought to the average German (and in the modern era Iraqi) family, huddled around a radio when the referee blew his whistle for the very last time remind me, that despite the ever-growing greed within football, however much it hurts whenever your team give away a last minute goal, or the heart-break that relegation brings (and believe me, as a QPR fan I know all about that) ‘the beautiful game’ can still be as gorgeous as it ever was.