The following article is a conglomeration of articles posted to rec.sport.soccer and e-mails between 13 July 1990 and 15 August 1990. The following folks are credited with any input into this article: archer@hsi.com (Garry Archer) mwan@PacBell.com (Miu Wang) D.T.Muxworthy@edinburgh.ac.uk (David T. Muxworthy) harold@ccl.umist.ac.uk (Harold Somers) kml@inf.rl.ac.uk (Kevin Lewis) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Hungary team that defeated England at Wembley 6-3 0n 25th November, 1953: LAST NAME FIRST NAME POSITION CLUB Sebes, Gustav MANAGER Hungary Grosics, Gyula Goalkeeper Honved Buzanszky, Jeno Right Back Dorog Lantos, Mihaly Left Back MTK Bozsik, Jozsef Right Half Honved Lorant, Gyula Centre Half Honved Zakarias, Joszef Left Half MTK Budai II, Lazslo Right Wing ? Kocsis, Sandor Inside Right Honved Hidegkuti, Nandor Centre Forward MTK Puskas, Ferenc Inside Left Honved Czibor, Zoltan Outside Left Ferencvaros (later Honved) Other Hungarian internationals in the squad for the England game or in the 1954 World Cup: Mandi, Gyula (Manager, 1954 WC); Landor; Palotas; Varhidi; Kovacs; Geller II; Csordas; J.Toth; Sandor; Vasas (Centre Back). NOTE: In Hungary the family name comes first, so Puskas' first name is Puskas, and his last name is Ferenc. -- Miu Wang, Harold Somers et al. The England team listing for that same famous game: LAST NAME FIRST NAME POSITION CLUB Winterbottom, Walter MANAGER England Merrick, Gil #1 Goalkeeper Birmingham City Ramsey, Alf #2 Right Back Tottenham Hotspur Eckersley, Bill #3 Left Back Blackburn Rovers Wright (capt), Billy #4 Right Half Wolverhampton Wanderers Johnston, Harry #5 Centre Half Blackpool Dickinson, Jimmy #6 Left Half Portsmouth Matthews, Stan #7 Outside Right Blackpool Taylor, Ernie #8 Inside Right Blackpool Mortensen, Stan #9 Centre Forward Blackpool Sewell, Jackie #10 Inside Left Sheffield Wednesday Robb, Graham #11 Outside Left Tottenham Hotspur England scorers: Ramsey, Mortensen, Sewell The report in the FA Year Book was (the previous report was on England v N Ireland, saying England hardly deserved to win, never mind 3-1): "This time the scoreboard unfortunately reflected only too fairly the rival strengths of the teams. It is but sparse compensation to be able to reflect that England lost her unbeaten home record to a team that played with brilliance, flair and zest; and it is but painful irony to note that the Hungarians largely owed their victory to their mastering of the 'English Style' - interchanging forwards, a mingling of short and long passes, the same defensive tactics, but all performed with almost geometrical accuracy and ball control amounting to elegance. Apart from all this they overcame the traditional Continental weakness at finishing and shot four of their six goals from outside the penalty area. Within 60 seconds the Hungarians took the lead when Hidegkuti successfully sold the dummy to Johnston before sending in a devastating shot. England then drew level after Mortensen made a well timed pass for Sewell to find the net. Three more Hungarian goals followed in quick succession: the first from Hidegkuti following a poor clearance by the English defence, the second from Puskas after juggling skilfully with a diagonal pass, the third also from Puskas who diverted a free-kick by Boszik. Then shortly before half-time Mortensen dashed forward from a throw-in to score England's second goal. Ten minutes after the interval Bozsik scored again and he was quickly succeeded by Hidegkuti who completed Hungary's triumph with a hat-trick. Though Ramsey converted a penalty to make the final score 6-3, the issue by then was no longer really at stake and a new page in the history of football had already been turned." Of course everyone expected England to be thrashed in the return match, and so it turned out, 7-1. The teams then were: England: Gil Merrick Birmingham City Ron Staniforth Huddersfield Town Roger Byrne Manchester United Billy Wright Wolverhampton Wanderers Syd Owen Luton Town Jimmy Dickinson Portsmouth P Harris Portsmouth Jackie Sewell Sheffield Wednesday Bedford Jezzard Fulham Ivor Broadis Manchester City Tom Finney Preston North End The Hungarian team was : Grosics; Buzansky, Lantos; Bozsik, Lorant, Zakarias; Toth, Kocsis, Hidegkuti, Puskas, Czibor. Looking down the England roster in the 7-1 loss at Hungary, I noted a Bedford Jezzard whom I've never heard of before. Wot a name! I wonder if anyone has any details on this player? -- Garry Archer Bedford Jezzard was a dashing centre forward of the old type, struck me as a gentleman possibly a public school type but I may be maligning him. I went to Fulham quite a bit in 1959-62 and seem to remember him from then, but memory may be playing tricks. Maybe I saw him earlier with Jimmy Chin Hill in the side. -- Dave Muxworthy I have played with a player in our local (North Berks) league called Derek Jezzard. He was quite a good player at our level, and claimed his uncle (Bedford Jezzard) had played for England during the 50's. Not one of the players had ever heard of him. Although one or two ex-players thought that they had. -- Kev Lewis Oh... as an addendum to this game, I read once that there was a reunion of all the players (England and Hungary) several years ago (early 1970's). Sir Alf Ramsey greeted his fellow full-back of the day (25 Nov 1953) with, "Er, Hello... it is Bill, isn't it?", and Puskas was heard to remark, "It was like that when they played us -- the team hardly seemed to know each other's names!" -- Garry Archer From what I have read, I understood that England were completely outsmarted in the 1953 Wembley game by the Hungarians playing a 4-2-4 formation. Hidegkuti in fact played in mid-field but wore the number 9 shirt. Johnson the England centre-half marked him because he was conditioned to marking the number 9 and spent the entire 90 mins wandering out of position. Kocsis and Puskas were the main strikers wearing 8 and 10 respectively. In Engish football the nos 8 and 10 were the inside forwards who were expected to be marked by the wing-halves. However, Dickinson and Wright were not used to opponents playing so far forward and thus were unsure whether to mark them and end up playing right behind the defence or to play their normal game. Also of course those clever little Hungarian forwards were constantly swapping positions to add to the confusion of the English who were used to a more regimented game. This upset the full-backs when trying to mark the wingers, who were playing deeper than normal. The whole English defence was therefore disorganised. The 4-2-4 formation was developed by the Hungarians in the early 50's and was used practically universally by 1958, when Brazil won the world cup, Apart from of course the insular British who only caught on in the early 60's by which time 4-3-3 was being tried. -- Kev Lewis