All Time World Cup! 2nd Round...
Kocsis 7, Keizer 60, Hidegkuti 67, Van Basten 85, Haan 107
Berlin
The two finest teams not to have won the World Cup are surely the Hungary of the 1950s and the 1970s Holland side. Both had been tactically revolutionary.
Holland’s Total Football had left opponents unsure who to mark, and the same was the case when Hungary centre forward Hidegkuti dropped deep to create space for the inside-forwards. England, for example, were left bewildered in 1953.
As Ferenc Puskas famously dragged the ball back with his studs before scoring his side’s third, Billy Wright rushed past him, in the words of The Times’ esteemed Geoffrey Green “like a fire engine going to the wrong fire” Now Puskas and Cruyff would face off.
Puskas had scored in all three group games, while Cruyff had played more of a creator role. Both teams had scored plenty of goals but also conceded more than they would like. A nil-nil draw seemed unlikely.
So it proved, as for the fourth game running, Hungary took an early lead. This time it was Kocsis tapping home a Puskas pull-back after evading Frank de Boer. Holland tightened up after that, with Edgar Davids given the task of tracking Hidegkuti, and Franck Rijkaard on Puskas.
Before long, at the other end, Hungary’s defence was clinging on by its fingertips. Cruyff had the beating of right back Busanszky, Ruud Gullit kept out-muscling Sandor Biro on the other side, and in between, Van Basten’s movement was pulling Meszoly and Matrai all over the place. Neeskens and Van Hanegem both profited from the confusion by pushing forward and unleashing shots that gave Grosics a chance to show his class in goal.
The equaliser wouldn’t come though, and when Gullit limped off early in the second half after over-extending to reach a Krol cross, Holland were starting to look in trouble.
Cruyff switched to the right to replace Gullit, while MIchels in turn brought on Piet Keizer to fill the gap on the left. Fortunately the temperamental Keizer was in the mood today, and his jinking runs and determination to attack lifted his team-mates. Fittingly, it was Keizer himself who levelled the scores on the hour mark.
A zig-zagging run into the box was interrupted by a challenge from Bozsic, but the ball spun up into the air towards Neeskens. He nodded it back towards his Ajax team-mate who met it with a perfect scissor kick which gave Grosics no chance.
Something you didn’t get from Keizer though was tracking back, and just seven minutes later he allowed Florian Albert a free run at Ruud Krol.
The elegant Albert, European Footballer Of The Year in 1967, drove Krol back before floating in a cross which Nador Hidegkuti met with a glancing header. Again, Holland were chasing the game. Hungary seemed to know that they could not hope to defend well enough to keep Holland out, and settled on attack as the best form of defence. Gradually though, they found it harder and harder to get out of their own half.
Rijkaard was able to push into midfield and join Neeskens and Davids, who seemed to be everywhere at once. The inevitable equaliser did not come until the 85th minute, but it was worth waiting for. Cruyff turned Meszoly inside out and drove a hard, mid-height cross in to the box. Matrai thought he had it covered but Van Basten acrobatically beat him to the ball with an overhead kick which Grosics did well to get a hand to, but could not keep out.
So to extra time. The respective exertions of scoring and trying to prevent that equaliser looked to have taken their toll on each side, and the pace now dropped considerably. Both teams now looked to pass the ball around in midfield, cagily probing for the defensive lapse that would let them in. In the end though, the key goal came from midfield.
At half time in extra time, Michels could see that Davids had finally run himself into the ground, and brought on Arie Haan as cover in defensive midfield. Just two minutes later, Haan found himself in space 40 yards out.
Having scored one of the World Cup’s greatest long range goals past Italy’s Dino Zoff in 1978, was perfectly happy to repeat the trick, and duly lashed a piledriver shot that was still rising as it went in off Grosics’ left hand post.
Hungary were looking tired now, and Holland were past masters at playing the ball around and keeping possession. Even so, in the very last minute, Puskas fashioned one last chance for myself. Collecting the ball from Bozsik, he twisted away from Suurbier and his extraordinary close control saw him shimmy past both Haan and de Boer.
As Rijkaard and Van Der Sar closed in, Puskas released his shot. The faintest of touches from the keeper’s outstretched boot took the pace off it, and Dutch hearts were in their mouths as the ball rolled agonisingly slowly towards to the post. The ball hit it... and stayed out. Krol smashed it clear, and the referee blew the final whistle.
Hungary were out, but had thrilled crowds around the world with their skill, finishing and passing. Against other teams they may well have made the quarter finals, but Holland were one of the few teams who could match them for attacking options, while edging them out for defensive steel.
The Dutch were too drained to celebrate too enthusiastically, but at least they were through. Perhaps Holland were developing a German-style winning mentality after all?
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