WUNDERTEAM

Between the World Wars, while England was still regarding itself as the Masters of World Football, several European international teams were developing into major forces. The Swedes developed under George Ryanor in the late 1940s, the Hungarians were Magyarnificent!! From the 1930s through to the 1950s and the Austrians were named the Wunderteam in the 1930s. 

Their coach was Hugo Meisl, who led the Austrians through a 14 match unbeaten run in the 18 months prior to the 7th of December 1932. They beat Germany over two games during that run, with 11 goals for and none against. 

Much of the influence came from a Scot, Jimmy Hogan who coached in Austria and introduced the "Scottish School of Football" a quick passing game suited to Matthias Sindelar, who was their free scoring star player. Sindelar was known as Der Papierene, the Paper Man. 

But at Stamford Bridge, on that December day, they met their match when England beat them 4-3 in a scintillating game. A crowd of 72,000 watched the home team score twice before half time through James Hampson. The visitors grabbed one goal back before William Houghton scored a third to keep England ahead 3-1. 

Sindelar struck a minute later, Samuel Crooks made it 4-2 to England and with a final Austrian goal  minutes from the end, the crowd was kept on its toes.

The Second World War interrupted Austria's progress and certainly put pay to their 1938 World Cup hopes. Also, Sindelar died in suspicious circumstances during the hostilities, though Ernst Happel, who featured in the team during the 1940s and 1950s, took his experience of Total Football to the Netherlands with him in the 1960-70s and had a major effect on football there, as was shown in the 1974 World Cup.