Football at the 1952 Summer Olympics

Tournament details
Host country	Finland
Dates	July 15-August 2
Teams	25 (from 5 (plus Great Britain) confederations)
Venue(s)	5 (in 5 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Hungary
Runners-up	Yugoslavia
Third place	Sweden
Tournament statistics
Matches played	26
Goals scored	135 (5.19 per match)
← 1948 1956 →

The 1952 Olympic football tournament signalled the arrival (to Western Europeans at least) of the Hungarian national football team - the "Magical Magyars". Ferenc Puskás later said of the 1952 competition: "It was during the Olympics that our football first started to flow with real power."^[1] It was during the Games that Stanley Rous of English Football Association invited the Hungarians to play a friendly at Wembley the following year.

Background [edit]

By the time of the competition the Hungarians had been undefeated since May 14, 1950, but had been largely confined to the Eastern European Communist satellite states. The competition also saw the first mass entry from Eastern Europe; six nations from beyond the Iron Curtain were competing - the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Yugoslavia and Hungary. The Scandinavian countries - Finland, Sweden and Norway - were exempted in the Preliminary round.

Squads [edit]

• Main article: Football at the 1952 Summer Olympics - Men's team squads

The tournament [edit]

Preliminary round highlights [edit]

The preliminary round saw Hungary record a narrow victory against Romania, whilst there was an 8-0 victory for Italy against the United States, and a 5-1 victory for Brazil against The Netherlands. Great Britain succumbed to Luxembourg 5-3, whilst Egypt defeated Chile 5-4. Yugoslavia were drawn against the Indians, who decided to play without boots; Yugoslavia won 10-1.

First round highlights [edit]

The First round saw Scandinavian countries join the competition; the hosts Finland were beaten 3-4 by Austria, whilst Sweden defeated neighbours Norway 4-1. The game of the round was between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union; Yugoslavia had been 5-1 ahead with 30 minutes of the match to go, only for the Soviet captain Bobrov to score a hat-trick and inspire his team to an eventual 5-5 draw. A replay resulted in a 3-1 victory for Yugoslavia; the Soviet side had been expected by Moscow to win the 1952 Games, and their defeat by Yugoslavia was not mentioned in the Soviet press until after Stalin's death the following year.

Quarter finals [edit]

Sweden defeated Austria to ensure a Scandinavian presence in the semi-finals. Germany surprisingly beat Brazil 4-2 after extra time, whilst Yugoslavia won comfortably in a 5-3 defeat of Denmark. Hungary demolished Turkey 7-1 to complete the four semi-finalists.

Semi finals [edit]

In the first semi final, Hungary saw off Sweden with a comprehensive 6-0 victory, whilst Yugoslavia beat Germany 3-1 to set up a Hungary-Yugoslavia final.

Bronze Medal [edit]

There was some consolation for the Scandinavian countries as Sweden defeated Germany 2-0 in the third place play-off to secure the bronze medal.

Gold and Silver Medals [edit]

Two goals from Puskás and Zoltán Czibor saw Hungary beat Yugoslavia and take the gold medal.

Results [edit]

Preliminary round results [edit]

July 15, 1952 19:00	Poland	2–1	France	Lahden kisapuisto, Lahti Referee: Karel van der Meer (NED) Attendance:
	Trampisz  31' Krasowka  49'	Report	Leblond  30'

July 15, 1952 19:00	Hungary	2–1	Romania	Kupittaa, Turku Referee: Nikolay Latyshev (URS) Attendance: 14.000
	Czibor  21' Kocsis  73'	Report	Suru  86'

July 15, 1952 19:00	Yugoslavia	10–1	India	Töölön Pallokenttä, Helsinki Referee: John Best (USA) Attendance: 20.000
	Vukas  2'  62' Mitić  14'  43' Zebec  17'  23'  60'  87' Ognjanov  52'  67'	Report	Ahmed Khan  89'

July 15, 1952 19:00	Denmark	2–1	Greece	Ratina Stadion, Tampere Referee: Waldemar Karni (FIN) Attendance: 7.000
	Petersen  36'  37'	Report	Emmanouilides  85'

July 15, 1952 19:00	Soviet Union	2–1 (a.e.t.)	Bulgaria	Kotkan Urheilukeskus, Kotka Referee: Istvan Zsolt (HUN) Attendance: 10.000
	Bobrov  100' Trofimov  104'	Report	Kolev  95'

July 16, 1952 19:00	Italy	8–0	United States	Ratina Stadion, Tampere Referee: Arthur Ellis (GBR) Attendance: 10.000
	Gimona  3'  51'  75' Pandolfini  16'  62' Venturi  27' Fontanesi  52' Mariani  87'	Report

July 16, 1952 19:00	Brazil	5–1	Netherlands	Kupittaa, Turku Referee: Giorgio Bernardi (ITA) Attendance: 16.000
	Humberto Tozzi  25' Larry  33' (p.k.)  36' Jansen  81' Vavá  86'	Report	van Roessel  15'

July 16, 1952 12:00	Luxembourg	5–3 (a.e.t.)	Great Britain	Lahden kisapuisto, Lahti Referee: Vincenzo Orlandini (ITA) Attendance:
	Roller  60'  95'  97' Letsch  91' Gales  102'	Report	Robb  12' Slater  101' Lewis  118'

July 16, 1952 19:00	Egypt	5–4	Chile	Kotkan Urheilukeskus, Kotka Referee: John Nilsson (SWE) Attendance:
	Elfar  27' Mechaury  43' Eldizwi  66'  75'  80'	Report	Jara  7'  78' Vial  14'  88'

First round results [edit]

July 19, 1952 19:00	Finland	3–4	Austria	Olympic Stadium, Helsinki Referee: William Ling (GBR) Attendance: 33.053
	Stolpe  11'  34' Rytkönen  36'	Report	Gollnhuber  8' (p.k.)  30' Stumpf  59' Grohs  79'

July 20, 1952 19:00	Brazil	2–1	Luxembourg	Kotkan Urheilukeskus, Kotka Referee: Marijan Macancic (YUG) Attendance:
	Larry  42' Humberto Tozzi  49'	Report	Gales  86'

July 20, 1952 19:00	Yugoslavia	5–5 (a.e.t.)	Soviet Union	Ratina Stadion, Tampere Referee: Arthur Ellis (GBR) Attendance: 17.000
	Mitić  29' Ognjanov  33' Zebec  44'  59' Bobek  46'	Report	Bobrov  53'  77'  87' Trofimov  75' Petrov  89'

July 22, 1952 19:00	Yugoslavia	3–1	Soviet Union	Ratina Stadion, Tampere Referee: Arthur Ellis (GBR) Attendance: 17.000
	Mitić  19' Bobek  29' (p.k.) Čajkovski  54'	Report	Bobrov  6'

July 20, 1952 12:00	Germany	3–1	Egypt	Kupittaa, Turku Referee: Giorgio Bernardi (ITA) Attendance:
	Klug  33' Schröder  38'  61'	Report	Eldizmwi  64'

July 21, 1952 19:00	Denmark	2–0	Poland	Kupittaa, Turku Referee: Folke Bålstad (NOR) Attendance: 8.000
	Seebach  17' S. Nielsen  69'	Report

July 21, 1952 19:00	Sweden	4–1	Norway	Ratina Stadion, Tampere Referee: Johan Aksel Alho (FIN) Attendance: 4.200
	Brodd  23'  35' Rydell  81' Bengtsson  89'	Report	Sørensen  83'

July 21, 1952 19:00	Hungary	3–0	Italy	Töölön Pallokenttä, Helsinki Referee: Karel van der Meer (NED) Attendance: 20.000
	Palotás  11'  20' Kocsis  83'	Report

July 21, 1952 19:00	Turkey	2–1	Netherlands Antilles	Lahden kisapuisto, Lahti Referee: Carl Jorgensen (DEN) Attendance:
	Tokaç  9' Bilge  76' (p.k.)	Report	Briezen  79'

Quarter-finals results [edit]

July 23, 1952 19:00	Sweden	3–1	Austria	Töölön Pallokenttä, Helsinki Referee: Vincenzo Orlandini (ITA) Attendance: 10.000
	Sandberg  80' Brodd  85' Rydell  87'	Report	Grohs  40'

July 24, 1952 12:00	Germany	4–2 (a.e.t.)	Brazil	Töölön Pallokenttä, Helsinki Referee: Arthur Ellis (GBR) Attendance:
	Schröder  75'  96' Klug  89' Zeitler  120'	Report	Larry  12' Zózimo  74'

July 24, 1952 19:00	Hungary	7–1	Turkey	Kotkan Urheilukeskus, Kotka Referee: Waldemar Karni (FIN) Attendance: 20.000
	Palotás  18' Kocsis  32'  90' Lantos  48' Puskás  54'  72' Bozsik  70'	Report	Guder  57'

July 25, 1952 19:00	Yugoslavia	5–3	Denmark	Töölön Pallokenttä, Helsinki Referee: Waldemar Karni (FIN) Attendance: 10.000
	Čajkovski  19' Ognjanov  35' Vukas  41' Bobek  78' Zebec  81'	Report	Lundberg  63' Seebach  85' J. Hansen  87'

Semi-finals results [edit]

July 28, 1952 19:00	Hungary	6–0	Sweden	Olympic Stadium, Helsinki Referee: William Ling (GBR) Attendance: 22.000
	Puskás  1' Palotás  16' Lindh  36' (o.g.) Kocsis  65'  69' Hidegkuti  67'	Report

July 29, 1952 19:00	Yugoslavia	3–1	Germany	Olympic Stadium, Helsinki Referee: Waldemar Karni (FIN) Attendance: 20.000
	Mitić  3'  24' Čajkovski  30'	Report	Stollenwerk  12'

Bronze Medal match result [edit]

August 1, 1952 19:00	Sweden	2–0	Germany	Olympic Stadium, Helsinki Referee: Vincenzo Orlandini (ITA) Attendance: 20.000
	Rydell  11' Löfgren  86'	Report

Gold Medal match result [edit]

August 2, 1952 19:00	Hungary	2–0	Yugoslavia	Olympic Stadium, Helsinki Referee: Arthur Ellis (GBR) Attendance: 60,000
	Puskás  70' Czibor  88'	Report

Medalists [edit]

Gold:	Silver:	Bronze:
Hungary Gyula Grosics Jenő Dálnoki Imre Kovács László Budai Ferenc Puskás Zoltán Czibor Lajos Csordás Jenő Buzánszky Gyula Lóránt Mihály Lantos József Bozsik József Zakariás Nándor Hidegkuti Sándor Kocsis Péter Palotás	Yugoslavia Vladimir Beara Branko Stanković Tomislav Crnković Zlatko Čajkovski Ivan Horvat Vujadin Boškov Tihomir Ognjanov Rajko Mitić Bernard Vukas Stjepan Bobek Branko Zebec Dušan Cvetković Milorad Diskić Ratko Čolić Slavko Luštica Zdravko Rajkov Vladimir Čonč Vladimir Firm	Sweden Karl Svensson Lennart Samuelsson Erik Nilsson Holger Hansson Bengt Gustavsson Gösta Lindh Sylve Bengtsson Gösta Löfgren Ingvar Rydell Yngve Brodd Gösta Sandberg Olof Ahlund

References [edit]

1. ^ "Puskas on life and football". The Guardian. 19 November 2006. Retrieved 31 January 2013. 

External links [edit]

• Olympic Football Tournament Helsinki 1952, FIFA.com
• RSSSF Archive

v t e Football at the Summer Olympics Tournaments 1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 (men • women) 2000 (men • women) 2004 (men • women) 2008 (men • women) 2012 (men • women) Qualifications Men 2008 2012 Women 2008 2012 Squads Men 1900 1904 1908 1912 1920 1924 1928 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 Women 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 List of medalists List of venues

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