Football World Cup 1954 / France

This article covers the French national team at the 1954 World Cup .

qualification

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	France	20: 04	8-0
2	Ireland	08: 06	4: 4
3	Luxembourg	01:19	0: 8

Luxembourg	-	France	1: 6
Ireland	-	France	3: 5
France	-	Ireland	1-0
France	-	Luxembourg	8-0

Since les Bleus had already been selected as the winners of Europe Group 4 before the final qualifying match, the selection committee of the FFF association against Luxembourg nominated a team that consisted mainly of young players, three of whom (Bieganski, Mahjoub and Vincent) were then even taken to Switzerland were. Due to this decision, on December 17, 1953, there was not a single player in the Équipe Tricolore from Stade de Reims , the French "over-team" of the 1950s and again champions of Division 1 in the summer - one of only two international matches between November 1947 and April 1963 without any Reimser, who played seven of the national team in some games of those years.

France's 20 goals scored: Just Fontaine (3), who still had to stay at home, as well as Pierre Flamion , Léon Glovacki, Joseph Ujlaki , Roger Piantoni , Jean Desgranges , Jean Vincent (2 each), Édouard Kargulewicz , Raymond Cicci , Raymond Kopa, Armand Penverne and Jacques Foix (1 each).

French contingent

After qualifying for a World Cup finals for the first time after 1938 , expectations were high in France, as the win of the Coupe Latine by Stade de Reims last year seemed to prove that the Bleus could take on anyone, at least in Europe. The unconvincing final preparatory games and personal problems, such as the tragic accidental death of talented striker Francis Méano , hardly dampened hopes. The preliminary round group with fearful opponents Yugoslavia and the Brazilians , whose strength is difficult to assess , of which only one team would be against France due to the special game mode of this World Cup , was anything but weak.

The selection committee, led by Gaston Barreau and Alex Thépot, nominated the following 22 players:

Number / name		Association at the time	birthday	Games	Gates	Space management
goalkeeper
1	François Remetter	FC Grenoble	08/08/1928	2	0	0
2	César Ruminski	Lille OSC	06/13/1924	0	0	0
3	Claude Abbes	AS Saint-Etienne	05/24/1927	0	0	0
defender
4th	Lazare Gianessi	AS Monaco	11/09/1925	2	0	0
5	Jacques Grimonpon	Girondins Bordeaux	07/30/1925	0	0	0
6th	Raymond Kaelbel	Racing Strasbourg	January 31, 1932	2	0	0
7th	Roger Marche	Stade Reims	03/05/1924	1	0	0
runner
8th	Guillaume Bieganski	Lille OSC	11/03/1932	0	0	0
9	Antoine Cuissard	OGC Nice	07/19/1924	0	0	0
10	Robert Jonquet	Stade Reims	05/03/1925	1	0	0
11	Xercès Louis	Racing Lens	10/31/1926	0	0	0
12	Jean-Jacques Marcel	FC Sochaux	06/13/1931	2	0	0
13	Abderrahman Mahjoub	OGC Nice	04/25/1929	1	0	0
14th	Armand Penverne	Stade Reims	11/26/1926	1	0	0
striker
15th	Abdelaziz Ben Tifour	AS Troyes-Savinienne	07/23/1927	1	0	0
16	René Dereuddre	Toulouse FC	06/22/1930	2	0	0
17th	Léon Glovacki	Stade Reims	02/19/1928	1	0	0
18th	Raymond Kopa	Stade Reims	10/13/1931	2	1	0
19th	Michel Leblond	Stade Reims	05/10/1932	0	0	0
20th	Ernest Schultz	Olympique Lyon	01/29/1931	0	0	0
21st	André Strappe	Lille OSC	02/23/1928	2	0	0
22nd	Jean Vincent	Lille OSC	11/29/1930	2	1	0
Trainer
	Pierre Pibarot		07/23/1916

French team games

Preliminary round

France played in Group 1 with Yugoslavia, Brazil (the two seeded teams) and Mexico. In the first, pre-decisive meeting, coach Pibarot offered an eleven, which was essentially formed by players from Reims and Lille and competed in the so-called World Cup system (with the middle runner acting as the last man between the two defenders):

Remetter

Gianessi Kaelbel
Penverne Jonquet Marcel

Kopa Glovacki garter belt Dereuddre Vincent

In the second game against Mexico there were three personnel changes: Jonquet was replaced by defender Marche (Kaelbel acted as a middle runner), Mahjoub came on for Penverne and Ben Tifour for Glovacki.

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Brazil 1	6: 1	3: 1
2	Yugoslavia 1	2: 1	3: 1
3	France	3: 3	2: 2
4th	Mexico	2: 8	0: 4
1 Yugoslavia in first place by drawing lots

France	-	Yugoslavia	0: 1 (0: 1)
France	-	Mexico	3: 2 (1: 0)

Match reports

Against Yugoslavia on June 16 at the Stade La Pontaise in Lausanne in front of 16,000 spectators; SR: Griffiths (Wales):

0: 1 Milutinovic (15th)

Against Mexico on June 19 at the Stade Charmilles in Genève in front of 19,000 spectators; SR: Asensi (Spain):

1-0 Vincent (19th) - 2-0 Cardenas (46th, own goal), 2: 1 Lamadrid (54th), 2: 2 Balcazar (85th), 3: 2 Kopa (88th)

This narrow win almost at the last minute was of no use to the Bleus : Yugoslavia and Brazil parted 1: 1 after extra time, and thus France, unlike in Group 2 the West Germans against Turkey , did not get a "second chance" against the eleven from Balkans and had to go home early - and according to the local sports press, she didn't deserve more.

In 1958, however, one should meet Yugoslavia again ...

literature

• Denis Chaumier: Les Bleus. Tous les joueurs de l'équipe de France de 1904 à nos jours. Larousse, o. O. 2004 ISBN 2-03-505420-6
• Gérard Ejnès / L'Équipe: La belle histoire. L'équipe de France de football. L'Équipe, Issy-les-Moulineaux 2004 ISBN 2-951-96053-0
• SZ WM library: Switzerland 1954. Munich 2005 ISBN 3-86615-153-5

Web links

• Page of the FFF (French)
• FIFA World Cup (German)