Hungary was robbed!!

[brownie]

Few people here remember the 1954 World Cup final. A legend in sports lore.

The best allaround team - Hungary - was the clear favorite of the competition but they lost to West Germany in the final match in Berne. A stunning defeat!

Now it turns out the West German team was on dope...

AFP story

Ferenc Puskas, in black jersey at left, congratulates the 'winners'...

[Brad]

I have read about them. That's quite terrible if true.

[Big Beat Steve]

Ha, I wonder what eventually will become of all this.

That story of alleged doping of the German '54 team is about as old as Old Man Moe's beard and has been refuted (or proved wrong) before. One aspect of this being that a sports such as football with extremely alternating demands on the individual players does not really suit itself to "classic" doping substances - as opposed to endurance sports like in athletics, cycling etc. where you are out to go straight ahead as fast and/or as long-lasting as you can.

But who knows ... what with the large-scale doping having gone on in Eastern Bloc sports since Heaven knows when, it might eventually boil down to a case of "My dope is better than your dope"?

(BTW, no sour grapes please, Brownie, just beause Pibarot's men and Kopa's buddies fared so dismally in the '54 tournament? ;))

[Alexander Hawkins]

Hideguti!!!

[David Ayers]

If proven the cup should be withdrawn and given to Hungary. In fact all sports results should be suspended until infallible detection technology is developed, along with the time-travel technology needed to return to the past and do proper testing. Of course those results will only apply in a parallel reality... and since ours is by definition the reality in which time-travel will never be developed (little logical conundrum there for you) we will never know anything about it. So all results must now be reinstated! Sorry Hungary - you still lost!

[AllenLowe]

good idea - and then let's go and help Mickey Owens catch that damned pitch -

[clifford_thornton]

Football players and meth - clearly a winning combination.

[Matthew]

good idea - and then let's go and help Mickey Owens catch that damned pitch -

Supposedly, it was a wicked spitter that Casey threw... Damn Yankees...

[Kevin Bresnahan]

good idea - and then let's go and help Mickey Owens catch that damned pitch -

I'd rather go back to 1978 and break open Bucky Bleeping Dent's bat to show the world its corked innards.

Of course, going back to 1986 and somehow getting the Red Sox's idiot manager to 1) Leave Bob #@%# Stanley in the pen where he belonged and 2) Subbing for old man Buckner at first for a player who could actually bend over.

I still blame Bob Stanley more than Bill Buckner for that screw up.

[BruceH]

Of course, going back to 1986 and somehow getting the Red Sox's idiot manager to 1) Leave Bob #@%# Stanley in the pen where he belonged and 2) Subbing for old man Buckner at first for a player who could actually bend over.

I still blame Bob Stanley more than Bill Buckner for that screw up.

Oh yes. I hear you.

[papsrus]

I got a bone to pick with the Huns and that Attila fella.

Am I in the right place?

[neveronfriday]

I got a bone to pick with the Huns and that Attila fella.

Am I in the right place?

Depends on how severely you want your ass kicked.

[P.L.M]

In a documentary film about the return of Puskas in Hungary, shown on french TV (Arte), 2/3 years ago, but done maybe three decades earlier, a german player who plays the final, told to the person who interviewed him about Puskas, that he was sorry to tell to the german people, that the day of the final all german players, including him, was on dope. And burst immediately in tears after.

Edited October 27, 2010 by P.L.M

[Big Beat Steve]

It would be interesting to know who that exactly was. If the documentary was done that long ago almost all of the eleven German players from the 54 finals would still have been alive. But usually it was only 2 or 3 of the "usual suspects" who got interviewed in the media (until the number of survivors diminished dramatically).

At any rate that might help to put things into perspective since strangely enough, to the best of my knowledge no mention was made of this in those NUMEROUS media reports, writeups, publications etc. when all that hullaballoo about the 50th anniversary of the '54 finals came around in 2004. With the sports media being what they are I think it's unlikely they would have managed to hide THAT from media coverage at that time.