ENGLAND 4-3 AUSTRIA, 7 December 1932
Friendly, Stamford Bridge, London
Scorers: Hampson (2), Crooks, Houghton (England); Zischek (2), Sindelar (Austria)

A century on from the original Battle of Stamford Bridge, the setting saw another legendary scuffle. England were still regarded as the best team in the world, but Dr Hugo Meisl and Jimmy Hogan’s Austrian Wunderteam provided fearsome opposition.

The Austrians had held the UFWC title for 12 consecutive games, impressively beating Germany 6-0 and 5-0, Switzerland 8-1, and Hungary 8-2 along the way. Add to the equation the fact that Austria played Meisl and Hogan’s brand of ‘Scottish football’, and this was a mouthwatering and monumental clash.

The illustrated souvenir programme produced for the match (priced 3d) showed the flags of both countries and photographs of captains Billy Walker and Karl Rainer. 42,000 spectators crammed into the ground, and the game got underway at 2.15 in the afternoon.

Despite Austria’s impressive passing play, England prevailed in the first half, taking 2-0 lead into the interval courtesy of Samuel Crooks of Derby County and Blackpool’s Jimmy Hampson.

But, six minutes after the restart, Karl Zischek pulled a goal back for the Wunderteam. Now the game became a classic footballing contest, with both sides drawing admiration from all in attendance.

In the 77th minute Aston Villa striker William Houghton scored a third goal for England. But Austria were not beaten yet. Three minutes later the brilliant Matthias Sindelar pulled another goal back for the Wunderteam. England replied almost immediately, with Hampson grabbing his second goal of the match to make it 4-2. But still Austria would not lie down.

With three minutes left to play Zischek, who scored twice against Scotland in 1930, claimed another brace to put Austria within touching distance of England at 4-3. But that would be as close as Austria would come.

England held out for a narrow victory but, to use a well-worn cliché, football had been the big winner. The game would go down in history as one of the very finest ever played.

Austrian goalscorers Mathias Sindelar and Karl Zischek went on to become football legends, but England’s two-goal hero Jimmy Hampson never played for his country again and was largely forgotten. In 1938 he was lost at sea while fishing with friends. His yacht, Defender, collided with a trawler. His body was never recovered.

Classic Matches Austria, England

Matthias Sindelar, ‘The Paper Dancer’, was the playmaker and goalscorer at the heart of the legendary Austrian Wunderteam of the 1930s. Skilful and creative, Sindelar scored 27 goals in 44 games for the national side, including 13 goals in just 12 UFWC games.

When Nazi Germany took control of Austria in 1938, Sindelar refused to play for the newly-formed combined Austria/Germany side. A year later he was found dead in mysterious circumstances, officially from carbon monoxide poisoning. Despite the pressures of war, 20,000 people turned out for his funeral. Sindelar is still regarded as Austria’s greatest ever footballer.

Hall of Fame Austria

AUSTRIA 5-0 SCOTLAND, 16 May 1931
Friendly, Hohe Warte, Vienna
Scorers: Zischek (2), Sindelar, Schall, Vogel

Hungary, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Norway, Germany, and the Netherlands had all tried and failed to release the British Isles’ grip on the UFWC title. Austria had made two failed attempts, but were hoping to make it third time lucky against current champions Scotland.

The Scottish team was selected by committee, with scant regard for coaching or management. The Austrian team was a somewhat different proposition.

New Austrian coach Dr Hugo Meisl was a bona fide football pioneer, and perhaps the first great football manager. The son of a Jewish banker, Meisl abandoned a promising career in finance to travel around Europe learning everything he could about the game of football. Using his amassed great knowledge of the game, he became a successful club coach, and then began to shape the Austrian national side into his ‘Wunderteam’.

But Meisl didn’t work alone. His head coach was an Englishman who had learnt everything he knew about football from Scottish professionals.

Jimmy Hogan had been a distinctly average inside-right for the likes of Burnley and Fulham, where he learnt the finer points of football tactics from his Scottish teammates, before making his name as a coach on the continent. The Scots played a highly effective ’scientific’ passing game that relied upon steady, patient play. Hogan was recruited by Meisl to teach the Austrians how to play in the same way.

The style of play Hogan instilled in the Austrians became known as the Vienna School of Football. And what better way to test the Wunderteam’s passing game than against the country that had invented it?

Scotland, captained by Clyde’s Daniel Blair, arrived in Vienna without their contingent of Rangers and Celtic players. They were promptly battered. With Meisl and Hogan orchestrating matters from the sidelines, the Wunderteam passed the Scots to death.

Karl Zischek scored two goals, the great Matthias Sindelar added a third, and Anton Schall and Adolf Vogel completed the turnover. The UFWC trophy left the British Isles for the very first time, as Austria became the first non-British side to win the UFWC title after 59 years of UFWC title matches. Scotland were beaten at their very own game.

As for Jimmy Hogan, he later coached in Hungary, and laid the foundations for that country’s ‘Magnificent Maygars’ side of the 1950s. Sometimes regarded as a traitor in his homeland for taking his football knowledge to the continent, Hogan died in Burnley in 1974 aged 91. Tributes called him a founding father of the modern game.

Classic Matches Austria, Scotland