The countdown to the 2026 World Cup is on! Each day ahead of the tournament’s return to North America, Yahoo Sports will highlight an insight or moment that showcases just how grand the world’s biggest sporting spectacle has become — even beyond the expanded field of this year’s global event.
No country in World Cup history has a higher goals-scored-per-game rate (2.72) than Hungary. That’s pretty impressive considering the country has not qualified for the quadrennial competition since 1986.
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What has helped Hungary own that record is the goal-scoring exploits of three of its teams from the 1938, 1954 and 1982 World Cups — and two games specifically.
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Hungary made the World Cup final in the 1938 and 1954 tournaments, but failed to get the job done against Italy and West Germany, respectively. It was the Hungarians’ offense that helped power the squad to being within one win of a world championship. In 1938, they scored 15 times, which included wins of 6-0 and 5-1. Sixteen years later, they went to the final on the back of of 9-0 and 8-3 victories and broke the record for most goals scored in a single World Cup with 27.
The 9-0 win over South Korea in 1954 was the record for biggest margin of victory at a World Cup. It was matched in 1974 by Yugoslavia, who beat Zaire by the same scoreline. Eight years later, Hungary tied its own mark with a 10-1 win over El Salvador and also set the record for most goals scored by a single team in a World Cup match.
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In its World Cup history of 32 games, Hungary has a record 87 goals. Sándor Kocsis scored 11 times in 1954, while György Sárosi and Gyula Zsengellér each hit for five goals during the 1938 tournament.
Since their two finals appearances, Hungary has reached the World Cup quarterfinals twice, but failed to advance out of the group stage four times, including in its previous three trips to the tournament.
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