Today’s topic will be dedicated to an event rarely seen at today’s World Cup, which is the second meeting of the two teams.
Until 1962 such events were not rare due to the peculiarities of the drawing system. So in the 1934 and 1938 tournaments there were no group stage matches. The matches were played according to the Olympic system: the loser is eliminated. But in football there are also draws. In this case, the teams had to work overtime. If, after 120 minutes of play, the score was a draw, a replay was appointed.
In 1934 it took one time, in the quarter-finals of Italy – Spain, but they had to play the next day. Of the 22 players who played the first game, only 11 made it to the second: the Spaniards missed seven due to injuries, including goalkeeper Ricardo Zamora due to a fractured ribs, the Italians “lost” Mario Pizziolo and Angelo. Injury Slave, but released 4 new players. The first match bore little resemblance to football, it was a real massacre. Yes, and the replay was full of cruelty.
I have to say this in two games world Cup-34 extra time was enough to determine the winner of the match. So in the first phase of the match France – Austria after 90 minutes the score was 1: 1. But in extra time the teams scored 3 goals, the Austrians scored two in a row first. They made it to the quarter-finals. And the same final match between Italy and Czechoslovakia asked for extra time for the first time in history. At 95 ‘the Italian Raimundo Orsi scored the winning goal.
At the 1938 tournament, the draw system remained the same. The roughness on the pitch remained the same. The only thing that was fixed was the day of the replay. In the first phase, the rematch took place in 4-5 days and in the quarter-finals in a couple of days. Overtime was awarded in six games. In three cases, the issue did not reach the replays, all three games were in the first phase. In one match, two goals were scored in extra time, but the score remained a draw and Cuba and Romania once again found out who was the strongest in the replay, where the Cubans sensationally beat the Romanians 2: 1. But the pairs Switzerland – Germany (in the first phase) and Brazil – Czechoslovakia in the quarter-finals ended their 120 minutes with a score of 1: 1. In replays, the Swiss and Brazilians scored twice as many and won 4: 2 and 2: 1 respectively.
The 1954 World Cup had an equally exotic draw system, although a group stage appeared. The “exotic” consisted in the fact that only two rounds were played in a group of 4 teams: since in the group there were two “seeded” and two “unseeded”, only the “seeded” played with the “unseeded”. The two teams with the most points in each group moved on to the next stage (goal difference was not taken into account). One of the strongest in all groups was determined quite easily. But the second had to be determined according to the regulations. By the way, in the event of a tie, extra time was awarded in group matches. In the event of a tie between the teams that finished 2nd and 3rd in the group, an additional match between them has been appointed.
By the way, the future world champions of 1954, the German national team, in terms of goal difference, was much inferior to Turkey, who competed with it to leave the group, but in a personal match Germany prevailed 4: 1. Yet, “thanks” to the regulation, they had to play one more game, in which the Germans defeated the Turks 7: 2. The situation was also paradoxical in the other group world Cup-54, where Switzerland and Italy played. The Swiss won the first game against the Italians, but after two rounds the points were evenly divided with them and the goal difference was lower. An additional match was needed, which Switzerland won against the two-time world champions with a more convincing score of 4-1.
In the 1958 tournament, a rather complicated system was used to determine which teams left the group for the playoffs. There are 4 teams in the group – this position is unshakable for the preliminary round and so far. All teams play with each other, that is, in the end there are three rounds, three games that each team can play at least in the tournament. Ties have also been legalized, with no overtime. Goal difference has been almost legalized, but only if the top two teams in the group score the same number of points: some from first place, some from second to go to a specific opponent in the quarter-finals. But for the teams that took 2nd and 3rd place on equal points, the goal difference was not taken into account. Additional correspondence was provided for them. And only if a draw is recorded in the additional match (after overtime), only then will the goal difference “play” for these teams. If she doesn’t help, then everything. In three out of four groups an additional match was needed. Therefore, two matches between them were played by a couple from Northern Ireland – Czechoslovakia (1: 0 and 2: 1), Wales – Hungary (1: 1 and 2: 1) and USSR – England (2: 2 and 1: 0). The teams listed first in the pair won the replay and progressed to the quarter-finals. By the way, Northern Ireland scored the winning goal in extra time.
And even though we took 1962 for the milestone, when other matches faded into oblivion, at the 1954 World Championship, the two teams met again at different stages of the tournament. Such matches are the real purpose of our review. There are not so many, let’s collect them in a table.
Beginning with the 1982 World Cup, teams must play 7 games to win the main title or compete for bronze medals. Before the 2006 tournament, the playoff round was designed in such a way that teams that had made it to the playoffs in the same round could meet in the 6th game of the tournament, in the semifinals. This also applies to the 1982 championship, where there were neither 1/8 nor ¼ finals. Instead, 4 groups of 3 teams were formed, the winners of these groups faced each other in the semifinals according to a pre-established scheme. The last 4 World Cups took place in a slightly different grid: two teams from the same group could now only meet in the 7th match, i.e. either in the final or in the match for 3rd place.
All replays up to 2018 were the sixth matches for the tournament teams. In 1954 and 1962 the maximum possible number of games for the winners was 6. However, in 1954, the Hungarian team played the fifth game of the championship in the final and the German team was already sixth.
In the table, everything is so clear and beautiful that it is even a pity that the grille has been changed since 2006. It’s a joke! Watch the championship solitaire, just a digital idyll: Germany in 1954 became world champion for the first time, Brazil in 1962 for the second, Italy in 1982 for the third, Brazil in 1994 for the fourth and in the 2002 – world champion for the fifth time! This chain could not continue indefinitely. The harmony of numbers is broken, the “beauty” is suddenly broken. But who knows, maybe in 40 years a curious statistician will discover another addiction that will amaze even for his beauty.
The history of each pair of commands will be postponed until later. We note the first instance where the Hungarians’ hat mood backfired in the 1954 final. By the 8th minute of the final, the Hungarians were leading by 2: 0. In the first game, after all, in the 21st minute, the Hungarians were also leading by 3: 0. Only in the final at this point the Germans had already equalized the score. There are no two identical matches in sport, even if the opponent is the same.
It is quite obvious that such rematches can now only happen at the end of the tournament. We can’t wait for new finals and new winners!
