Kurt Schmied
Kurt Smith ( born June 14, 1926 in Vienna, † December 9, 2007 ) was an Austrian football player. With the goalie Vienna 1955 Austrian champion and took the national team participated in two World Cups and one European Championship. As his greatest success one third place at the 1954 World Cup, where he played a key role.
Career
Change to Dobling and the heat of battle Lausanne
Kurt Smith still enjoys the reputation of been one of the strongest goalies of the Austrian football history to be, where he was mainly characterized by his commitment, his reflexes and GK. He began his career at SC Helfort Vienna, which he joined as a 14- year-old. In August 1947 he was released to the first division Wiener Sport - Club, where he immediately established himself as a regular goalie. International Kurt Smith worked in his spine Bach ago to the B team but could 1952 not avoid relegation of his club from the A- League. Kurt Schmied aroused by the more interest from other clubs, and he was finally obliged by Vienna. Still time for the football World Cup in 1954, he got due to injury Walter Zeman's also the chance to present themselves in the senior team. In his two debut playing against Wales ( 2-0) and Norway (5-0 ) in May 1954, Kurt Schmied held harmless, so that he was first-choice goalkeeper at the World Cup in Switzerland already a month later.
Austria was able to move into the quarter- finals without conceding a goal. In this game against Switzerland, the heated battle of Lausanne, Kurt Smith suffered in the first half sunstroke and wandered into a trance- like state on the pitch round about, the break he broke unconscious in the cabin together. The Austrian masseur Josef Ulrich had him throw sponges and stand behind the gate, from where he conducted Kurt Schmied. The Swiss went so quickly with a 3-0 lead - but Austria could still win with 7:5. Blacksmith could remember afterwards nothing more: " All the others have always raved to me later in the highest terms, what it was for a great match. And I guess I just have always said it: ' You can tell me eh 's all I know nothing .' " Substitutions were not yet provided. The semi-finals - without Kurt Schmied, but with the knee injury Walter Zeman - went with 1:6 Germany lost, but in a 3-1 victory over the reigning world champions Uruguay in the match for third place was the Viennese again in goal.
Champion with the Vienna and from early in the 1958 World Cup
Kurt Schmied could also celebrate his greatest national success barely a year after the World Cup. With the Vienna he stood at the end of the championship in 1954/55 in the first place in the table, equal on points with his former club Wiener Sport - Club - the low number of goals conceded spoke for Vienna. Doubt Loser climax in the course of the championship was the 5-0 victory over last year's winner Rapid. Nevertheless, Kurt Smith had in the aftermath no Fixleiberl in Vienna, because with Bruno Meier angel was another international class goalkeeper in the blue - yellow under contract, known as the " Hero of Wrexham " made his mark with the national team a name. From the competition inspired he made in 1958 with the team on the way to the World Cup in Sweden.
However, the Austrian team its extremely tough group with Brazil, England and the then Soviet Union had not grown strong. Even Kurt Smith, who alternated with the WSCler Rudolf Szanwald in Nationaltor, the early retirement of the Austrians could not prevent. In the following European Championship was celebrated with the quarter-finals, although again a small success. Following the departure of Austria against the hosts France Kurt Smith's national team career came to an end. He had his last major appearances in the Decker era, when Austria, the Soviet Union 3-1 and Spain 3-0 before defeating record scenes in the Prater Stadium. His farewell he gave in December 1960 in a 2-1 victory over Italy in Naples. But In Vienna he remained in action, even after a severe meniscus injury in 1962. According to his supposed career in late 1965, the nearly 40 -year-old goalie was a year committed by the Vienna Austria, where he was behind Arkoc Özcan second goalie.
Achievements
- Participation World Cup 1954: 3rd place
- Participation World Cup 1958: Group stage ( top 16)
- Participation Championship 1960: quarter-finals
- 38 caps for the Austrian national football team from 1954 to 1960