|
 Showing:
UK - BBC1 |Saturday 3 June 7.00pm
From the
Fifties to the Seventies, unlikely World Cup successes turned West
Germany from the pariahs of European football to its most dominant
superpower.
Tonight's
World Cup Stories looks at how the legacy of the 1954 team's
"Miracle of Berne" has motivated German players to strive for
World Cup success ever since, including a remarkable comeback in the
1974 final against, perhaps, the greatest team of the Seventies - the
Dutch.
The
remarkable story of Germany's rise to World Cup success began in the
ashes of defeat in 1945. Though not a Nazi, the enigmatic German coach
Sepp Herberger had used his influence to ensure that key players like
his captain, Fritz Walter, stayed away from the worst of the fighting
during the War and, with characteristic determination, he set about
building a new football team to represent a new nation - West
Germany.
Despite all
Herberger's work the West German team, who prepared to compete for their
first World Cup in 1954, were rank outsiders. Despite a crushing early
defeat against perhaps the greatest team of the Fifties, Hungary, Fritz
led his team through the group stages, beating Turkey and then Austria,
to find themselves unlikely finalists. There, they would meet Hungary
again. World Cup Stories tells how, against all the odds, the West
German team managed to defeat Hungary 3-2 in a victory that not only won
the Germans the right to compete at football's top table once again but
also, for many back home in Germany, restored the pride of a broken
nation. |
